Peat Sales to be Banned by 2024 Environmentalists rejoice after 40 years of campaigning sees end to the destructive use of precious peat in gardens.
However, when peatlands are drained and dug up for use in gardens and greenhouses, stored carbon is released in the form of CO2 (carbon dioxide).
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The Wildlife Trusts estimate that peat extraction for horticulture has caused up to 31 million tonnes of CO2 to be released since 1990.
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Ban will apply to bagged peat compost sold in retail outlets in England Defra reveals that 95% of those who responded to its consultation were in favour of a complete retail sales ban Following a campaign run by The Wildlife Trusts, Defra received 5,000 consultation responses – from members of the public, NGOs, retailers, growers, extractors and manufacturers
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he UK Government announced its intention to ban the sale of peat to amateur gardeners by 2024. It is understood that this ban will apply to bagged peat compost, but it not yet clear whether peat-containing products, such as plants, will also be subject to a 2024 ban. The ban follows a public consultation, which ran from December 2021 to March 2022, and marks the first occasion that any UK government has considered legislative action to tackle the use of peat in horticulture. The Wildlife Trusts, alongside key nature charities, have campaigned for an end to the needless destruction of one of the UK’s most precious wildlife habitats since the 1990s. Peatlands have a global cooling effect when they are in their naturally wet state, and lock away carbon from dead plants for hundreds or even thousands of years.
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In the North West, the Lancashire Wildlife Trust has led some pioneering work on its peatlands and have been boosted by news of the ban. The Trust has been at the forefront of the campaign. Peatlands such as Little Woolden Moss in Greater Manchester near Salford are still being restored after being all but destroyed by peat extraction – all just to fill cheap bags of compost. The Trust is also conducting a pioneering wetter farming trail, the first of its kind in the UK, growing celery and bulrushes on an area of re-wet peatland at Rindle Moss in Greater Manchester. Lancashire Wildlife Trust Chief Executive Dr Tom Burditt was delighted. He said: “Peatlands are a real superhero habitat – at a time of both climate and biodiversity emergencies, they help carbon to be removed from the atmosphere and support an incredible range of wildlife species. “We need to be protecting and restoring them, not digging them up and destroying them, which is why we welcome this news so whole-heartedly. A huge thanks to all those who have supported our campaigns over the years and who have helped get us to this moment.”
LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE
Ailis Watt, peat policy officer at The Wildlife Trusts, says: “It is fantastic to see tangible progress on this critical issue after decades of campaigning. Using peat in gardens is bad news for our climate and leads to the destruction of beautiful wild places on which many of the UK’s rarest and most threatened species depend. “The ban is expected to apply to around two-thirds of peat currently sold in England. What we need to see now is the Government taking action towards a total ban on peat extraction and its use in horticulture – only then can we put an end to the decline of peatlands both in the UK and further afield.” Some uses of peat will remain legal beyond 2024, and so it is important to recognise that while Defra’s proposed ban targets a chunk of the UK peat market, it does not eliminate peat use entirely, nor does it directly address the issue of peat extraction. www.lancmag.com
