A new campaign and podcast from climate charity, Carbon Copy, has been launched in the UK to inspire more action for peatland regeneration.
According to Carbon Copy, while peatlands compose 12% of the UK’s land mass, or three million hectares, just one-in-five are currently in a rewetted condition.
Part of the charity’s ’25 Big Local Actions in 2025′ programme, which aims to encourage community led environmental activism, will focus on the climate impact of degraded peatlands, as the UK continues to experience extreme weather events.
The new campaign will include information and awareness events across the charity’s web and social media content.
Carbon Copy has also released a new podcast episode, in conjunction with the launch, which highlighted the benefits of peatland for climate and nature.
Peatland podcast
Speaking on the podcast, Alex Hubberstey of the Lancashire Peat Partnership said: “Peatlands store twice as much carbon as woodland does; they are twice as good at storing carbon as a rainforest.
“You also have to think of a forest as a ‘temporary’ carbon store, obviously an oak tree might last a thousand years, but peatlands can last 10,000 years and that carbon is never given off.”
In addition to its ability to store away carbon, peat provides valuable services, helping to reduce flood risks and purify water, as well as offering vital habitat for some of the UK’s most important and rare species, Carbon Copy’s podcast host, Isabelle Sparrow, informed listeners.
Head of peatland recovery with Ulster Wildlife, Simon Gray, was also invited onto the podcast to explain more about the environmental impacts of peatland restoration.
“There are lots of endemic and rare species that are very specifically adapted to living on bogs, like insectivorous plants such as sundews, or particular bird species like curlews and hen harriers.
“The reason why peatlands have started to get a lot more limelight is because of their importance when it comes to carbon, particularly, but also in providing other ecosystem services like flood mitigation, improving water quality, and all sorts of things.
“But they only provide these kinds of ecosystem services, like sequestering carbon or water purification, whenever they’re in a good state.
“If you have healthy, happy bogs, then you get all those benefits for our society. But if they are in a degraded state, not only do they not provide those benefits, they actually negatively impact them,” Gray added.
Carbon Copy has claimed that historically speaking, much of the UK’s lowland peatlands were drained to facilitate agriculture and food production. To combat this, it has advocated for the adoption of “wetter farming” on peatland.
It has also encouraged all those concerned about the environmental impact of degrading peatlands to take action, advising those living close to peatlands to volunteer on peatland restoration projects run by local wildlife trusts and to avail of “peat-free” compost when gardening.
