Climate change

What you can do to fight climate change from your home

2022-07-21T12:37:00Z

UK weather this week has been hot. Too hot. 40°C weather in the UK is now 10 times more likely because of climate change. The extreme temperatures across much of the UK are a stark reminder that climate change is already having an impact on us and our wildlife.

Wild fire at Snettisham Coastal Park, 19 July 2022 by RSPB Volunteer Les Bunyan.

Rising to the challenge

However, as temperatures rise, people like you are rising to the challenge of fighting climate change while protecting the wildlife we love. Here are some of the ways you can help from your own home.

1. Gardening to help wildlife and the climate

Nature can play a part in helping us fight back against climate change, we just need to give it the space and protection to do its thing. Here’s how you can help in your outdoor space.

Go peat free

Peatland covers 12% of the UK’s land but stores more carbon than the forests of the UK, France and Germany combined. One of the ways you can protect our peatlands from being dug up is to use peat-free compost. Most garden centres sell alternatives, or even better set up your own compost heap or bin.

Grow a tree

There’s a wildlife-friendly tree for every size of garden, and even for patios and balconies. Trees offer shelter, nesting sites and food for wildlife, as well as storing carbon. They also provide cool, dappled shade to hide away from the midday sun.

Just add water

Water is a magic ingredient in the garden. Even a small bird bath will attract visitors, while ponds are nature magnets. It’s easy to create a mini container pond, and you’d like a bigger project, dig a larger pond to create a wildlife haven. As our weather gets hotter, these sources of water will become even more important for the wildlife in your patch.

With water generally becoming scarcer during summers in parts of the UK, saving water where you can is also a good idea. For your garden, you could cut use by installing a rainfall water butt - a climate-friendly alternative to using mains water, especially during hosepipe bans. Or why not water your plants with water you’ve used to wash fruit and veg, as well as cooled cooking water.

Let it grow

Keeping your outdoor space green helps both wildlife and the planet. Lawns left to grow are a great habitat for wildlife, as are beds full of native flowers and bushes. But a healthy soil is also a benefit, providing places to live for minibeasts as well as storing away carbon. Lawns also absorb rainwater a lot better than paving or decking, helping to reduce the impact of flash flooding.

Go organic

Pesticides and herbicides aren’t picky – most kill many different living things and damage the environment, despite what they say on the label. Going organic doesn’t have to be expensive or tricky. It's about learning to live alongside the wildlife in your garden and finding natural ways to control pests. Let wildlife-gardening expert, Adrian, convince you.

Discover more ideas to help the Nature on Your Doorstep

2. Saving energy and reducing waste

Saving energy and reducing waste at home can be hard, especially in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. Any steps we can take, big or small, will all help to fight climate change. Here’s a few starters for ten:

Walk or jump on a bicycle for short trips
Try eating less meat, and buy local and in season where possible
Take short, cooler showers (ideal at the moment!)
Think about installing a water meter if you don’t have one and check if your water company offers free water-saving devices
Look for green grants to help replace old windows with double or triple glazing
Investigate whether solar panels could save you energy and money
Buy second-hand and re-usable items, from furniture to fashion
Repair or recycle items, or seek out your local repair café

Find out more about green living at home

Fire damage, Snettisham Coastal Park, 21 July 2022

What we need the government to do

While we can do our bit, it’s also crucial for our governments to step up. The countdown is on to CBD COP15 - the biggest nature summit in over a decade. We're calling on UK governments to invest in nature-based solutions alongside decarbonising our energy sector. This is vital in the fight against climate change.

What are nature-based solutions?

Nature-based solutions are nature’s way of helping us deal with the climate crisis. By protecting, restoring and creating thriving natural habitats, nature can play a part in fighting climate change, as well as helping wildlife and people.

How do they help tackle climate change?

Natural habitats such as native woodlands, coastal wetlands, peatlands and green urban spaces are vitally important in our fight against climate change. They can absorb and store carbon, which we’ve emitted through burning fossil fuels, intensive farming and deforestation. By protecting, restoring and creating these natural landscapes, we can prevent more carbon reaching the atmosphere and further heating the planet. They can also help to reduce the risk of flooding by absorbing and slowing down rainfall and tidal surges.

Do nature-based solutions benefit wildlife?

Restoring and creating natural habitats provides vital homes, shelter and food for wildlife. With natural meadows and woodland declining in the UK, nature is finding it harder to find somewhere to nest, feed and rest. Nature-based solutions help to rectify that.

But nature-based solutions are also fantastic for humans, too. Being surrounded by green space can improve our health, cool our cities, and clean our air and water. These landscapes can boost our mental health and help us to appreciate nature and wildlife. They also create green jobs, benefit local communities and boost economies.

What we want from the UK Government

For nature-based solutions to work, we need the government to create new laws and funding to urgently protect, restore and create natural habitats. In the UK, nature-based solutions counted for 0.5% of the UK Government’s total spend in 2021.

How do we bring it all together?

These are big problems, but we have a big plan. All of us acting at home will create a tapestry of wildlife havens throughout the UK. With your support, we can push national governments to make global commitments for wildlife and our planet at COP15 this December.

We have the tools. Together, we need to put them to work.

Find out the latest news about COP 15 and how you can play a part here.

UK Nature-based Solutions in Action Webinar - Q&A Responses

2020-09-23T11:12:00Z

On Sept 9th 2020, the RSPB hosted a webinar entitled ‘UK Nature-based Solutions in Action’ in which we delved into the practical delivery of nature-based solutions (NbS) across UK landscapes. We had three speakers from RSPB reserves or pa...(read more)

An effective peat strategy for England? Not yet.

2020-08-04T14:26:00Z

England needs a peat strategy. The widespread recognition of the importance of our peatlands for nature, for climate control and for livelihoods, does not match the parlous state of much of our peat soils. Clear direction and commitment from Government is needed to turn this around, so that our use of peatlands changes from damage and exploitation to harnessing the benefits healthy peatlands provide.

And indeed such a strategy has been in development at Defra for several years, with the RSPB engaged from the outset. Painfully slow progress from a really promising early start has brought things to an invite-only consultation which closes today (4 August). Disappointingly, the short discussion paper produced for this exercise falls well short of what’s needed.

The broad aim for our peatlands to be functioning healthily for the needs of wildlife, people and the planet is the right one. But where detail is provided, it fails to match either this ambition, or other Defra commitments and timelines. The Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan commitment for all soils to be sustainably managed by 2030 is not reflected in the timescales in this draft peat strategy.

Yes, it’s good to see that ‘our peat habitats will support healthy well-functioning ecosystems rich in wildlife’. But seeking to achieve this by bringing 75% of peatland SSSIs into good condition not only fails to deliver for even our highest priority areas, it ignores the peatland habitat outside these protected sites. Nature Climate Fund resourcing to restore 35,000 ha covers only 10% of the upland peatlands in England.

Bog pools returning to a former peat extraction site Photo: Olly Watts / RSPB

Of course, not all of that 355,000 ha of our blanket bog will be in poor condition, although RSPB data shows that 95,000 ha of upland peatland in the highest priority, European designated SAC sites are subject to burning. Actually, we have very little up to date data on the condition, depth and even the extent, of peat habitat and soils in England. Defra’s strategy should remedy this with detailed surveying and mapping as an urgent priority, to protect the resource and prioritise areas for early action.

Longstanding Defra promises to end both heather burning and the use of peat in gardening and horticulture, receive no new action or even urgent attention. This is particularly disappointing for practices that are entirely unnecessary, easily preventable and which damage peatlands. Heather burning also adds to wildfire risk, maintaining both dry soil and an ongoing supply of combustible heather – blanket bog in its natural wet state, with a low fuel load of Sphagnum mosses, is much more resistant to fire.

In the lowlands too, the strategy indicates low ambition. Here, much of the considerably smaller peatland area is under intensive agricultural production. The soil is being lost at an alarming rate, with extremely high greenhouse gas emissions, far greater overall than in the uplands. Current farming activities are on a pathway to extinction from soil loss and even without this ultimate threat, they need to address the shift to Net Zero farming. We know how to achieve a sustainable future for lowland peat areas, through new approaches to water management, by developing wetland farming and economic uses to continue to support livelihoods and society’s needs, and to enable these potentially rich areas for nature to contribute appropriately to the recovery of nature and our biodiversity targets. But this won’t happen without clear Defra direction and support, which we’d expect this strategy to provide.

