Peatlands
The final item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S3M-6931, in the name of Rob Gibson, on investing in the future of Scotland’s peatlands. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament welcomes the launch of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) UK Peatland Programme and Commission of Inquiry on Peatlands with funding from the Peter De Haan Charitable Trust and believes that IUCN UK’s decision to base this prestigious programme in Scotland is recognition of the global significance of Scotland’s peatlands and underlines that Scotland leads the world in peatland restoration expertise; considers that, while scientific understanding of peatlands is developing rapidly, the knowledge base is strong enough to recognise that peatlands deliver multiple benefits for biodiversity, water and climate and that the example of the Flow Country of Caithness and Sutherland shows how peatlands can deliver significant economic benefits to local communities through encouraging visitors to these beautiful and fragile landscapes; believes that the land use strategy required by the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 provides an opportunity for peatland restoration to be championed at the heart of government, and further believes that action taken now could prevent massive future costs arising from the breakdown of peatland ecosystems and that target-based peatland restoration offers an important opportunity to help meet Scotland’s climate change targets.
17:07
I have a soft spot for climate change intervention: it is a huge blanket bog of 400,000 hectares in Sutherland and Caithness, called the flows.
The importance of peatlands as a valuable ecosystem has received international recognition. Under the Kyoto protocol being discussed at Cancún in December, there are proposals for peatland restoration to be included in national climate change accounting. The United Nations biodiversity convention summit in Japan is currently negotiating conservation targets for ecosystems.
At these major events, Scotland’s peatlands are being promoted by the United Kingdom committee of the International Union for Conservation of Nature under its peatland programme. Some of the IUCN UK peatland programme members are in the public gallery. As our equivalent to rainforests, peatlands provide valuable services such as storing carbon, maintaining water quality and supporting wildlife, as well as a rich historical archive.
Of the world’s 175 peatland nations, the United Kingdom is among the top 20 for carbon emissions from damaged peatlands. Scotland supports over 80 per cent of the UK’s deepest blanket bog peatlands. Rewetting damaged peatlands reduces the loss of climate change relevant emissions from the peat store and provides a long-term carbon sink.
Scotland is the world’s stronghold for Atlantic blanket bogs and our lowland raised bogs are a European priority. From the flows of Caithness and Sutherland, right down to Galloway and the central belt, we have a wealth of peatland habitats. Scotland has several showcase peatland restoration projects, such as those at Forsinard, with conservation management involving wildlife charities such as RSPB Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage, as well as the Forestry Commission Scotland and the wind farm industry.
Peat soils cover just over a fifth of Scotland’s land area and Scotland has more than two thirds of the UK’s blanket and raised bog habitat, which is the deepest and most widespread of the peatland types. National assessments of the condition of the peatlands show that the resource is declining and that more than 20 per cent is so badly degraded that it is eroding. Damaged peatland affects the whole of society and should be recognised as an urgent issue that needs to be tackled.
Scotland’s deepest peats store around 6,500 megatonnes of carbon, which is 10 times the amount of carbon stored in the whole of the UK’s forest biomass. A loss of only 1 per cent of Scotland’s peat would equal the annual greenhouse gas emissions of around 57 megatonnes of CO2 equivalent. Conversely, restoring damaged peatland has great potential to help to reduce emissions and contribute to Scotland’s climate change targets.
Peatlands also have a vital part to play in the delivery of clean water. Damaged peatlands cause sediments and so on, which cost a considerable amount to clean up when the water is used.
Scotland should be proud of its peatland heritage. We should ensure that land managers who help to maintain that vital part of our natural environment are supported in their efforts to secure a wide range of valuable environmental services.
The IUCN UK peatland programme, which was launched in Edinburgh in March, has begun an inquiry to examine the evidence for the benefits that peatlands have and to foster action for our peatlands. Its open inquiry event to facilitate public engagement was held yesterday at the University of Edinburgh. Evidence will be taken from expert witnesses, including peatland academics, the water industry and sporting and conservation organisations that have experience in peatland restoration.
There are things that the Parliament and the Government can do. There are key steps that the Scottish Government could consider. For example, a ministerial statement that recognised peatlands as an important ecosystem that delivers considerable benefits, and acknowledged that urgent action is required, would enhance the words of the draft land use strategy for Scotland. Such a statement would be a help, for a start.
The Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change, Stewart Stevenson, has announced the Scottish Government’s intention to include peatland restoration in its delivery of climate change targets. We are awaiting a decision from the next round of climate change talks, which will take place in Mexico in December, on whether new peatland rewetting rules will be adopted. A firm message of support for peatlands from the Scottish Government would provide a welcome stimulus to the discussion.
In view of the international Convention on Biological Diversity discussions, a renewed focus on delivering peatland restoration as part of a Scottish biodiversity strategy and a commitment to delivering all peatland-designated sites into favourable status is essential. The forthcoming report on policies and programmes should include a clear policy commitment to invest in restoring and conserving Scotland’s peatlands.
The Scottish ministers have provided a ministerial direction for certain aspects to be considered in the context of climate change legislation, but they must direct the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, SNH and Forestry Commission Scotland to work co-operatively to deliver. The Scottish Government has a variety of peatland restoration policies and funding measures, such as the Scotland rural development programme, but access to funding must be made much easier, especially in these straitened times.
There is potential for Scottish Water to use its priority catchment fund to target the restoration of peatlands. It can learn from Yorkshire Water, which has had to deal with much more degraded bogs down south.
The Forestry Commission should be asked to review deep peat in state-owned forests and to identify areas for restoration. It must not be permitted to require replanting elsewhere, to compensate for the removal of trees and peatlands, because such an approach inhibits progress.
Planning authorities should be directed to enforce peatland restoration conditions that are associated with past peat extraction permissions, and to avoid giving further consents or extending existing consents for commercial peat extraction. That would be asking quite a lot, but we should ask it.
Key to the issue is education. Work towards establishing a number of core, landscape-scale demonstration sites for peatland restoration throughout Scotland would offer the best means of enabling the academic community to back up the Government’s actions. The Natural Environment Research Council and the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council should consider a hub approach that is based on the environmental research institute in Thurso, which is part of the North Highland College. Work could augment the already excellent work of the University of Edinburgh and others on measuring methane losses in the Forsinard peat bogs.
The focus of the debate is to secure the kind of action that I have talked about. We are discussing a complex subject that deserves much more public understanding. People need to understand the importance of peat in Scotland for our future. The benefits of safely developing and rewetting peat bogs represent a fantastic and historic opportunity that we should not miss.
17:15
I very much welcome both this debate and the IUCN’s United Kingdom programme and commission of inquiry on peatlands. I am sorry that I was unable to accept an invitation to yesterday’s event, but the members of the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee were quite busy in the morning and in Parliament in the afternoon. I congratulate Rob Gibson on securing the debate. We do not always agree, but I found it difficult not to agree with anything that he said tonight. He is right to highlight the importance of peatlands in delivering benefits in respect of biodiversity, water purity and our carbon emissions targets.
For many years, we have been aware of the importance of forestry in combating climate change. However, perhaps because peat is underground, it has taken us longer to appreciate the value of peatlands. Sadly, during that period of non-recognition, many important peatlands have been damaged and are now in urgent need of restoration.
As Rob Gibson said, a 2007 study estimated that Scotland’s deepest peat stores about 10 times as much carbon as the whole of the UK’s forestry biomass. I find that to be a spectacular statistic and cite it not in any way to detract from the importance of increasing woodland cover, but to emphasise the importance of our peat resource. Unfortunately, the UK is among the top 20 countries for carbon emissions from damaged peatlands. For example, in the 1980s, inappropriate forest planting for profit, rather than for environmental benefit, caused serious damage to some of our most important peatlands, and around 50 per cent of Scotland’s 2 million hectares of peatland has been damaged by past activity.
As we have heard, that damage can be reversed: indeed, almost 10,000 hectares in the flow country have already been restored. Actions such as blocking ditches and raising the water table allow sphagnum mosses to regrow, so peatland will eventually recover. That will not happen without action being taken and without money being spent, but the sums of money that we are talking about are not enormous. A sum of between £60 million and £120 million over six years—just £10 million to £20 million a year—would deliver an annual carbon emissions saving of around 2.7 megatonnes and would restore some 600,000 hectares of peatlands. So, for a relatively small amount of expenditure, we could deliver major environmental benefits.
