Deadline approaching for action on peat

Please help us to solve this equation: Carbon + Water + Nature = Peat

The deadline for action is 18th March 2022

Buried treasure: Healthy peatlands store more carbon than any other land use.  They slow the flow of water off the land and reduce flooding downstream. Snowdonia has 30,000 hectares, or a third, of the precious peatlands of Wales.

Welsh Government has recognised the importance of peatland restoration and has started a national peatland recovery programme, to restore 600-800 hectares of degraded peatland each year for the next 5 years. We’d like to see more, but this is a positive step in response the climate and nature emergencies.

Meanwhile almost every garden centre is still selling peat-based composts.  It’s no good protecting and restoring Welsh peatlands if we are still destroying them elsewhere.  Banning the sale of peat and peat products is essential, and is a clear step that the Welsh Government and UK Government can take to address the climate and nature emergencies.

We welcome the current Defra consultation on ending the retail sale of peat in horticulture in England and Wales.

We’re in a hole, so we need to stop digging!

We urge you to respond to the consultation.  We’ve outlined some key points that need to be heard loud and clear below.  Please feel free to use them or adapt them as you see fit.  It will only take a few minutes and every voice makes a difference.

Key messages

• The voluntary approach to phasing out peat has been tried and is a complete failure
• We need a complete legal ban on the sale of peat and peat-containing products in retail and professional horticulture in Wales and England.
• Alternative measures such as point of sale surcharges or mandatory reporting are unhelpful distractions
• End the extraction of peat from UK peatlands, as has already happened in Wales
  End the importation of peat from other countries

How to respond: Via Defra’s consultation hub https://consult.defra.gov.uk/ or by email to horticultural.peat@defra.gov.uk

Response deadline: 18th March 2022

Link to consultation: https://consult.defra.gov.uk/soils-and-peatlands/endingtheretailsaleofpeatinhorticulture/

Link to article in our magazine by our Director here: https://issuu.com/cymdeithaseryri/docs/issu_snowdonia_society_autumn_2021_magazine