First planting at fenland paludiculture trial Photo: Olly Watts / RSPB

Inviting discussion for a peat strategy is of course welcome. But progress over the years, with engagement through stakeholder meetings and workshops, should have passed this stage long ago. We urgently need Defra to set out clear policy on peat soils with targets, timescales and actions to get our peatlands functioning healthily for nature, for people and for the climate. We expect the peat strategy to provide this, but this consultation exercise has fallen far short. Our detailed consultation response (attached below this post), and those of other NGOs, reflect this and we’ll be pressing Defra to up its game for peat, a most remarkable Cinderella resource that has been largely treated so poorly for far too long.

Adaptation needed for management of future flooding

2020-07-20T13:15:00Z

This is the second of two blogs by volunteer and nature writer Nic Wilson, exploring the potential of natural flood management schemes to decrease the flood risk posed by climate change

With the UK climate projected to become warmer and with more winter rainfall in the years ahead, alongside increased occurrence of extreme weather including heavy summer downpours, flood management is a key part of planning for the future. Floods are expected to become more severe both inland and along the coasts, with serious implications for the natural environment and people. Coastal, surface or river flooding currently causes more than £1 billion worth of damage a year in the UK and this is only likely to increase[1]. Traditional engineering schemes will always be required to reduce risk in specific areas, but when used appropriately, natural flood management (NFM) is a nature-based solution that can play a major role in reducing flood risk whilst also beneftting habitats and communities.

Investing in nature-based solutions as part of a green recovery could help us address some of the risks posed by climate change, providing jobs and revenue for local communities. Targeted payments to land managers through the new environmental land management scheme could aid implementation of NFM schemes, protecting local communities and supporting farmers. The recent Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) flood and coastal erosion risk management (FCERM) policy statement and Environment Agency FCERM strategy both highlight the importance of adopting nature-based solutions that enable us to adapt and become more resilient to climate change, and it is important that we continue to identify and deliver NFM schemes moving forward.

Peatlands

Restoration of drained and damaged peatland involves rewetting bogs, which increases their ability to store water. Re-vegetation of peatland with sphagnum moss helps the land to act as a water storage facility. Restored and healthy peatland slows the flow of water and enables storage of greater amounts of water for a longer period. All these factors help to reduce flooding risks to downstream areas.¹

Rivers and floodplains

Over the centuries, people have straightened river courses to make them easier to navigate, to improve grazing and to allow for floodplain development. These structural changes in river courses have increased the speed of flow, creating flooding issues in times of heavy rain. Re-meandering rivers, re-establishing floodplains and flood plain meadows, and creating riparian (riverbank) woodland are all ways to alleviate the risk of flooding. Floodplains capture a vast amount of water, allowing it to flow downstream at a greatly reduced rate.²Planting new woodland around rivers and on floodplains, and capturing water in floodplains and wetlands, can help slow the rate of water run-off, which in turn, reduces the problems with downstream flooding.³

Re-introducing Beavers

The re-introduction of these native engineers helps to reduce downstream flooding and clean the water passing through rivers and streams. By building new dams in different places, beavers create an evolving mixture of habitats, with streams, pools and bare mud. Beaver dams also hold water in dry periods, help to lessen flash-flooding downstream and reduce erosion, improve water quality by holding silt, and catch pollution and agricultural run-off.⁴

^{Beavers engineer rivers that slow flashy flows and hold water in dry periods Credit: RSPB}

Wetlands

Wetland areas can soak up excess rainwater, improve water quality, and then gradually release it into rivers, reducing the risk of flooding in built-up urban and rural areas. Conservation, restoration and creation of large areas of species rich wet grassland, wet woodland, floodplain meadows, bog, fen, and peatland is essential to ensure water can be absorbed by the landscape and released slowly, rather than all immediately being channelled into rivers and potentially overflowing and impacting communities.⁵

Urban solutions

NFM is not just an issue for the rural environment. Flooding has become more of an issue as we have built infrastructure like housing, roads and carparks, and paved over gardens, reducing the ability of the landscape to absorb water. Rainwater that once would have soaked away through soil is now channelled quickly into drains and gullies, increasing the risk of flooding. Sustainable Urban Drainage (SuDs) aims to reduce these risks using features such as permeable surfaces which allows water to filter through into the soil, green roofs, living walls, rain gardens, parks and green spaces to soak up rainwater and allow it to drain naturally into the soil.⁶ These features also benefit wildlife and create green spaces for people living in urban environments.

Investing in nature

Investing in nature and the many people and organisations that care for it is an investment in the UK. It is investing in our health and wellbeing, relieving pressure on our healthcare systems and contributes to a healthy economy. It is predicated that flooding could cost the UK around £27 billion per year by the 2080s if we fail to act on rising greenhouse gas emissions^[2]. The recent announcement from the government to ‘double its investment in flood and coastal defences in England to £5.2 billion over the next six years’^[3] is welcomed and much needed. However, this funding must be used to increase implementation of NFM and to support community projects to help educate people about nature-based solutions at a larger scale. Nature-based solutions must be part of delivering a resilient economy, healthy communities, and a thriving natural world at the heart of ‘green recovery’ from the current covid-19 global pandemic.

Case Studies:

RSPB St Aidan’s Nature Park

At St Aidan’s in the Lower Aire Valley, UK Coal, the Environment Agency and the RSPB and have created a 400-hectare wetland nature park underpinned by its own Act of Parliament. It stores 7.5 million m3 of flood water and can reduce the downstream flood peak by 400mm protecting homes in Allerton Bywater, Castleford and surrounding villages. More information on how St Aidan’s Nature Park helps to manage flood risk can be found here.

RSPB St Aidan’s Nature Park. February 2020 floodwater being held to reduce risk to the local community. Credit: RSPB

Airds Moss Reserve

The RSPB is active in the uplands where we are trying to demonstrate that it is possible to slow the flow of rivers and prevent flooding. We have worked with United Utilities at Haweswater in the Lake District National Park to restore degraded mire habitats, establish new woodland and restore Swindale Beck to a more natural state. This habitat creation and restoration should have beneficial effects downstream in the future.

¹https://catchmentbasedapproach.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/North-West-NFM-handbook.pdf, p.28.

² https://www.wwf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2008-19/slowingflow_web.pdf

³ https://www.gov.uk/government/news/reduce-flood-risk-with-the-woodlands-for-water-scheme

⁴For more information on what the RSPB is doing to help with the re-introduction of beavers, see https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/our-positions-and-casework/our-positions/species/beaver-reintroduction-in-the-uk/

⁵ https://www.rspb.org.uk/globalassets/downloads/documents/positions/water-and-wetlands/natural-flood-management.pdf

⁶ http://ww2.rspb.org.uk/Images/SuDS_report_final_tcm9-338064.pdf

⁷https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/693158/25-year-environment-plan.pdf, p.52

[1] Home Truths: How climate change is impacting UK homes - https://www.theclimatecoalition.org/s/Home-Truths-Report.pdf

[2] Future Flooding Report - https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/300332/04-947-flooding-summary.pdf

[3] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/building-flood-defences-fit-for-the-future

Coastal Ecosystems: Blue Carbon Solutions to Climate Change

2020-07-16T12:47:00Z

This is the first of two blogs by volunteer and nature writer Nic Wilson, exploring the critical importance of conserving and restoring coastal ecosystems of seagrasses and tidal marshes as a key nature-based solution to climate change.

The UK’s coastal habitats – our seagrass meadows, tidal saltmarshes and mudflats - lock in huge amounts of carbon. These coastal ecosystems remove carbon from the atmosphere, storing it in plants and sediment, known as ‘blue carbon’. When coastal sites are developed or damaged, they release large quantities of this carbon back into the atmosphere. Preserving our coastal habitats is vital to tackling climate change and improving human wellbeing.