The Government’s draft land use strategy states that the protection and management of carbon stores
“includes exploring the potential for re-wetting formerly drained peatlands (particularly where this will re-create valuable peatland habitats) and adopting lower-impact agricultural and forestry practices on carbon-rich soils.”
That is fine, but I would like the final version of the land use strategy to go a lot further than that and to provide some elucidation of how that will be achieved. The consultation on the land use strategy will possibly clarify some of that. I would also like the strategy to reflect current knowledge of peatland restoration and its costs.
RSPB Scotland’s briefing for the debate states that positive actions need to be taken. Rob Gibson went through a number of the actions that are mentioned in that briefing, including the direction of Government agencies. [Interruption.] It may even be possible to give Government agencies a duty to deliver peatland restoration and to direct Scottish Water to facilitate restoration using its priority catchment management fund.
The importance of the peatland carbon store needs to be fully recognised in the land use strategy. [Interruption.] I would like to know whether the SRDP’s funding streams could be reformed to make it simpler and easier for land managers to apply for multiple land uses. I also believe that the Government should take full advantage of European Union funding streams to lever in additional funding for restoration projects.
As Rob Gibson said, peatlands can deliver a huge amount in terms of carbon emissions reductions, improved water quality and improved biodiversity. For relatively modest expenditure, we could realise a huge environmental benefit. I hope that that idea will be incorporated in the land use strategy.
Before I call Jamie McGrigor, I remind members that they should not have their BlackBerrys switched on.
17:19
I congratulate Rob Gibson on securing tonight’s important debate. As Rob Gibson and others have done, I welcome the fact that the IUCN will study our peatland resources.
I am very clear that Scotland’s peatlands are a resource that is of genuine world importance both in terms of the ecosystem that they provide and in terms of their impact on climate change through locking up carbon. Peatlands are a resource that we all must work to preserve as much as we can. Peatlands are the most extensive semi-natural habitat in Scotland. They cover some 1.8 million hectares—which is 23 per cent of our land area—and are much prized by sportsmen and hill walkers for their openness, accessibility and beauty. Sensible grazing of peatlands—I refer to grazing by sheep and deer—should be the accepted norm and the desired target. Peatlands produce an environment for our wild herds of red deer and our red grouse, black grouse, ptarmigan, mountain hare and a range of other animals and birds. They also contain rare moths and butterflies and a myriad of rare alpine plants.
I thank the representatives of Scotland’s moorland forum for the helpful information that it gave me for today’s debate and for all the excellent work that it does. It is a fact that peat soils in Scotland contain almost 25 times as much carbon as all other plant life in the UK. Scotland’s peat soils hold almost a third of the carbon that is held by all Europe’s forests—3 billion tonnes out of 9.5 billion tonnes. Undisturbed peatlands store about a quarter of a tonne per hectare each year, while each household in Scotland releases about half a tonne of carbon into the atmosphere through its electricity usage each year. The good that peatlands does can be seen.
Many of my constituents wish to see more priority being given to restoration of damaged peatlands. The one-off cost of restoring bogs by drain blocking varies a lot: the price can be several hundred pounds a hectare or as low as £8 or £10 a hectare in the flow country of Caithness and Sutherland. Restoration work that is done now will prevent more costly work from being necessary in the future. Constituents also want to see further improvements to management practices, and for the public and private sectors to do more to encourage and support peatland management. I will be interested to hear the minister’s comments on the matter. That said, I want, of course, to highlight the successful management of Scotland’s peat resource up to this point. We have a very good base on which to build.
Have ministers considered any proposal to make peatlands the subject of the tradable green certificates that have the potential to bring about management revenue for constituents and communities in the Highlands and Islands? Furthermore, if peatlands were to produce public good in terms of carbon storage, surely that should be reflected in the hectarage valuation of peatlands under single farm payments. That would be helpful to many farmers and crofters in the remote and rural areas of Scotland and it would encourage the sensible grazing levels and peat restoration measures that I have mentioned. By raising the profile of Scotland’s peatlands and by encouraging proper management and restoration of these sensitive areas, the IUCN peatland programme is doing valuable work for Scotland.
