Find out how the RSPB and Co-op have teamed up to protect peatlands for wildlife, people and the climate.
At first glance, peatland might not look like much. But this special type of wetland has a superpower. When healthy, it can store huge amounts of carbon, keeping carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere and helping in the fight against climate change.
Although peatlands cover just 3% of the planet, they have the potential to store more carbon than all the world’s forests put together!
As well as locking away CO2, healthy peatlands help to protect us against flooding by slowing the flow of rainwater over land. They also improve water quality by absorbing and filtering rainwater, a bit like a giant sponge.
Peatlands provide vital habitat for wildlife too. In spring, Hen Harriers perform their spectacular skydances overhead and the calls of Dunlins, Golden Plovers and other breeding waders echo across the landscape.
However, more than 80% of the UK’s peatlands are currently in poor condition and are leaking carbon into the atmosphere, fuelling climate change. To stop this, and allow them to absorb and store carbon instead, it’s vital we restore peat bogs.
In 2023, we began an exciting three-year partnership with Co-op that will help the ongoing long-term management of peatlands at sites across Scotland and Wales. At the RSPB we have the on-the-ground expertise to restore these habitats, and Co-op's support and funding will help to protect them long into the future, helping our most special wildlife and bringing climate change benefits.
Together we’ll be saving about 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over the next 100 years across the project sites. That’s equivalent to the amount of carbon locked away by about 1,500,000 tree saplings grown for 10 years!
This partnership forms part of Co-op's Climate Plan commitments to fund UK nature restoration. Though the carbon savings of this project are impressive, Co-op will not be counting the greenhouse gas emission savings from this peatland partnership towards its own carbon neutrality targets.
“Our pioneering partnership with the RSPB will play a part in helping to avoid carbon emissions, through repairing vital peatlands to increase carbon stores, and support our work to prioritise action where we are able to make the most impact.”
Joe Hulme, Co-op Senior Climate Change Manager
Work has been carried out at sites on four RSPB nature reserves, and we’ve begun to see wildlife bouncing back at each of them, demonstrating the power of working together for nature.
Cerniau – Powys
Cerniau, at RSPB Lake Vyrnwy, sits at the southern end of the Berwyn mountain range, which is designated as a Special Area of Conservation, a Special Protected Area and Site of Special Scientific Interest. It’s part of the largest area of blanket bog and European dry heath in Wales and is thought to be the most important upland area in Wales for breeding birds, including internationally significant numbers of Hen Harriers, Merlins and Peregrines.
Restoration of degraded blanket bog here is now complete and we’re already seeing encouraging signs of recovery. A rare type of bog moss has been found in two locations and Hen Harriers, Dunlins and Golden Plovers have been recorded too. We’ve also introduced innovative techniques to manage water flow here, a move that was so successful that we’ve rolled it out at several other peatland sites across the UK.
Thanks to support from Co-op we can continue to maintain and enhance the site to provide nesting and foraging habitat for a range of breeding birds including Merlins, Peregrines and Red Kites.
Nam Breac, Maol Donn and The Cutting – Forsinard Flows
The Flow Country, in the north of Scotland, is the largest expanse of blanket bog in Europe. This special place stores more carbon than all of the UK’s forests put together and is home to a host of rare and unusual wildlife, from Red-throated Divers and Greenshanks to carnivorous sundew and butterwort plants. Large parts of the Flows have been left in a poor state as a result inappropriate management, including conversion to commercial forestry plantations, which dried out the bog and caused declines in the native wildlife.
At Nam Breac, a 200-hectare area of the RSPB’s Forsinard Flows nature reserve, the blanket bog had historically been degraded by artificial drainage and over-grazing. Following recent restoration work, Co-op’s support is helping us to maintain a healthy mix of blanket bog habitats and pool systems here, and encourage the recovery of vegetation. Like at Black Moss, frogs have already spawned in the new pools showing just how quickly wildlife can move in!
Elsewhere at Forsinard Flows, in areas known as Maol Donn and The Cutting, we'll be continuing to monitor and maintain the bog, to support breeding wading birds, such as Greenshanks, as well as birds of prey.
Our work at Lumbister, Black Moss and Forsinard Flows is also supported by the Scottish Government's Peatland ACTION Fund, delivered in partnership with NatureScot and other agencies.
The Flow Country in Scotland, which includes RSPB Forsinard Flows, is the first ever peat bog to be awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status. This puts the site on a par with amazing places such as the Great Barrier Reef and the Grand Canyon!
Restoring and protecting peatland is not only good news for wildlife, it’s great for people too! The projects that the Co-op is funding have helped to support local communities by employing local people as contractors – for example, at Cerniau, half of those employed were under 25 and one was a local tenant farmer. We’ve also run engagement programmes with schools, training programmes on rare plants, and hosted work experience for local people and other volunteers to help them take action for nature.
Peatland restoration and management work across all the project sites will reap even more benefits for people and the climate too, by reducing erosion and greenhouse gas emissions, improving water quality, and enhancing water storage, which will help to provide resilience against extreme weather events like flooding and wildfires.
During the third year of this partnership we’ll be doing even more for nature, with Co-op funding long-term management and protection work at more restored peatland sites.
Without the support of our partners, and people like you, ambitious landscape-scale restoration like this simply wouldn’t be possible, so thank you. Together we can help nature soar!
Find out more
Celebrate the amazing peatland of The Flow Country being made a World Heritage Site by UNESCO
For further information about how the RSPB is helping businesses to put nature at the heart of their corporate sustainability strategies, please email [email protected].