Carbon Storage

Globally, mangroves, seagrasses and saltmarshes cover approximately 49 million hectares – almost double the size of the UK, and account for around 50% of the carbon stored in ocean sediments, despite accounting for less than 2% of the ocean¹. When in healthy condition, these coastal habitats capture and store carbon, but they are being destroyed at an alarming rate.

Tidal marshes have lost more than 50% of their previous global coverage and are still being destroyed at a rate of 1-2% per year, while seagrass beds are being lost at a rate of 1.5% per year with 30% of historical global coverage now gone. Scientists estimate that damaged coastal ecosystems release more than 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of 19% of emissions from global tropical deforestation.²

Research funded by the Scottish government over the last two years has recently revealed Scottish marine stores of carbon (in the top 10cm of marine sediment) are approximately 18 times as large as carbon stores in Scottish forests. We must manage and protect our vital marine stores of carbon, so they do not contribute to future global warming.³

Habitat Loss

Our coastlands provide crucial resources for people, we use them for so many different things – fishing, tourism and leisure, infrastructure and farming. But this is putting them under immense pressure and stunting their ability to store carbon and provide homes for wildlife. Since the Second World War much of our coastal habitat has been lost, including 5,000 hectares of shingle (46% of the UK’s resource), 16,000 hectares of sand dunes (18%) and 5,000 hectares of saltmarsh (15%). A further 60 hectares of protected intertidal habitat looks set to disappear per year across the UK as a result of climate change, rising sea levels and coastal squeeze if we don’t act now.⁴

^{Saltmarsh and pools provide habitat and protection Photo; RSPB / Ben Hall}

Restoration

Losing coastal habitat could be disastrous for future generations. Over the past 25 years, more than 70 managed realignment and regulated tidal exchange schemes have been developed, providing significant benefits for wildlife and people.⁵ Although the 2,500 hectares of intertidal/coastal habitat created since 1993 is a positive step forward for climate action in the UK, it falls far short of what has already been lost, let alone what will be lost in the future. Our coast has the potential to help us adapt to climate change and store our carbon emissions if we accelerate and invest in protection and restoration of coastal ecosystems. This will reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions and provide social, economic and environmental benefits including protection from storm surges, erosion and sea level rise, improving water quality and biodiversity, providing fisheries habitat and nature-based tourism opportunities.

Case Studies

The RSPB has delivered and managed many of the realignment schemes around the UK, particularly in England where coastal squeeze and development have exacerbated the effects of flooding. Working with partners such as the Environment Agency, we have delivered and managed more than a third of the coastal habitat created in the UK (some 880 hectares). Examples of these projects include managed realignment schemes at RSPB Medmerry and RSPB Wallasea Island.

RSPB Medmerry

The largest realignment of the open coast ever undertaken in the UK was completed in September 2013. This included the creation of c200ha of wetland habitat, and protects 348 properties and associated infrastructure from coastal flooding. The scheme, funded by the Environment Agency in partnership with the RSPB, has formed vital new intertidal habitat which will provide food and shelter for species, reduce flood risk, and capture carbon.

Wallasea Island

Wallasea Island sits within a Special Protection Area which covers the Crouch and Roach estuaries. The managed realignment scheme, supported by Defra, the Environment Agency, Natural England, Crossrail and the RSPB, has seen the creation of a ca 670 ha complex of intertidal habitat, saline lagoons & coastal grassland. In addition, Crossrail helped with the creation of saline lagoons, a creek network and grazing marsh. This new area of intertidal coastal marshland now supports a wide range of biodiversity including nationally and internationally important bird populations, and has significantly increased the carbon sequestration capacity of the reserve.

The first phase of managed re-alignment and habitat creation at Wallasea Island Photo: RSPB

What’s next?

Coastal habitat creation and restoration must be considered as part of the ‘green recovery’ from the current covid-19 pandemic, driving recovery that works for nature and people. Large-scale delivery of new coastal habitat would provide increased benefits through increasing access for people to enjoy nature, improving their health and well-being as well as contributing to a healthy economy. In England, this would also help to achieve targets under the 25 Year Environment Plan – in particular, the commitment to create or restore ‘500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat outside the protected site network, focusing on priority habitats as part of a wider set of land management changes providing extensive benefits⁶.The RSPB is keen to continue working with government to invest in nature-based solutions, such as managed realignment on the coast for a resilient economy, healthy communities and a thriving natural world.

¹ https://www.thebluecarboninitiative.org/

² https://www.thebluecarboninitiative.org/

³ https://blogs.gov.scot/marine-scotland/2020/02/24/new-blue-carbon-reports/

⁴Sustainable Shores: Summary Report, RSPB, February 2018

⁵ Sustainable Shores: Summary Report, RSPB, February 2018

⁶https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/25-year-environment-plan/25-year-environment-plan-our-targets-at-a-glance

For more information on Blue Carbon and projects in Wales and elsewhere in the UK, there is a useful briefing which can be accessed here: https://seneddresearch.blog/2019/12/17/blue-carbon-and-its-role-in-combating-climate-change/.

Responding to Covid – reflecting on the Committee on Climate Change’s challenge to Government

2020-06-25T07:28:00Z

Mel Coath reflects on the Committee on Climate Change’s Covid challenge to Government

Today the CCC has thrown down a gauntlet to Government. We have a choice: we can respond to the Covid pandemic by investing in a cleaner, greener and nature-rich recovery, or we miss this opportunity and risk an uncertain future. Here we reflect on the big picture conclusions of the CCC, issue the RSPB’s top three challenges to Government off the back of their findings, and highlight some key wider implications of the report.

The big picture

The overarching conclusions of the report are clear: we are not on track to meeting our net zero targets and were not even before the Covid crisis hit. We therefore urgently need to sustain our commitment to net zero as we seek to “build back better” as well as to integrate adaptation to climate change across all Government policy. These measures are critical if we are to have a chance of mitigating the climate crisis, to avoid damaging impacts and to ensure the best for people and nature in our changing weather and climate.

We are also facing an ecological crisis of equal magnitude and as such, we fully support the CCC’s call for investing in nature as one of 5 key priorities. We know that measures such as increasing tree cover, and peatland restoration have significant benefits for the climate and biodiversity alongside air and soil quality, and flood prevention.

To meet our climate goals, the CCC identifies that action from all nations in the UK is necessary so the UK government will need to ensure sufficient funding flows to the devolved administrations to enable them to contribute to meeting the UK’s overall climate targets. But action at home is not enough – as COP26 host, the CCC rightly highlights that we must also strengthen the UK’s commitments under the Paris Agreement to demonstrate global leadership and to leverage this to ensure maximum ambition on climate change action internationally.

RSPB top three challenges to Government

We have identified three clear immediate investment or policy changes the Government could implement to deliver on the CCC’s recommendations and show true leadership in addressing the climate and ecological crises:

Set up a new National Nature Service

The CCC identifies that investing in job creation in low-carbon and climate-smart industries and training and reskilling of the workforce will be needed.

The RSPB and partners call on Government to establish a new National Nature Service. This is a ground-breaking new employment and training programme. It embraces the public’s enthusiasm for restoring nature and our environment while responding to the urgent need to prevent large-scale unemployment. Employment and training opportunities can be created in a wide range of environmental activities: native tree-planting and nurseries, creation and enhancement of local green spaces, invasive species control, supporting local farming and restoring nature in key areas. This will boost employment and skills development, particularly for young and disadvantaged groups, fast-track ecosystem restoration, help to tackle climate change and improve access to a high-quality environment for everyone.

Strengthen key laws

The CCC highlights that the Environment and Agriculture Bills must be strengthened if we are not to miss the opportunity to reform agricultural support and achieve transformational land use change. It also underlines that UK trade policy and future trade deals must avoid undermining the required changes to reach Net Zero in the UK.

The RSPB is calling for robust Environment and Agriculture legislation across the UK that promotes transformational land-use change for nature and climate. We particularly welcome the CCC’s recommendation for a ‘strong regulatory baseline’; such a baseline is completely absent from the Westminster Agriculture Bill at present. In tandem, we call on the UK Government take into account the CCC recommendations on trade, and to put into law safeguards that prevent food and other products being imported into the UK that are produced in ways that would be illegal in the UK, and thereby undermine our environment and climate goals.

