Peatland and the Peatland Working Group

I am conscious that the Peatland Working Group (PWG) has been quiet for several months.  Soon after the Group last met, in October 2012, the Scottish Government announced that they were providing SNH with support for peatland of £1.7 million from the Green Stimulus Fund.  Since this announcement, I have been waiting to establish if the PWG would have a role helping with the allocation of this fund, which is due to be spent over a three year period.

There was little time to set up anything in the first period to the end of March 2013, and SNH had to move fast to spend the £200,000 allocated to this first financial year.  They did well to achieve this, but in view of the time pressure, the funding has largely gone to existing projects.

Since the start of April, a Peatland Project has been set up to allocate the rest of the funds.  In view of my interest I have been invited to join a steering group to oversee this project and the group met for the first time on 3 May.  In parallel with the project, SNH is developing a Peatland Plan for Scotland and  this plan may allocate a role for the PWG, or a successor to it.

Meanwhile, I have been working with Clifton Bain (Director, IUCN UK Peatland Programme) to develop a peatland strand of work for the Land Use and Forestry sub-group of the 2020 Climate Group.  The Group has accepted a paper that we produced and this will be published soon.  The main emphasis of the 2020 work will be to encourage private investment in peatland improvement and restoration projects.  The private sector funding will sit alongside funds from the public sector, and initially, it is envisaged that funding will come from corporate social responsibility budgets.  In future, there is a possibility of developing carbon markets that will allow atmospheric carbon captured and stored in peat to be traded.

The first version of the Peatland Carbon Code will provide a framework for CSR investments and this will be circulated in draft form soon.  It is intended to develop an expanded version of the Peatland Carbon Code to provide a framework for a carbon market, but it may be several years before it is possible to take this forward.

Peatland continues to be an area that is developing fast.  I will use this blog to communicate any information I receive, but I would welcome input about any other developments.