Where from here? Dr.Rob Stoneman Introduction Drawing together the threads of the many different conference speeches inevitably requires some repetition of what has been said. It is, though, useful to remember why we want to save peatlands, and remind ourselves how far we have come and then reiterate five big actions to move us forward.
A fabulous habitat Peatlands are a fabulous habitat. From the awe inspiring wilderness landscape of the Flow Country in Caithness and Sutherland to the fabulous wet oases of biodiversity of our lowland raised bogs, dotted across the coastal plains of England and Scotland and the Scottish central belt. Our raised bogs have been highly damaged, but even these cutover bogs still contain fabulous wildlife -common and rare. Common wildlife is represented by wetland generalists such as frogs and damsel flies; rare wildlife represented by the bog specialists -sundews, cranberry and the Sphagnum mosses. Whether it is the spectacular spectacle of long tailed skua nesting on the blanket bog of Handa Island or enchanting scenes such as a sea of wispy cotton grass above the industrial cities of northern England, bogland is a precious resource. It is even more remarkable, when one thinks of how that primitive group of mosses -the Sphagnum bog mosses -is able to create an ecosystem that is perfectly attuned to its requirements -wet, acidic and nutrient poor. This truly is the kingdom of the bog mosses. And yet, we have, for our raised bogs at least, brought this habitat to the edge of extinction in the UK. As recently as 1992, conservationists were extrapolating the decline of this habitat to UK extinction by 2020. Richard Lindsay, speaking at a British Association for Nature Conservation conference in 1992 summed it up as “this Cinderella of habitats is doomed never to escape the kitchen, indeed is doomed completely”. Society had a choice: it could kiss goodbye to this special slice of biodiversity or bring the Sphagnum back to repair the damage, revive our raised bogs and let bogland wildlife thrive once more in lowland Britain. Through desperate nature conservation action, spearheaded by the Peatland Campaign Consortium, we can happily report that Society appears to have taken that second course of action averting the looming catastrophe: bogland is coming out of the kitchen and into people’ consciousness.
Conservation Success The plight of our raised bogs has been much improved through better legislation. European Directives and national legislation to protect bogland sites of special scientific interest has helped enormously. Other sites have been protected through nature reserve designation and management. Indeed, management techniques are now far more
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Peat Conference July 3rd and 4th 2002 – Published Oct 07