17:23
Peatlands are generally a good thing. I say “generally”, Presiding Officer, because at times one can have too much of a good thing. When walking in a deep mist, point-to-point on the compass, on a cold and dreich day, and one suddenly finds oneself up to one’s knees in a mixture of peat bog, water and sphagnum, one can question the value of peat bogs. One can even doubt the beauty of such bogs, a doubt which grows with each step, with the cold, wet water slurping about the toes. However, in spite of the misery that a bog can inflict upon an innocent walker, I must congratulate Rob Gibson on his motion. If I overlook the occasional mishap, I find that I can whole-heartedly support it.
A few decades ago, I was studying in Aberdeen for my masters degree in ecology, at the very time when Margaret Thatcher's Government was encouraging afforestation of the flow country. It did so by providing tax breaks to ensure planting of trees; not their growth to maturity, or harvesting—just the planting. How different is the situation today? We have woken up to the value of peatland.
As Elaine Murray and other members have said, in its briefing for the debate, RSPB Scotland states that damage to peatlands is responsible for around 10 per cent of all global carbon dioxide emissions. Of the world’s nations, the UK is among the top 20 for carbon emissions from damaged peatlands. Scotland has the lion’s share of UK blanket bog. We can reverse the damage that has been caused and significantly reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions.
However, the value of bogs goes beyond tackling climate change—or serving as a man-trap for unwary walkers. They are repositories of the most wonderful flora and fauna, which have seemingly miraculous physical properties, fascinating lifestyles and great aesthetic appeal. With regard to physical properties, SNH says that
“Walking on a bog involves walking on a soft living carpet”—
which seems a little heartless—
“which floats on a material which is nearly all water.”
A raised bog, in fact, contains less solid material than milk. Blanket bogs—the solid version—are, by comparison, a mere 85 per cent water. That great volume of water is held within dead sphagnum moss, the water-retaining properties of which explain its horticultural popularity.
With regard to fascinating lifestyles—I will not refer to any member here—the wonders of bogs include jewel beetles, which are tiny, brilliantly coloured creatures that live within the air-filled cells of bog cotton plants. They also include carnivorous plants such as sundews, which can trap insects as large as hand-sized darter dragonflies.
I also mentioned the aesthetic appeal of bogs. Here is a short extract from the SNH “Boglands” publication:
“a close examination reveals a wealth of colour and mixture of distinctive scents. The Sphagnum bog mosses themselves each have a vivid colour, some are deep wine red, others are brilliant orange or gingery brown, while yet others have brilliant greens mixed with delicate salmon pinks. They combine to form a scene as intricate and colourful as a Persian rug”—
if slightly wetter.
Talking of beauty, I should also mention the large heath butterfly—a priority species for conservation—and the bog bush-cricket, which is described on one website as follows:
“This stunning creature is always a pleasure to find”.
I am sure that that is exactly what goes through the minds of constituents on meeting their MSPs.
What I have said so far is enough to give members an idea of the wonderful biodiversity of the insects and plants of peatlands, but what of birds and mammals? Waders such as dunlin, greenshank and golden plover breed in our peatlands. Raptors such as the golden eagle, merlin, hen harrier and short-eared owl can be seen cruising on high for prey, while their elusive fellow predator, the Scottish wildcat, does the same on the ground. Otters cavort in peatland pools and, at other times, behave sedately—life cannot always be a cavort.
I have spoken of physical properties, but peatlands also have a magical property, one that is shared by Doctor Who’s TARDIS: they allow us to travel in time and, consequently, offer answers to climate change in more ways than one. Not only may their restoration play a role in preventing future climate change, but they also shed light on climate change in the past. By looking at a core that has been cut down through the peat, it is possible to determine what species were growing in a bog’s vicinity throughout its history. Changes in the vegetation can then be related to shifts in the climate. Indeed, bogs are extremely sensitive indicators of historical climatic change.
Our peatlands are magic indeed, and we must invest in them. I commend the motion.
17:27
I am glad to have the opportunity to contribute to the debate. I must, of course, congratulate Rob Gibson on securing it.
I must also declare a hill farming interest, which includes a hill called the peat moss—a site where turf was cut to warm houses in the past. The subject is not only one for the north of Scotland, as the motion may hint, but for my region—in fact, the whole of Scotland. In the south, the Galloway hills, the Lammermuirs and the southern uplands all have more than their fair share of peat.