Preserve our peat!

The CCC highlights the need for large scale peatland restoration and an end to the extraction of peat and rotational burning.

The RSPB is calling on the UK Government to bring an immediate end to the extraction of peat and burning of our upland bogs and to invest in a major peatland restoration programme, working with devolved administrations. These measures would make a significant and immediate contribution to our fight against climate change and increase the resilience of these habitats and the benefits they provide, such as water quality and carbon storage, for people and wildlife. The CCC highlights that the UK’s peatlands store an estimated 3 billion tonnes of carbon, with England’s peatlands storing an estimated 500 thousand tonnes of carbon. However, much of England’s blanket bog is now severely degraded as a result of draining, grazing and burning for farming and grouse shooting, devastating large areas. Instead of helping absorb and lock in carbon from the air, these bogs are releasing 350,000 tonnes of CO2 annually, with three quarters of this resulting from burning. This is equivalent to the emissions of 140,000 cars per year. In Northern Ireland, the situation is even worse: only 14% of Northern Ireland’s peatlands are currently intact (either undrained or uncut). The planned inclusion of emissions from degraded peatland in the UK emissions inventory could add around 9% to NI’s total emissions and turn the land sector into a net emitter UK wide.

The internationally important golden plover relies on wet peat bog habitat Andy Hay / RSPB Images

Other key areas

Of course in such a far-reaching report from the CCC, there is much that cuts across the RSPB work. Here I reflect on the wider implications of the report for key RSPB priorities in the Covid recovery.

New infrastructure in harmony with nature

The CCC recognises the importance of natural capital and highlights the significance of setting clear direction and investable policy for a low carbon energy transition. As such, we are calling on the UK to transition to low carbon energy in harmony with nature, averting the threats which unchecked infrastructure deployment put on our wildlife and special places. The role of renewables in tackling climate change is undeniable, however without significant changes to how these technologies are planned, it is likely that conflict with nature will increase, particularly in relation to offshore wind which is predicted to have long-term impacts on our breeding seabirds. Government must align its energy and environmental objectives to ensure a strategic approach to ambitious infrastructure developments on land and sea alongside thriving nature. On land, the RSPB’s maps of high carbon, high nature areas highlight that two-thirds of our precious places for wildlife and climate change mitigation are not protected; robust protection measures in the Environment Bill need to secure their protection and new infrastructure proposals must avoid these areas so that the short-term Covid recovery objectives do no undermine goals to stem the climate and nature crisis. Finally, energy efficiency and reductions in demand have a vital role to play in the shift from fossil fuels and provide significant opportunity for employment and training opportunities – we are pleased to see a series of strong recommendations to deliver on this in the CCC’s report. Water efficiency improvements will also help limit damaging infrastructure proposals.

Growing and using trees

The CCC recommends increasing tree planting rates and the RSPB recognises the need for further action to incentivise expanding woodland and tree cover. However, RSPB commissioned research underlines that biodiversity rich native woodlands hold the greatest key to long-term climate and biodiversity protection. We are concerned that the recommended auction mechanism risks placing too much emphasis on commercial returns and could lead to a proliferation of plantation forestry which offers limited benefits to or even harms biodiversity, instead of the nature-rich places society needs. Burning wood for bioenergy can also lead to damaging outcomes for climate and nature so we welcome the CCC’s recommendation for a cross-departmental Bioenergy Strategy. To address the most significant impacts from bioenergy this must look in detail at global accounting rules that allow bioenergy emissions to go unaccounted alongside wider environmental and sustainability issues.

A role for water

The CCC has recognised the integral role of water as part of adapting to climate change and creating a resilient future for nature and people. In particular, we are pleased to see the call for Government to improve the 25-year Environment Plan restoration targets for terrestrial and freshwater habitats to include all priority sites and the increased ambition through setting targets for reducing the water demand and reducing leakage, which leaves more water in the environment. We would also like to see Government and the CCC recommending an increased role of nature-based solutions to address flooding and coastal erosion risk.

Adapting to a warming world

The UK’s approach to adaptation to climate change bears a striking resemblance to our approach to the situation we were in before the pandemic hit: we knew what would inevitably come, but we hadn’t prepared for it. It is therefore welcome to see the CCC recommending that adaptation should be integrated across all government policy: adaptation must be absolutely embedded - both across nature conservation and all of our society’s activities. We are particularly pleased to see the CCC’s proposal to include ambitious flood policy to counter increased impacts, alongside recommendations to ensure that adaptation measures are rewarded under the new Environmental Land Management scheme in England (and similar schemes in the other UK countries) are integrated properly into the 25YEP, Fisheries Bill and Environment Bill. The Met Office’s UKCP18 climate change projections provide a robust evidence base for understanding impacts and vulnerabilities. However, we should move on from the CCC’s notion of resilience, or being strong against climate change, to realise the realities and opportunities of climate change – as the CCC says, to have better lives – for people and for nature.

Garden peat free this Easter

2020-04-07T12:08:00Z

Nic Wilson’s series of blogs exploring the critical importance of peatland conservation and restoration as nature-based solutions to climate change continues with a look at the environmental problems created by extracting peat for use in the gardening and horticultural industry. It also highlights a case study from Bolton Fell Moss, a rare raised bog previously used for extraction that is now being restored by Natural England as part of the Cumbria BogLIFE project.

History

For centuries plants were traditionally grown in homemade compost made up of local materials such as leaf mould, sand, grit and animal manure. This practice changed during the twentieth century as the horticultural industry developed standardised growing media designed for the use of amateur gardeners. In the 1930s, the first John Innes mixes of loam, peat and sand were developed. By the 1970s, peat-based composts had become popular as they were easily transportable and easy to source. Books like The Peat Garden (1981) advocated the use of peat for its ‘moisture-holding properties and other worthwhile qualities’. Peatlands across the UK and Ireland were drained and large quantities of peat extracted for horticultural use.

Environmental Damage

In the 1980s, the damaging effects of draining peatland and extracting peat in industrial quantities came under the spotlight. Draining and extraction removes the peatland vegetation and dries out the wetland soil, effectively destroying the natural bogland biodiversity. The resulting bare peat is also more susceptible to erosion by wind and water, and can affect water retention from rainfall and storms.

Peat extraction at Bolton Fell Moss Photo: Olly Watts / RPSB

More recently research has highlighted the carbon storage potential of healthy peatland and its important role in greenhouse gas balance and climate change. Rather than storing carbon, damaged peatland becomes a significant source of greenhouse gases as carbon is oxidised and released into the air as CO2. Reversing this process through restoration is now seen as a key part of the UK’s response to tackling climate change.¹

Peat Free Progress

Each year around 700,000 tonnes of peat is extracted across the UK, yet the bulk of the peat we use in gardening and horticulture originates from the Republic of Ireland, with some sourced from other countries like the Baltic nations.² Whether the peat is extracted from the UK or elsewhere, it still has a devastating effect on landscapes, ecosystems and the climate. Peat use in horticulture has fallen in the past decade from over three million cubic metres in 2010³ to two million cubic metres of peat per year⁴, but this is still far from the current government target of stopping peat use completely by amateur gardeners by 2020.⁵

Although the UK horticultural industry has made significant progress with developing peat free growing media, with considerable investment in various non-peat materials, work is still ongoing to produce these materials at the commercial volumes and competitive prices required. Responding to the issues of continuing to use peat, a Responsible Sourcing Scheme has been developed by the Horticultural Trades Association in conjunction with the Growing Media Association, DIY and Garden Centre retailers, Defra, the RSPB and the Royal Horticultural Society ‘to ensure growing media is made from materials that are sourced and manufactured in a way that is both socially and environmentally responsible’.⁶ The Scheme rates growing media against seven criteria: energy use, water use, social compliance, habitat and biodiversity, pollution, renewability and resource use efficiency. Enabling consistent environmental scoring for compost products will help drive the use of more appropriate materials and allow retailers to make their product choices more knowledgably, improving business responsibility and sustainability and providing customers with more environmentally friendly products.

