Flow Country takes step closer to natural world heritage listing
Caithness and Sutherland site would be the first peatland listed in the world,
THE Flow Country of Caithness and Sutherland is closer to being listed alongside The Grand Canyon and The Great Barrier Reef as a natural world heritage site – Scotland’s first.
After passing the technical evaluation stage last year, The Flow Country is now the UK’S official candidate for world heritage site inscription.
The next step is to put together a full nomination to UNESCO, who will make the final decision.
If The Flow Country is accepted by UNESCO, it will be Scotland’s first natural world heritage site – St Kilda is a mixed site, with both natural and cultural elements – and the world’s first as a peatland.
The nomination is being put together by The Flow Country Partnership, which includes Highland Council – formerly The Peatlands Partnership – and spearheaded by newly appointed project coordinator, Steven Andrews.
Mr Andrews said: “Having grown up in Sutherland, it’s a great pleasure to be able work on a project that will help bring global recognition to the very special Flow Country landscape.”
In addition to recognising the quality and value of The Flow Country, world heritage site status could bring significant social, cultural and economic benefits to Caithness and Sutherland.
World heritage sites attract eco and heritage tourists from all over the world, bringing valuable income for new and existing businesses.
The attention that world heritage site status would bring to The Flow Country could also act as a catalyst for further research into the peatland habitat and the unique cultural history of The Flow Country.
The Flow Country is widely considered the best example of a blanket bog in the world.
Its peatlands are seen as internationally important from a habitat perspective, but also in recognition of the remarkable amount of carbon stored in the peat.
The partnership said:“this important conference also offers an important opportunity to make the case for The Flow Country becoming the world’s first peatland world heritage site to an influential international community.
“With this in mind, The Flow Country Partnership has bid for a presentation slot at COP26 to showcase both The Flow Country World Heritage Site Project and the Landscapes as Carbon Sinks Project, which also operates in the peatlands of Caithness and Sutherland.
“A peatland world heritage site in the far north of Scotland would recognise not only Scotland’s vast resources of high-quality peatland, but also the world-leading land management and public appreciation for this often-overlooked habitat.
“As the second stage of this project moves ahead, The Flow Country Partnership will be reaching out to local communities to hear their thoughts and opinions on the project and the proposed site boundary.”
Preserving the world’s peatlands – and the vast carbon stores they contain – is vital to limiting climate change, researchers say.
A study, led by the University of Exeter and Texas A&M University, examined peatland losses over human history and predicts these will be “amplified” in the future.
Peatlands are expected to shift from an overall “sink” – absorbing carbon – to a source this century, primarily due to human impacts across the tropics, and the study warns that more than 100 billion tons of carbon could be released by 2100, although uncertainties remain large.
About 10 per cent of the UK is peatland.
Peatlands have been excluded from the main Earth System Models used for climate change projections – something the researchers said must be urgently addressed.
A peatland world heritage site in the far north would recognise Scotland’s vast resources of high-quality peatland