RSPB Scotland welcomes funding for peatland restoration

Last modified: 22 October 2012

Bog pools below Stetill Hill, Forsinard — RSPB Scotland’s Forsinard Flows nature reserve is 21,500ha in size and consists mainly of blanket bog habitat.

Image: Andy Hay

RSPB Scotland has today (22nd October) welcomed a funding announcement from the Scottish Government’s Green Stimulus Package of £1.7m for peatland restoration.

Lloyd Austin, Head of Conservation Policy at RSPB Scotland said “This is excellent news for Scotland’s special and internationally important peatland habitats. Peatlands are the home to rare and wonderful wildlife and are a store of huge amounts of carbon in the peat soils. This investment in peatland habitat will benefit our unique biodiversity and help us meet our climate change commitments. We look forward to working with Scottish Government and Scottish Natural Heritage to develop the proposed Peatland Plan and help restore damaged peatlands back to a healthy state.”

“RSPB Scotland and our partners have been calling for Government to commit to restoring 600,000ha of peatland over the next 10 years at an estimated cost of £12m per year. We hope that the proposed plan will incorporate ambitions at this scale. It is only with ambitious and innovative actions, alongside similar initiatives on energy and transport, that Scotland will be able to meet its climate change targets and avoid the embarrassment of missing any further annual emissions targets, as happened in 2010”