However, having already failed to meet the 2010 targets on reducing the use of peat in the UK market by 90% and with the 2020 voluntary targets looking exceedingly unlikely to be successful, more action on peat reduction is required. Defra’s 25 Year Environment Plan signals that further measures will be introduced in the event of insufficient progress to achieve peat replacement targets. Suggestions for such measure include taxing peat-based products or even a ban.⁷

RSPB Actions

The RSPB, along with other charities including the National Trust, Wildlife Trusts, Plantlife and Friends of the Earth, has for many years called on government and industry to end the use of peat in horticulture. The RSPB was involved in getting the current targets to end peat use in place in 2011 and is pleased to see that the government has now accepted that voluntary targets have not worked. The RSPB is working with other NGOs to ensure that government introduces compulsory measures to end peat use as swiftly as is possible, ideally in the next year.

Case Study – Peatland Restoration at Bolton Fell Moss

The National Nature Reserve for Bolton Fell Moss was declared in 2019 – the start of a new phase in the life of a wonderful peatland. But it nearly didn’t happen. It’s a place that seemed fated to repeatedly fall from what seems, in retrospect, something like a conservation conveyor belt for maligned peat bogs across the UK.

Back in the 1990s the UK was in the process of putting forward sites to the European Commission to become Natura 2000 sites. Raised bogs are so rare and damaged that there’s a special category for degraded bogs capable of restoration and this commercially extracted site was ideal representation for the region east of Carlisle. The Government however didn’t include Bolton Fell Moss in its lists of proposed sites and when the NGOs produced their list of omitted sites in 1997, a clerical error missed Bolton Fell Moss from even this list. Soon remedied, Bolton Fell Moss’s saga of oversight continued over many years.

Early restoration at Bolton Fell Moss Photo: Olly Watts / RSPB

Interest in saving commercially exploited peat bogs waned after the Government’s buy-out of three major peat extraction sites, Thorne and Hatfield Moors, and Wedholme Flow, for £17 million in 2003. Yet Bolton Fell Moss was still identified as potential site of European nature importance – and commercial extraction was still tearing the place to pieces. Deep drains turned the wetland into dry soil which giant machines scraped away over successive summers, to be bagged up and sold to largely unsuspecting gardeners. The RSPB continued a long-running battle to gain proper recognition for the site and end its ongoing destruction. An insistent correspondence with the European Commission, more urging of Government and its conservation agencies, more parrying and resolving every obstacle put forward. Eventually, in 2010 the EC confirmed Bolton Fell Moss on the lists of sites of European importance.

The negotiation with peat extractor Sinclair Horticulture for compensation and withdrawal terms took a couple of years, including sorting out the piecemeal of land ownership behind the leasing to Sinclair. Peat extraction finally ended in 2013 allowing Natural England to start restoration in 2014. Five years later, as part of a Cumbria BogLIFE project, the seeds of this initial restoration future were reaped with the declaration of Bolton Fell Moss as a National Nature Reserve in July 2019, the fruition of almost 25 years work to end the site’s exploitation by the gardening industry, and reinstate a natural garden of peatland habitat. It will be fascinating to see how this develops in the future.

¹UK Peatland Strategy 2018-2040, IUCN, p.36.

²https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate-change/why-peat-good-climate-and-nature-guide

³https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-calls-for-peat-to-be-phased-out

⁴‘How Peat Is Shaping Up To Be The Next Big Issue’, Matthew Appleby, Horticulture Week, 5 July, 2019

⁵https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-calls-for-peat-to-be-phased-out

⁶https://growingmedia.co.uk/responsible-sourcing.html

⁷‘How Peat Is Shaping Up To Be The Next Big Issue’, Matthew Appleby, Horticulture Week, 5 July, 2019

Fenland into the future: an exciting transition

2020-03-26T11:18:00Z

Natural England brought over a hundred Fenland farmers, water managers, nature conservation people and others together to look at the future of the East Anglian Fens and the desire to change to protect peatland soils and address climate change. Here are some thoughts from a really interesting and inspiring day.

An overarching theme

Climate change is at the centre of farming and land use across the Fens. We need both to increase our understanding about our activities today and their context with climate change; and to seek better alignment of our needs – for ourselves and for society - with those of climate change, as we move forward.

This encompasses several aspects central to thriving fenlands: greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration, including targets to achieve Net Zero of both the NFU and Cambridgeshire County Council; future water resources, from increased winter flooding and drier summer periods with increased short heavy downpours; food production and suitability of current crops in the trajectory of climate change; the wildlife across our region’s farms and nature areas; and sea level rise, which will increase pressure on drainage systems.

All of this needs addressing now. Met Office projections back in 2009 showed that we are likely to be living a world two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial in around the year 2040, a milestone on an ongoing trajectory of change that will be with us through our lifetimes.

A mix of key aspects

There’s considerable patchiness and diversity of soils, and our knowledge about these needs updating. There may only be relatively small area of deep peat, in terms of the Fens area as a whole. We need to know more about our soils, including the importance of shallow peat soils – yet this shouldn’t be a cause for delay. Each farmer will know your soils and so there’s much opportunity for ground up working, using this knowledge, whilst the top down picture is being developed.

33 tonnes of CO2e lost per hectare per year from arable East Anglia peatlands is a staggeringly high greenhouse gas emission: we clearly must address this. And the impact of increasing drainage on GHG emissions is also notable, by 3 tonnes per 10 cms lower water.

Good to hear from the farming community about investment in nature, working more in tune with natural environments and talk of whole farm interconnections. Nature should be an ally, providing financial benefits as well as environmental ones, and helping to build stability and security to develop farm businesses for future generations. It’s good to hear of developments to manage current crops that’s more in tune with wetter soils and we await the GHG studies of this with interest. The Committee on Climate Change is calling for end to bare peat in fields and for wetter soils, so this too should influence farm management and, potentially, crop choices.

Water is clearly critical for farm profitability. Yet we seem to be lacking a clear strategy for water management across the region, into the future. Climate change will increase winter rainfall, with implications for flooding and drainage; yet drier summers will increase demand for irrigation for current crops. We clearly need to hold onto more winter water, in managed ways, for all-year use. There’s also the new direction of public payment for public goods – we heard examples of water management and trading, integrated net gain and financing the societal benefits of peatland restoration – which will offer new ways to keep the management of peat soils profitable.

Yet central to the East Anglian Fens, profitable farming will undoubtedly remain the core economic activity. So it’s really encouraging to hear about the potential of wetland crops, pointing to ways to reap economic reward from soil management that’s more in tune with climate change and soil longevity. Early days perhaps, yet the new opportunities for farm businesses on re-wetted soils provide a really important avenue for a future of long term sustainability. While we track the progress of the paludiculture trials here with interest, we also saw the hands-on, already happening reality of a typha farmer, a crop with an astonishing wide variety of uses: providing building materials, insulation, biomass, compost for horticulture, biological control, cleaning water and also food. As an example of the wide potential for wetland crops, amazing.

Wetland farming in harmony with nature

Turning this potential for wetland agriculture into wide-scale reality across landscapes– and I do see this as necessary to achieve for soil sustainability and climate change targets - will not happen without both inspired leadership and thorough, detailed work across crop trials, market development, knowledge exchange and partnership working. The conference showed that clearly, we already have some inspired leaders from the fenland community.

Defra must support this, both driving a clear vision forward and ensuring practical delivery, joining the dots and filling the gaps across what’s happening and developing now. Research, knowledge transfer and farmer support are all essential. We’ll need both transition funding, and recognition of ongoing costs in the new Environmental Land Management scheme – the post-CAP timing is fortuitous and must be seized.

It’s challenge, yes, and also huge opportunity - even necessity - for all who work in the Fens: a critical period to develop a sustainable long term future, with profitable businesses on wetland soils in tune with climate change and vibrant with nature.

