Scotland’s Flow Country Peatland is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Image: “Wetland in the Flow Country” by Andrew Tryon, 2017. Creative Commons 2.0. With appreciation.
Peatlands occupy only 3% of global terrain, yet hold more than 30% of land-based carbon. But when harvested (for fuel or industrial use), peat releases ten times more greenhouse gases – including powerful methane – than cut forests. Another danger when peat is cut: wildfires. Disturbing peat punctures holes in connected bogs, triggering a drying process that too often leads to conflagrations.
Cut peatlands quickly dry surrounding bogland, often resulting in wildfires. Image: “Borneo fires and smoke from burning peatland, 2002” by Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team of NASA/GSFC. Public domain. With appreciation.
How to protect peat has become one of the quests of our era. Scotland, abundant in peat, may lead the way. The Flow Country of Caithness and Sutherland is home to one of the world’s most important peat bogs stretching 469,500 acres (2,000 square kilometers). In addition to the Flow’s carbon sequestration benefits, the peatland is also home to wildlife including otters, voles, and the aerial balletic hen harrier birds.
Harriers and Plovers live in protected Flow Country Forsinard Preserve, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, 2004. Creative Commons 2.0. With appreciation.
Scotland’s government policies allow purchase of land, including peatlands, and also may provide reimbursement (up to 80%) of bog regeneration costs. After the peatland is certified as renewed, carbon credits may follow. Fast-fashion mogul Anders Holch Polvsen purchased 200,000 acres of peatlands adjoining stately manor houses with a plan for new enterprise “Wildland” offering ecotourism. One of the homes: Glenfeshie, may be familiar to Netflix viewers as site of “The Crown.”
Glenfeshie, featured in “The Crown,” is now part of an eco-tourism program preserving peatlands. Image: “The Crown,” fair use. With appreciation.
Speaking of royalty, King Charles visited Flow peatland recently to dedicate Scotland’s Flow peat bog as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The program preserves significant world treasures such as the Eiffel Tower and the Place de la Concorde (now hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics), but only 121 landscapes have achieved such recognition. Other landscapes thus protected include the Great Barrier Reef, and Galapagos Islands.
Here is a map of the world’s peatlands. What can you do to help protect these global treasures, so important in our time of climate change? Image: “PeatMap” by Jiren Xu, et al., 2017. Creative Commons 4.0. With appreciation.
Flow Country’s preservation was a 40-year effort: its culmination was coordinated by Rebecca Tanner, whose studies at the University of Manchester in Science Communication resulted in the UNESCO success. If you have access to a peatland, what actions can you take to protect and preserve these landscape treasures, so important in our time of climate change?
Brooke, K. Lusk. “3% for 30%?” 8 March 2024. Building the World Blog. https://blogs.umb.edu/buildingtheowlrd/2024/03/08/energy-peat-3-for-30/
International Peatland Society (IPS). https://peatlands.org
Global Peatlands Initiative. “COP 28 Virtual Peatlands Pavillion.” 2023 https://storage.net-fs.com/hosting/61470bb/18/
Rowlatt, Justin. “Scottish bog gets world heritage status,” 27 July 2024. BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/atticles/cv2gz1p2v12o
UNESCO. “Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.” 1972. https://whc.unesco.org/en/conventiontext/
Ward, Sarah. “King tours peat bog recently given world heritage site status.” Independent. 31 July 2024. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/the-king-royal-society-for-the-protection-of-birds-charles-ian-murray-unesco-b2588839.html
Appreciation to Cherie E. Potts for contributing research to this topic and post.
Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G. Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 U
