England Peat Action Plan

The England Peat Action Plan was published by DEFRA on 18th May 2021.

It recognises that a number of ecosystem services are delivered by peatlands:

- Carbon capture – this is a difficult area because while “healthy” peat captures carbon, “degraded” peat emits it. It is estimated that UK peatlands (including lowland peats used for intensive agriculture) emit 10 million t CO2e pa. Much of the science underpinning the conclusions is still being debated and few studies have yet been underway for long enough to draw full conclusions

- Biodiversity – around one-third of English peatlands are protected by SSSI status, but only 13% of deep peat is considered to be in a “near natural state”

- Drinking water supply – the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates the value of the water supply from UK peatlands to be between £208 and £888 million pa. Degraded peat releases sediment causing discolouration, which costs water companies “millions of pounds” to remove.

- Water storage and flood mitigation – this can be an important function in the uplands, but degraded peat is less able to store water and smooth peak flows.

The ONS estimates that peatland restoration could cost £8.4 - £21.3 billion, but yield carbon benefits alone of £109 billion. For the government, this will deliver “Very High” value for money.

Public funding

From 2024, the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery Schemes will provide the main delivery mechanisms for peatland restoration and management. To incentivise earlier action, the Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme will fill the gap, with an aim to restore 35,000ha by 2025 and a budget of £50 million. Maintenance costs will be included as part of the funding agreements.

Countryside Stewardship Scheme (CSS) options and supplements are to be expanded and clarified so that agreement holders can also use Nature for Climate funding. CSS agreement holders will be able to swap to the new schemes or remain in their existing scheme after 2025.

Private finance

The England Peat Action Plan recognises that public funding alone will not be sufficient:

“The benefits provided by peatland restoration, particularly in relation to mitigating carbon release, and improving water quality and biodiversity, make it an ideal generator of revenue streams from private investment and an attractive vehicle for companies to achieve their environmental, social and corporate governance goals. Unlocking private investment will be a key means of ensuring that our peatlands are managed sustainably or under restoration management.”

Actions to support private investment include:

- The IUCN Peatland Code to be “improved” by 2022, including a full technical revision to incorporate the latest evidence on greenhouse gas emissions and ensuring that the Code aligns with public funding to provide clarity for land managers and incentivise participation.

- Consider whether the model used in the Woodland Carbon Guarantee could be replicated for the Peatland Code (once the above improvements are made), so that the government underwrites peatland carbon credits.

- The Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund is intended to kick-start the development of the domestic market for private sector natural capital investment.

- Up to £20 million to be provided up to 2025 in an “Impact Fund” to help leverage private finance.

- Explore whether the UK Emissions Trading Scheme can be expanded to play a role.

- Collaborate with water companies to encourage their investment in peatland restoration.

- Work with the green finance sector on reducing barriers to investment, including the development of water metrics.

- Consider opportunities for blended finance, such as the Landscape Enterprise Networks model.

Annex A of the Action Plan considers private finance in more detail and concludes:

“Feedback from landowners and land managers indicates that until they understand the range of financial opportunities available to them and what their peatland asset is worth, making decisions on management practices can present a challenge, and they are less willing to invest in new technologies or make changes to their business models.”

Conservation covenants

Peatland restoration is an ongoing practice, not a one-off event. In order to safeguard the investment in restoration projects from the risk posed by “less than optimal habitat management”, the government will seek to use conservation covenants to bind the parties to a long term agreement for the management of the site.

The Environment Bill will introduce conservation covenants into English law (they already exist in Scotland although are not very widely used). They are intended to be binding instruments which will bind not only the parties to the agreement but also successors in title, so that the management regime agreed in the covenant is guaranteed to be delivered over its term. In many cases that term will be for a long period, typically 30 years but potentially longer or even in perpetuity.

Conservation covenants will need careful negotiation and landowners will wish to assess the risks of committing themselves to a long term agreement without certain safeguards, such as periodic reviews.

Burning

The Action Plan states that an increase in burning over the past 20 years has converted 87,000ha of peat forming upland blanket bog into dwarf shrub dominated vegetation and concludes that “there is a large and increasing body of literature that provides evidence that overall managed burning is damaging to peatland”. Some of this evidence is contradictory and research continues to try to improve understanding of the sometimes complex issues at play.

A new licensing regime is in place for burning on deep peat (>40cm) on a SSSI which is also an SAC or SPA: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/heather-and-grass-burning-apply-for-a-licence and https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-a-licence-to-burn-on-deep-peat-in-a-protected-site

Wildfires

In considering wildfires, the Action Plan notes that

- Peatland restoration should re-wet peat, helping to reduce wildfire risk

- There should be more support for Wildfire Forums and guidance for land managers to develop Wildfire Management Plans.

Next Steps

Natural England intends to develop:

- an Implementation Plan by the end of 2023

- an improved baseline map of England’s peatlands by 2024

- an improved classification scheme for peatland condition

- a peatland restoration register for projects, so that progress against targets can be tracked

- recovery and management trajectories for different types of peat.

The proposed England Peat Map sits within the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment and is funded by the Nature for Climate fund. It is intended to deliver new improved mapping of England's peat resource through a combination of field survey, earth observation and modelling to better describe the extent, depth and condition of peat across the country. The information is to be used to support a range of purposes including estimating carbon stocks and GHG emissions from peat, targeting peat restoration activities and wider nature recovery.

Partnership working:

- support and facilitation on the ground is to continue to be led by the established peat partnerships

- support will be offered for new partnerships in parts of the country where they don’t already exist

- the Nature for Climate Fund will make funds available for peat partnerships to develop pipelines of restoration work by way of planning grants.

Evidence:

NE will work with researchers and practitioners to fill knowledge gaps relating to:

- monitoring and quantifying the success of restoration projects

- assessing the impact of climate change on peatland function

- understanding whether restoration fully restores peatland function or whether the restored peat behaves differently

- factors influencing the cost of restoration and so the cost-benefit of projects.