Climate mitigation in agriculture: summary findings

2020-03-18T13:37:00Z

Climate change affects everything. While agriculture, if it continues with ‘business as usual’, is likely to be one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases by 2050, it is also likely to be the system impacted most by climate change.

Accounting as it does for 75% of the UK’s land area and 11% of UK emissions, agriculture will play a critical role in helping nature’s recovery and adaptation to climate change. At the same time, agricultural land must continue to produce enough food, fuel and fibre to meet society’s needs, while contributing to other objectives such as water management. We need a holistic approach to shift agricultural practices for climate, nature and people.

RSPB commissioned research to investigate which agricultural solutions offer synergy between climate and nature, and where there is a risk of conflict. This assessment is built on an extensive review of the literature, as well as consultations with RSPB specialists.

There are several stand-out interventions which deliver the most for both climate and nature:

Support nature-based solutions to climate change

Peatland restoration and management

The organic soils found in peatlands store vast amounts of carbon. Many UK peatlands are currently net sources of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere due to degradation: only 1% of England’s deep peat is considered undamaged. Drainage, cultivation, overgrazing and burning can all lead to release of carbon. Restoring peat by halting and reversing processes that lead to degradation (for example, through grip blocking or re-wetting) are quick, ‘no-regrets’ interventions with benefits for climate, nature and people.

Permanent grassland conservation and restoration

Permanent grasslands have higher stocks of soil carbon than do croplands – it is best to avoid conversion in the first place, but reverting improved grassland or arable land to semi-natural grassland can increase carbon storage. This can be an entire land area, or in spots such as buffer strips and field margins, field corners and hedgerows. When croplands are converted into grassland, sequestration will not go on forever, but these grasslands will hold vast stocks of carbon.

Coastal habitat conservation and restoration

Protecting coastal habitats also increases carbon stocks. Much of UK coastal habitat has been lost as a result of development and land conversion for agriculture. In some circumstances agriculture must cease; in others a change of agricultural system to protect coastal habitats from impacts such as fertiliser run-off, or to restore positive management such as low-intensity grazing will be beneficial.

Transition to climate friendly farming systems

Organic and/or mixed farming

Research suggests that some, but not all, food produced from organic systems in England and Wales has a greenhouse gas benefit compared to conventional farming, when considering the true greenhouse gas cost of production and transport of inorganic fertiliser in conventional systems. Where feasible, mixed farming can reduce emissions by re-integrating crop and livestock production and improving the efficiency of land and resource use, by enhanced nutrient cycling and improving soil health.

Agroforestry

Adding trees to the landscape can increase carbon sequestration through both the carbon incorporated into the trees themselves and the soil. In the right circumstances and design, agroforestry can provide similar levels of timber as forestry, and similar levels of food production as pasture, and trees can provide a food crop. Integrating trees into arable systems can increase soil fertility and enhance natural pest control.

Less is more livestock

Reduced stocking density

Clearly, reducing the density of ruminant livestock will reduce emissions because there are fewer animals present emitting greenhouse gases. However, intensity of grazing can also influence the carbon balances of the grasslands themselves. In some conditions, light grazing stimulates root and vegetative growth, increasing productivity and sequestration rates, whereas overgrazing can damage soils.

Nutrient management

Making efficient use of and minimising mineral fertilisers, incorporating applied manure or slurry into soil, and reducing the exposure of organic fertilisers to the air can significantly reduce emissions of ammonia and methane.

Arable

Use spring cultivars

Spring-sown crops have lower nitrogen requirements than winter-sown crops and may therefore lead to reduced emissions of nitrous oxide from soil and of carbon dioxide from fertiliser production and transport. Similarly, any crops which are more efficient in nutrient uptake will have a positive impact.

Add nitrogen fixing and cover crops in rotation

Including leguminous crops like beans or peas in rotations provides biological nitrogen fixation. Legume crops do not require nitrogen fertilisers and can also have a fertilising effect on the crop that comes after them in the rotation. Using cover crops to avoid bare ground over winter reduces nitrate leaching and may reduce emissions of nitrous oxide and enhance soil carbon sequestration. Leguminous cover crops can also provide so-called ‘green manure’ if ploughed into the soil.

Recommendations

Farmers should be able to adopt these practices now – but many are constrained by a lack of funds or expertise. Policy and legislation must prioritise this immediately, through:

Advice and support for all farmers through ELM to transition to low carbon practices highlighted here and in the full report, especially for smaller and more marginal businesses
Public money for public goods – farmers should be rewarded through the Agriculture Bill for delivering nature-based climate solutions, including peat and coastal habitat restoration
Strong environmental baselines and regulation in law so nature and climate friendly farmers are not undermined
Long-term funding and certainty so farmers can confidently invest in low carbon practices
Ban the extraction and burning of peat with incentives to restore all upland peat habitats.

For a full copy of the report, see the attachment below or please contact mair.floydbosley@rspb.org.uk.

Image credits:

Wildflower meadow, Forest Farm, Wales. Image RSPB rspb-images.com

Avon heath country park, Dorset, White Park cattle which help improve heath and woodland. Image David Kjaer Rspb-images.com

Wild bird cover crop next to wheat, Bowhouse Farm, Fife, Scotland. Image Ian Francis rspb-images.com

First year arable reversion, Manor Farm, Sussex. Image Andy Hay rspb-images.com

Peatland: A Burning Issue

2019-11-28T15:57:00Z

This is the second in a series of four blogs by Nic Wilson exploring the critical importance of peatland conservation and restoration as nature-based solutions to climate change. This blog explores the environmental problems created by rotational burning. It highlights a case study from RSPB Geltsdale Nature Reserve where restoration work has seen peat rewetted and where burning has been replaced with less damaging heather cutting.

History

Vegetation burning (e.g. heather and grass burning) has been an ongoing practice in upland Britain for centuries, even millennia. Prior to the mid-nineteenth century, fire was used to improve grazing for red deer and sheep, a practice which continues today. After the middle of the nineteenth century, managed burning also became standard practice to create favourable habitat for red grouse (Lagopus lagopus scoticus) production. Rotational burning aims to provide forage and cover for red grouse and grazing for sheep by creating a mosaic of young nutritious heather and older heather (Calluna vulgaris) for cover.

Today peatland in the English uplands can be legally burnt between 1 October – 15 April. Burning in the uplands is increasing with recent research finding a 7-fold increase in burning on peatland in England from the 1940s to the present time¹ and burning increased at a rate of 11% per annum between 2001 to 2011 in Great Britain². Information from Natural England suggests there are currently over 400 consents allowing burning on sites internationally important for birds and deep peatland habitats³. These are all in areas managed for red grouse production.

Carbon Storage

While some studies of the effect of peatland burning can show a short-term carbon gain due to rapid heather growth, the long-term effects demonstrate significant damage to peatland hydrology and peatland vegetation, with associated impacts on peat and stored carbon. Each year damaged upland blanket bogs in England emit 350,000 tonnes of CO₂Three quarters of this arises from areas that are rotationally burned⁵.

Impact on Nature

Whilst some researchers have argued that peatlands are not damaged by burning, a recent Natural England evidence review found that burning has a range of detrimental impacts on peatlands in the uplands⁶. In 2008, inappropriate burning was cited by Natural England as a reason for the poor condition of peatland sites in England, alongside overgrazing and drainage. Burning continues to have an adverse impact on the state of blanket bog – a recent UK Gov report (Article 17 report) concluded that the overall conservation status of blanket bog in the UK was unfavourable (bad) due to a combination of intensive grazing, burning, game management, air pollution and drainage⁷. Once peatland is burnt, the water table is lowered and heather more rapidly colonises the drier ground and out-competes the sphagnum mosses, changing the vegetation balance and ultimately the whole ecosystem. In time, the water table rises and peat-forming vegetation can recover but after many cycles of burn-recovery-burn, the site gradually transitions toward a drier (more heath-like) state.