I note that, in a press release, Dr Billett of the centre for ecology and hydrology cited Auchencorth Moss, a peat bog in my region. He stated that it removes
“significant amounts of carbon from the atmosphere.”
I am sure that the IUCN will recognise all of Scotland in its deliberations.
Rob Gibson is right to welcome the launch of the UK peatland programme and the commission of inquiry on peatlands. He is also right to suggest that the IUCN’s decision to base the programme in Scotland is recognition of how significant peatlands are to our landscape and environment, as eloquently described by Bill Wilson. They are also important for our annual carbon emissions, and the restoration of our peatlands should be considered a key means of helping to achieve our climate change targets.
I note that the commission of inquiry took evidence yesterday from members of the public and expert witnesses to investigate the steps that are necessary to tackle the damaged peatlands that are dotted around Scotland. The IUCN should certainly be congratulated on managing to bring together land managers, scientists and industry officials to discuss, and inform it on, peatland restoration. I would be interested to hear from the minister whether the Scottish Government has any plans to contribute to that process, or at least to meet the IUCN afterwards to discuss the commission’s findings in detail after it has reported.
Only in August, a Guardian journalist described peat’s impact on the climate as “the global environment’s Cinderella”. I do not usually bog down members with statistics, but they are useful to highlight the scale of peat’s contribution to global carbon emissions. Only relatively recently has science caught up, to the point that we can reveal the problem’s extent. The fact that Scotland possesses 80 per cent of the UK’s blanket bog peat, which holds 3 billion tonnes of carbon, shows how important peat conservation is. The amount of carbon that lies underneath our soil represents approximately 190 years’ worth of Scotland’s total emissions. It is believed that 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide are being released from peatland each year—the equivalent of the emissions from 1 million households.
It is only right to acknowledge that measures are in place for peatland restoration under the Scotland rural development programme, but more could be done. The longer we delay restoration work to some peatlands, the more costly that work will be and the more damage will be caused. A range of environmental organisations advocate more ministerial direction to SEPA, SNH and the Forestry Commission Scotland to work together to deliver peatland restoration, with the help of other land users. I am interested to hear the minister’s views on such proposals.
A Scottish Wildlife Trust press release from earlier this year quoted the cabinet secretary as saying:
“I hope to see further opportunities being pursued in future to bring Scottish peatlands back to peak condition, bringing with them a multitude of benefits for our natural environment.”
I, too, would like opportunities to be developed. It is worth reminding the cabinet secretary in his absence and the minister that they have the power to introduce opportunities and not just to hope for them.
17:32
I will make a brief speech. I am pleased to support the motion that Rob Gibson has lodged and the strong case that he has made. I apologise, Presiding Officer, for having to leave probably before the minister completes her summing up.
I first became aware of peat bogs when, as a school pupil, I took core samples, which Bill Wilson described, from peat bogs in the lake district in the late 1960s. That was partly for early work on climate change and partly to understand more the extent of the peat bogs, how they were functioning—or not functioning, even at that time—and what the vegetation had been in that area for many generations past.
As Rob Gibson properly said, Scotland’s peat bogs are a remarkable resource. They are significant at not just the UK level but the global level. They provide a remarkable and rich habitat for many plants, invertebrates and bird species. Rob Gibson talked about the flow country, which is alive with the activity and sound of birds in the spring and the summer. Hen harriers fly overhead and we can see snipe, golden plover, the species that Jamie McGrigor talked about and red-throated and black-throated divers on the lochans. The environment is rich.
In the past few decades, that habitat has been significantly damaged in a variety of ways by the hand of the state, which has diminished the resource considerably. As other members have said, tax breaks were given—notably to snooker stars and radio personalities—for planting forestry. Down the years, farmers and crofters have been given grants to drain peat bogs. We are now spending public cash to reverse the damage that we spent public cash on causing a few years ago, by rewetting the peat bogs and extracting the poor trees that were planted.
As other members have said, we have come to recognise that growing peatlands and keeping them healthy have a vital part to play in biodiversity—by keeping the habitat that I described—and in providing a vital carbon store that will help to combat climate change. Peatlands can also store and clean water, for which they are a vital and increasingly important and precious resource. By contrast, allowing the continuing degradation of peatlands—many are degrading naturally, but that is furthered by the measures that I have described—releases stored carbon, which adds to, rather than diminishes, our climate change problems.
