Pay moor owners to restore peat

Grouse moor owners should be paid to stop heather burning and restore peatland instead, the Government’s Climate Change Committee has recommended.

The report, Managing the land in a changing climate, was prepared by a number of senior climate change specialists, including Lord Krebs and Sir Graham Wynne, the former chief executive of the RSPB.

Published last week, it states: “Nearly half of the total area of deep peat [in the UK] has been modified to the extent that little, if any, peat-forming vegetation remains. Of this, nearly 1,000 sq km (30 per cent of the deep peat area) has become more like heathland as a result of regular burning.”

The rest of this article appears in the 17th July issue of Shooting Times.

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