Wildfire Risk

When peatland is subject to rotational burning, the heather cover becomes more vigorous and widespread. This contributes to further drying of the soils, increasing the risk of hot fires, particularly outside the prescribed burning season when unmanaged fires are more frequent. Although burning has been seen as a way of reducing the fuel load on peatland thereby helping slow the spread of a wildfire, this method of management also perpetuates the heather-dominated vegetation, necessitating repeated burning to mitigate fire risk. In addition, tall heather cover is far more likely to cause hot fires which can burn into the peat and kill the sphagnum ground layer, preventing recolonization and rewetting of the site. Rather than burning the vegetation, we need to rewet bogs by raising the water table and creating the conditions for peat-forming vegetation to recover, making the peatland more resistant to the impact of fire.

The most effective long-term sustainable solution for addressing the wildfire risk on peatland is to rewet the site and return it to a fully functioning peat bog habitat. This involves evolving the way we use large areas of bog and heath habitat, and acting to restore damaged sites by blocking drains and gullies, reducing grazing and stopping burning. Peatlands in an improved state would continue to hold grouse at sufficient numbers to allow some grouse shooting to continue.

RSPB actions

In 2012, the RSPB made a formal complaint to the European Commission about concerns over Natural England’s action in relation to an upland grouse shooting estate, Walshaw Moor, in the South Pennines. The case expanded to cover the way in which Natural England and the UK Government permits and financially supports the ongoing burning of our globally important upland peatland habitats, particularly blanket bog in protected Special Areas of Conservation in northern England.

In September 2018, the RSPB called for a stop to burning on upland peat bogs – only 4% of which are currently in a healthy state due to years of burning, overgrazing and drainage. In 2018/19, Natural England sought to negotiate a voluntary halt to rotational burning on grouse moors, as a precursor to the estates giving up just over 400 consents to burn blanket bog. While a number of estates did agree to give up their permission to burn, the majority did not do so. In line with its commitment to the European Commission to end burning of blanket bog by October 2019, the Government committed to bring forward new legislation to bring a halt to such burning. However, we are still waiting for Government to deliver on its promise, despite recent statements by a Defra minister that it is working on the legislation.

Case Study – Peatland Restoration at Geltsdale

RSPB Geltsdale in the North Pennines is a mixed landscape of blanket bogs, woodland, heath, meadows and grassland. The site encompasses two large hill farms and is managed for nature, with blanket bog restoration taking place through reduced sheep grazing, replacing heather burning with cutting and blocking the artificial moorland drains. Since the restoration work began, there has been a steady improvement in the condition of the blanket bog with 43% of plots in favourable condition by 2012, up from 10% in 2000.

As a result of the shift from burning to vegetation cutting, sphagnum continues to spread, with 14 species recorded across these areas along with increases in the distribution and frequency of other specialised blanket bog species. Curlew populations on the reserve are stable, contrary to the national trend, and lapwings have returned to the upland areas. Numbers of black grouse, whinchat and grasshopper warbler have also increased on the reserve, all showing the benefits of allowing sphagnum ecosystems to regenerate.

References

¹ Natural England. 2014. IPENS 055 Burning in the English Uplands - A Review, Reconciliation and Comparison of Results of Natural England’s Burn Monitoring: 2005-2014

² Douglas, D.J.T., Buchanan, G.M., Thompson, P., Amar, A., Fielding, D.A., Redpath, S.M. & Wilson, J.D. 2015. Vegetation burning for game management in the UK uplands is increasing and overlaps spatially with soil carbon and protected areas. Biological Conservation 191, 243-250

³https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/our-positions-and-casework/casework/cases/walshaw-moor/

⁴ Carbon Trust conversion factors: -

https://www.carbontrust.com/resources/guides/carbon-footprinting-and-reporting/conversion-factors/

⁵England’s peatlands: Carbon storage and greenhouse gases. Natural England (2010)

⁶Natural England. 2013. The Effects of Managed Burning on Upland Peatland Biodiversity, Carbon and Water. Natural England Evidence Review 004

⁷ UK Government Report (Article 17 Habitats Directive) - http://cdr.eionet.europa.eu/Converters/run_conversion?file=gb/eu/art17/envxuwt7a/GB_habitats_reports-20190815-092118.xml&conv=589&source=remote#7130

Woodland: A Nature-Based Solution to Climate Change

2019-11-25T10:47:00Z

Nic Wilson

As part of National Tree Week (23 November – 1 December), this blog by volunteer and nature writer, Nic Wilson, explores the critical importance of woodland creation and conservation as a key nature-based solution to climate change.

In response to climate change and ecological breakdown, the UK needs to significantly extend its tree cover. Such expansion has the potential to capture and store carbon, support rare and declining woodland wildlife and deliver other benefits. As one of the least wooded countries in Europe, there is an urgent need for funding and support to be made available to deliver the woodland expansion and tree planting required to meet the UK’s net zero commitments, whilst helping wildlife to recover.

Carbon sequestration

The Committee on Climate Change’s net zero advice recommends an expansion of UK woodland cover from the current 13% to up to 19% by 2050.[1] Trees play an essential role in the carbon cycle, absorbing CO₂ from the atmosphere which is then stored in the living and woody material of the tree, in the soil and in long-lived timber products. Under the right conditions, trees can act as a net carbon sink, but it is vital to consider the composition and siting of new woodland to maximise benefits for climate and biodiversity.

Plans for woodland expansion and more trees throughout the landscape should favour native species and feature more genetically diverse, native and mixed woodlands. Native trees, with a local and diverse set of genes, are likely to be more resilient to climate change, with lower pests and disease risks than imported stock. They are also likely to be better adapted to local soils and climate. Locally-adapted native woodland can also be created by promoting natural regeneration.

The location of new woodland areas also needs to be chosen with great care. This will help to avoid repeating mistakes of the past, such as the widespread planting of mostly non-native Sitka spruce and lodgepole pine plantations in the uplands in the 1970s and 1980s which led to 20% of the UK’s blanket bog resource being damaged, with negative impacts on carbon storage and wildlife.

Timber production is a key part of much woodland management in the UK, but often more carbon can be stored in the soil than in the trees of temperate forests and this can be released by management activities such as harvesting, site preparation and fertilisation. Since many wood products also have a much shorter lifespan than living trees, an emphasis on storing carbon in living woodland, rather than production of timber products and biomass, could be a more cost-effective way of meeting emissions reduction targets.

Multiple Benefits

Together with tackling climate change and providing vital habitats for wildlife, woodlands and trees in the landscape can deliver a host of other benefits including water management, timber supply and benefits to health and wellbeing. How woodland is managed can make all the difference for nature. The RSPB manages just under 15,000 hectares of UK Woodland Assurance Standard certified woodland to provide habitats for wildlife and deliver many other benefits. We are also a partner in the Woodland Wildlife Toolkit project[2], which provides woodland managers with management information to help rare and declining woodland wildlife. Woodland creation is a vital part of the equation, such as the examples below from RSPB Haweswater and Abernethy reserves.

RSPB Haweswater

The reserve at Haweswater, in the Lake District, is a dramatic, varied landscape of mountains, moorland, wetland, woodland and heath. The RSPB is working in partnership with United Utilities to run our two hill farms as a viable business whilst also managing the land to improve carbon stewardship, wildlife, water quality and recreational opportunities.

Two sides of Haweswater Photo: Lee Schofield / RSPB

The Sustainable Catchment Management Programme (SCaMP) developed by United Utilities and the RSPB has included planting native trees on the reserve at Haweswater to support natural regeneration around the existing ancient oak woodland. Support from United Utilities and grant funding from a range of sources has helped plant around 150,000 trees across an area of 3000 hectares, including stock grown in our own nursery. New planting acts as a buffer zone and will help to extend the tree cover in the future. At higher altitude the planting is currently very scattered, but in time it should form a valuable seed source to enable the natural regeneration of woodland and scrub. Work is also ongoing to establish sustainable grazing levels, which will have a positive effect on woodland regeneration.

Although the work at Haweswater is still in its initial stages, an increase in tree pipit numbers has already been seen in some of the newly planted areas, and the RSPB is currently hosting two PhDs looking at the impacts of tree planting on water services that should generate useful insights in a couple of years.