It is vital that the work to restore peatlands continues. Much valuable study of and work on peatland restoration is going on. The IUCN project to which other members have referred is an important part of that work. It is significant that that project is based in Scotland, and I am pleased about that. I wish the project every success, in the spirit in which Rob Gibson brought forward the motion.
17:35
It is only in the past few years that I have started to become aware of the
“multiple benefits for biodiversity, water and climate”
that the motion notes are inherent in Scotland’s peatlands. This evening, I have learned a lot more in addition to what I found out from the excellent IUCN and RSPB briefings.
As a bit of an urbanite and someone who was raised in the city, I always thought of peatlands as being in the Highlands, the north or on the islands. I learned otherwise and my awareness rose. My interest was stimulated when I first visited Langlands moss, courtesy of the friends of Langlands moss voluntary group, which was formally constituted in 2006. Under the convenership of Richard Naismith, the group has worked extremely hard, along with South Lanarkshire Council and others, to improve and conserve Langlands moss local nature reserve for the benefit of all.
Langlands moss is a lowland raised peat bog that is situated on the southern fringe of the new town of East Kilbride. In 1994, the importance of Langlands moss was recognised and it was decided to restore the bog. The aim was to improve public access and to safeguard the site’s long-term future. As part of the restoration, dams were installed to block drains and raise the water level. I think that it was Elaine Murray who spoke about the problem of conifer plantations being located on peat bogs. That was the case with Langlands moss, but the conifer plantation was felled and a boardwalk was built across the bog to allow public access. I suggest to my colleague Bill Wilson that if he comes to Langlands moss near East Kilbride, he will not be knee-deep in water and sphagnum moss
Langlands moss was designated as a nature reserve and formally established in 1996, but much has gone on since then. To date, the friends of Langlands moss have been successful in raising a substantial sum of grant aid through the Big Lottery Fund, which has been match funded by a generous contribution from SNH. Other partnerships have been formed with the South Lanarkshire Rural Communities Trust, which financed the provision of materials for path improvements, and the South Lanarkshire criminal justice scheme, which supplied the labour for those path improvements. Kenny MacAskill visited Langlands moss fairly recently to see the work that had been carried out and the work that remains to be done.
What has happened at Langlands moss is an example of a community coming together, recognising that it has an extremely precious asset and using a variety of methods to restore that asset for the benefit of the community. There is still a way to go. In the few years since I first visited the reserve, I have already seen a difference in the plant life and the insect life. I say to Bill Wilson that I have not seen otters cavorting yet, but perhaps that will come. I would love to sit at Langlands moss, with the wind farm in the distance, the high rises down the road and the otters cavorting. That is a lovely picture.
On a more serious note, I have recently learned just how urgent it is that Scotland’s peatlands are dealt with appropriately. I know that the Government has already done work on that—a variety of peatland restoration policies and funding measures are in place, which the minister will no doubt tell us more about.
Aside from all the technicalities and the science of what we must do for future generations, we should recognise the potential value of our peatlands for the current generation. I have seen parties of schoolchildren at Langlands moss learning about nature and the wonderful resource that they have in their midst, which will open their imaginations and their minds to the bigger issues around our peatlands and the central part that Scotland has to play in the world and the way that it wants to be. The process of restoring and looking after our peatlands is of benefit to society now and will be of benefit in the future. Our peatlands are precious and we should hold them very dear.
17:39
Presiding Officer, I welcome today’s debate and thank Rob Gibson for securing it. I shall treasure for ever the image of Bill Wilson sinking slowly into a bog.
The debate gives us the opportunity to reflect on the importance of Scotland’s soils. Often unrecognised by the public, they support outcomes that affect our daily life, economically, socially and environmentally. The debate is also useful because it allows me to make clear the Government’s position and activity in respect of soils in general and peatlands in particular.
The Scottish soils framework, which was published in 2009, recognised the benefits of our soils for agriculture and forestry, biodiversity and minimising greenhouse gas emissions. It set out a broad range of actions and we are progressing that work with stakeholders.
We are preparing a position paper on peatlands and other carbon-rich soils. I hope that Rob Gibson and those others who have mentioned it will welcome that. The paper will include the actions that we have in hand for conservation and restoration, and the next steps. I plan to release that paper next month.
