Peatlands

Lord Greaves Excerpts

Monday 8th December 2014 Grand Committee

Asked by

[Lord Greaves]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what policies are required for the future conservation and upkeep of peatlands in the United Kingdom.

[Lord Greaves (LD)]

My Lords, I start by thanking everyone who has put their name down to speak in this short debate. I also thank the various organisations that have sent copious briefings. There is far too much to discuss in the time available; nevertheless, it is extremely interesting. I particularly mention the John Muir Trust, which motivated me to table this Question.

I live in the Pennines on the border of Lancashire and Yorkshire, where I am surrounded by peat-covered moors. This becomes obvious every time there is heavy rain and our local becks turn dark brown. I first came across peat in a big way when I started wandering round these moors when I was still at school. I remember a friend and I doing that on Kinder Scout when we would have been about 15. We discovered the peat-covered plateau and the groughs, which dissect the peat. We thought that it was wonderful and a great playground and we went racing up and down the peat, and all the rest of it, probably doing no good at all to it. Those groughs themselves are a significant indication of the erosion of the peatlands that is taking place in many places. When I was in university, I did an undergraduate dissertation on the North York Moors and came across a wonderful book written by a man called Frank Elgee, The Moorlands of North-Eastern Yorkshire, where he divided the peat-covered moors into the fat moors and the thin moors. The fat moors were where the peat was six feet thick or more and the thin moors were where it was just a few inches. I learnt to love peat and I have spent a lot of my life since on mountains and moors and in peat areas.

While peat is important, most people would not consider it an exciting subject; they think of it as fairly uninteresting, so it is undervalued. But it dominates our upland landscapes and the moors and mountains of all the countries in the United Kingdom. Both the upland blanket bogs and the lowland peat bogs are an ecological treasure house that has reduced in size enormously in the past 150 years, particularly in the lowlands, yet it is our largest natural carbon store and a vital part of our water environment—it is vital for water management and flood prevention, which is pretty topical nowadays.

Peat is the remains of plants, particularly sphagnum and other mosses, which are not fully decayed; they are only partly decayed due to the presence of water and a lack of oxygen. The great blanket bogs of the British Isles have developed mainly in the last 4,000 years, some over a longer time than that. Peat bogs are very slow growing, whether they are the raised bogs of the lowland or the blanket bogs of the uplands. They form very slowly. It is estimated that they form at no more than 0.5 millimetre to 1 millimetre a year, so they are not something that can be quickly replaced, in comparison with ancient forests—those are impossible to replace, but you can at least replace the trees. In the case of peat, offsetting is simply not an option when development takes place. The United Kingdom peatlands store more than 3 billion tonnes of carbon, so it is vital to preserve what we have and restore the quality of the bogs that we have, thereby reducing the annual loss of carbon from them.

What are the problems? First, there is digging it up for commercial purposes, particularly as fertiliser in the horticultural industry, in the case of the lowland bogs. There is still a certain amount of digging up peat for fuel, particularly in the Western Isles, but I do not think that that is a major contribution to peat loss. Then there is destroying it for development of any kind and degradation by past activities, particularly agricultural activities. Government grants were given to drain the uplands and moors and dry out the peat, resulting in the exposure of peat and its serious loss by erosion, of which the prime example is Kinder Scout. Only 18% of the United Kingdom’s blanket bog is in natural or near-natural condition and, overall, the position is getting worse. It is better than it used to be in that people recognise the importance of peat and recognise the problem, but it is still getting worse year by year.

I have a number of questions to put to the Government. I had hoped to send them in advance to my noble friend the Minister but, unfortunately, other things got in the way. Nevertheless, I hope that he will be able to answer some of them. First, the new Scottish planning policy from the Scottish Government reads:

“Where peat and other carbon rich soils are present, applicants should assess the likely effects of development on carbon dioxide … emissions. Where peatland is drained or otherwise disturbed, there is liable to be a release of CO2 to the atmosphere. Developments should aim to minimise this release”.

I would like to ask the Minister whether the National Planning Policy Framework that refers to England and is the direct responsibility of the Government could include a statement similar to this. The Minister will not be able to answer that now, but he may be able to do some digging within the Government and have discussions with his colleagues in the Department for Communities and Local Government. Will the Government consider amending the National Planning Policy Framework to include a requirement that where significant development takes place on peatlands, an assessment of the balance of carbon emissions must be made as part of the assessment of the planning application?

Secondly—and this may be more in the Minister’s own domain—will the Minister give an update on progress on the Peatland Carbon Code and the pilot phase, which was expected to run from September this year? In the past he has been quite enthusiastic about this, I believe. Thirdly, will the Government promote the best practice guide that is currently being updated by the John Muir Trust and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust? Will they put their weight behind it?

Fourthly, most upland peatlands are mapped as access land under the CROW Act. Will the Government work closely with the Ramblers and the British Mountaineering Council and similar organisations—I declare my interest in relation to the BMC—to promote better understanding of good practice in relation to peat both by walkers in areas of blanket bog and the people managing the areas where people walk?

Next question: following the statement of intent to conserve peatlands issued in February 2013 by the four United Kingdom Environment Ministers—that is, the United Kingdom Government in relation to England and the three devolved Administrations—what further progress is being made for joint action by the four countries?

What measures are included in the new environmental grants under the common agricultural policy that are replacing the old environmental stewardship schemes, particularly in relation to the conservation of areas of peat? What measures are being taken to close down the use of peat for horticultural and gardening purposes? That is entirely unnecessary. There are perfectly good substitutes that can be used and the time has now come, surely, to phase out in a serious manner the use of organic peat.

What action is being taken to ensure that the burning of heather moors occurs only under best practice conditions? This refers to the burning of heather on grouse moors, which, if it is carried out in inadequate ways, results in huge releases of CO₂ from those moors. It is estimated that burning accounts for 74% of all emissions from blanket bogs. I am not against heather moors. I am not against grouse shooting. But the heather moors are one of the glories of the north of England and the burning of them, which in my part of the world is known as swithering, should be properly controlled.

Finally, what progress has been made in developing a national plan for the restoration of England’s peatlands and when will such a plan be published, particularly as our peatlands are such a big factor in future flood mitigation measures? I would be very grateful to have answers to these questions from the Minister. If he cannot answer any today, perhaps he could write to me. I look forward to hearing everybody else in this debate.