A new campaign from climate charity Carbon Copy seeks to change the perception of peatlands and to encourage more people to take action to prevent their destruction.
Peatlands are a big deal in the UK, making up around 12% of the entire land area or three million hectares, with only 1-in-5 currently in a near natural or rewetted condition. Peatlands are particularly important in NI, with the island of Ireland having the 4th highest percentage of peatlands anywhere in the world.
Part of the Carbon Copy’s 25 Big Local Actions in 2025 programme, the focus on the local climate impact of degraded peatlands comes as the UK continues to experience extreme weather events, made worse as a result of climate change.
Alongside useful web content and a social media campaign, Carbon Copy has released a new podcast episode highlighting some of the reasons peatlands are so important for climate and nature, and featuring an interview with Ulster Wildlife’s Head of Peatland Recovery, Simon Gray.
“There are lots of endemic and rare species that are very specifically adapted to living on bogs, like insectivorous plants such as sundews, or particular bird species like curlews and hen harriers. The reason why peatlands have started to get a lot more limelight is because of their importance when it comes to carbon, particularly, but also in providing other ecosystem services like flood mitigation, improving water quality, and all sorts of things... (but) they only provide these kinds of ecosystem services, like sequestering carbon or water purification, whenever they're in a good state. If you have healthy, happy bogs, then you get all those benefits for our society. But if they are in a degraded state, not only do they not provide those benefits, they actually negatively impact them,” Simon explained on the episode.
Podcast host Isabelle Sparrow said: “Like many people I was unaware of just how important peatlands are for nature and for the climate, but speaking to Simon has really opened my eyes. There are lots of things people can do, both individually and collectively, to help protect and restore these vital habitats; but perhaps the simplest and the most impactful is to avoid peat compost! These days it’s really easy to find peat-free compost and having heard about the absolute havoc wreaked on the landscape through the process of stripping peat, I will certainly be shouting this message from the rooftops going forward!”
To learn more about action you can take where you live to restore peatlands, and to listen to the podcast, visit https://carboncopy.eco/takeaction/restore-peatlands.
Find out more about Ulster Wildlife's work to restore NI's precious peatlands