I refer to carbon-rich soils, because maximising the benefits means we need to look widely and consider all opportunities. The position paper will recognise the protection for peatlands that is provided by regulations such as the planning regime and environmental legislation. Funding is currently available for restoration, and the paper will set out the support that can be provided through the Scotland rural development programme. A number of members have raised the issue, and I will say something about it later.
The paper will also outline our current knowledge, and its limits. Scotland is home to a sizeable proportion of Europe’s peatlands, as members have said, and it is also the home for excellent scientific expertise.
I will say a word about research, because we still have gaps in our knowledge. Many members will be aware that we are finalising the next rural and environment research programme. Peatlands will feature as a significant component of that. That is essential, as decisions must be informed by the best science. In that context, I welcome the IUCN’s initiative. I reassure members that the Government, our agencies, and main research providers are active partners in the IUCN’s deliberations. Officials are on the IUCN advisory group. The Government was also represented at yesterday’s event, and SEPA gave evidence on other actions that support peatland conservation. Officials have regularly met Clifton Bain to discuss the IUCN’s report since the inquiry started in March and, through SEPA and SNH, we have given financial support to the inquiry’s events, including the September conference in Durham. I hope that members will feel that the Government has been engaged in the IUCN’s work.
I trust that the statement that will come out next month will be seen as a useful contribution. Equally, I look forward to the commission’s outcomes and hope that they will contribute to developing a consensus.
There are gaps in our understanding of the greenhouse gas effects of different land management practices, and our research programme will help to address those gaps. Of course, work is already being done. A considerable programme has been carried out over a number of years using the estimating carbon in organic soils sequestration and emissions model—ECOSSE—in 2007 and ECOSSE 2 in 2009, and the peatlands expert workshop. We have already funded quite a significant amount of research, and the new five-year programme of research funding will have, as a part of it, a high priority of improving our understanding of the extent, condition and role of peatlands.
During the summer, Stewart Stevenson chaired the short-life group to review our emissions targets. It concluded that there are likely to be benefits from healthy peatlands for carbon sequestration. However, we must recognise that there is still work to be done to assess the long-term benefits of carbon sequestration more precisely, particularly those that might be possible from restorative management.
There will soon be an opportunity to improve the carbon accounting methodology. I assure Jamie McGrigor that we have an eye to that. We hope that the United Nations conference in Cancún next month will agree a method for wetland management. We will review the scope to develop our greenhouse gas inventory when that deal has been reached.
Such discussions on the facts are essential. Budgets are tight, so we need to be clear that we are getting value for money and addressing the right priorities.
Does the minister agree that it is perhaps time to look again at the land valuations that the Macaulay institute made in, I think, the 1960s, and, this time, to consider the element of public good as well as the element of food production?
I am grateful for the intervention, and I am always reassured when I hear Conservative members, in any chamber, wanting to talk about the public good in that constructive way. I promise Jamie McGrigor that we will have a look at that if it is not already being done—I would be very surprised if it is not already in people’s minds.
I recognise that we need to engage widely with land managers, public bodies and non-governmental organisations. I know that organisations such as the Scottish Rural Property and Business Association and NFU Scotland recognise the importance of public benefits, but we must remember that such benefits can come at a cost to individuals—and that is one issue that we have to address.
I will come back to the funding issue. Yesterday, the Government received Brian Pack’s report on the future of farm support. It makes some helpful and valuable recommendations on how public benefits might be better achieved in future farm support structures. A number of the recommendations will, of course, need to be considered at the EU level.
Members have mentioned the land use strategy, but I am afraid that I will run out of time if I deal with it directly. However, I can reassure members that management of our peatlands will be part of the objective of sustainable land use in the Government’s land use strategy. It will be addressed overtly, and I hope that members will take that reassurance in the spirit in which it is given.
To conclude, we recognise the potential contribution of carbon-rich soils. We will continue to play our part through all the mechanisms that are available, such as regulation, research, and informed actions, and we remain committed to working with everybody. We welcome the IUCN’s initiative and look forward to its conclusions, and I hope that we will be able to agree a strategy for peatlands that will be of benefit in Scotland and beyond.
Meeting closed at 17:46.