RSPB Abernethy

At Abernethy, a 15,000 hectare nature reserve situated in the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland, the RSPB is restoring and expanding the UK’s largest native pine forest. The RSPB has a 200-year vision to expand the forest to its natural limits, including recovery of rare montane scrub habitats, and to restructure the plantation forests into a more natural Forest. It’s estimated that a further 3,500 hectares at Abernethy could support some tree cover. Work is underway to expand the forest and create an open wooded landscape interspersed with areas of mire, grassland, rock, scree, and bog woodland.

Natural forest at RSPB Abernethy Photo: David Tomlinson / RSPB Images

We have recently completed a woodland regeneration survey, mapping the trees that have naturally spread from the existing forest out into the open moorland. Estimates suggest that about 200,000 new native trees have appeared over the last five years and over the same timescale, about 200 hectares of new woodland has come in to existence. Additionally, a further 300 hectares of woodland, if the current rate of establishment continues, will be created over the next five years. This expansion is happening because of continued deer management and we are stepping up our efforts to allow additional regeneration and protection of existing trees into more remote parts of the site.

We continue to see the regeneration dominated by Scots pine with limited regeneration of broadleaf trees, except for rowan. Therefore, we plan to continue ‘enrichment planting’ of broadleaf trees from seeds and cuttings collected on the reserve and grown on in our onsite tree nursery. This planting will create new ‘seed sources’ of broadleaves which will seed and spread further, restoring a woodland with a more natural level of broadleaf trees in the future.

The montane (high altitude) scrub rescue project, in partnership with other Cairngorms Connect partners and with National Trust for Scotland at Mar Lodge, focuses on collecting cuttings and seeds from scarce montane willows and upland downy birch to grow on in our tree nursery. In combination with an increased deer control effort in the montane scrub zone, we will plant out this scrub to restore the almost lost remnants of montane scrub and help secure the future for special mountain wildlife.

[1] Committee on Climate Change (CCC). (2018). Land use: Reducing emissions and preparing for climate change.

[2] woodlandwildlifetoolkit.org.uk

Peatland: A Nature-Based Solution to Climate Change

2019-07-19T12:43:00Z

This is the first in a series of four blogs by Nic Wilson exploring the critical importance of peatland as a nature-based solution to climate change. This blog sets out the benefits of healthy peatland and highlights a case study from Forsinard Flows Nature Reserve demonstrating how valuable peatland restoration can be.

Peatland has a critical role to play in addressing the twin biodiversity and climate crises. In the UK, it covers around 10% of our land area from the remote Scottish highlands to areas around major centres of human habitation. The raised bogs, blanket bogs and fens that make up peatland habitat should be some of the most dramatic and biodiverse landscapes in the country, but after decades of mismanagement, overgrazing, burning, drainage and peat extraction, a disturbing 80% of peatland is currently in a damaged and deteriorating state. The UK and Scottish Government’s commitments to net zero emissions (by 2050 and 2045) respectively gives added impetus for conserving peatlands. These are our biggest carbon store which needs to be kept safely in the ground, protected by healthy wetland bog and fen habitat. Earlier this week, it was encouraging to see the Committee on Climate Change highlight the need for an accelerated programme of peat restoration and Lord Deben call for Government to introduce an immediate ban on using peat in gardening at the CCC’s progress report launch.

Carbon Sequestration

Peatland in the UK has been subject to unsuitable land management for many decades. This has degraded the habitat, causing the oxidisation of carbon which is then released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. As a result, much of the UK’s peatland is no longer sequestering and storing carbon. Instead, it is emitting 16 million tonnes of CO₂each year: a figure equivalent to around half of all the combined annual reduction efforts in the UK.

Alongside natural peatland emissions of methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂0) emissions from drained and fertilized agricultural peatland, this means that peatland emits 23.3 million tonnes of greenhouse gases every year, despite the fact that peatland in a near-natural state should be approximately ‘climate neutral’. Due to the carbon content and carbon-storing potential of our large peatland areas (Scottish and English peatlands contain around 1.6 billion tonnes and 584 million tonnes of carbon, respectively), avoiding, halting and reversing the degradation of peatland is an effective nature-based solutions to climate change.

Nature

UK peatland supports many important species and increasingly endangered ecosystems. Some of the key species that rely on peat bogs are rare and/or declining, such as the golden plover (Pluvialis apricaria), the carnivorous round-leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) and the swallowtail butterfly (Papilio machaon). For these, and many other species, the conservation and restoration of peatland vegetation is an essential factor in supporting healthy populations, re-establishing functioning ecosystems and creating vital habitat networks.

Water Purification

In addition to the importance of peatland in mitigating climate change, up to 70% of the UK’s drinking water comes from predominantly peatland areas. Healthy peatland produces naturally high quality drinking water with low pollutant and nutrient levels, significantly reducing the amount of purification needed once it reaches the water treatment plant. In degraded habitats, peat erodes and dissolves in the water, causing brown coloration and necessitating costly water treatment and more use of chemicals before high quality drinking water can be produced.

Flood Defence and Water Storage

Healthy peatland plays a vital role in adapting to the effects of climate change by slowing, absorbing and storing large amounts of water as it filters down from the hills. Unlike vegetated peatland areas, bare peat does little to slow water flow across the land and artificial drainage channels accelerate the rate at which water flows through peatland, creating faster runoff and increasing the potential for flooding. Once these channels are blocked and the land re-wetted as part of restoration work, water flow is reduced and the flood risk lowered.

Case Study – Peatland Restoration at Forsinard Flows

The RSPB reserve at Forsinard Flows is part of a vast expanse of blanket bog, sheltered valleys and mountains known as the Flow Country. Blanket bogs in this area have been growing for more than 10,000 years and in places the peat is up to 10 metres deep. An important carbon store, the Flow Country’s peat bogs hold more than three times the amount of carbon found in all the UK’s woodlands.

Areas of the Flow Country have been damaged by drainage for agriculture and in the 1970s and 80s, the government’s incentives to produce more timber led to huge sections of the deep peat bogs being planted with non-native forestry plantations. As a result, the peat dried out and released the carbon that had previously been stored in the ground. Over the past 20 years, the RSPB has been restoring the Forsinard Flows bogs, removing forestry plantations, blocking the drainage channels and allowing the original water levels to become re-established. Once the hydrology is working, the land can be re-vegetated with sphagnum moss which will ultimately create new peat. This in turn leads to an improvement in biodiversity at the restored sites and has seen the return of the golden plover (Pluvialis apricaria), which is only able to breed on healthy peatland.

The work at Forsinard Flows has also enabled pioneering restoration techniques to be developed and scientific research which is now being applied in other restoration projects. The RSPB have established a peatland science centre of excellence at Forsinard to facilitate new research into the role of peatlands as a carbon store and on peatland restoration and biodiversity.

Nature - at the heart of climate change action?

2018-11-27T12:28:00Z

Monday, 26 November was a big day for the UK’s climate change world. New climate change projections were launched by the Met Office, giving us much more detail about the new weather world we are already starting to live in. Michael Gove focused on the seriousness of climate change in a wide-ranging speech. And there were celebrations of the 10^th anniversary of the Climate Change Act, with powerful words from Lord Deben and Ed Miliband at a Westminster reception introduced by Caroline Lucas, highlighting the strong cross-party support for climate change work.

Yet I had a glass half empty feeling through most of the day’s events. Actually, perhaps only one-third full because for me, two things were largely missing from much of yesterday’s talk, both formal and in conversation.

The first is how we must learn to live with climate change and its evolving weather patterns. It’s trite for a popular newspaper to headline as Riviera Britain, yet the range of angles taken by the media shows the variety of ways climate change will increasingly affect us all. UKCP18, the new climate change projections, are not just for the UK but now at the global scale. They are the gateway to help us explore the ongoing transformation of our climate and weather across all of society’s interests. And we must do this, because our collective efforts on reducing greenhouse gas pollution are still woefully short of what’s needed and our present-day One Degree world is moving, seemingly inexorably, towards a Two Degree one.

Also largely missing from the day was nature and the natural environment. Yes, Mr Gove said some good things about climate change and nature, recognising the mostly adverse impacts and the role the natural environment can play in both adapting and mitigating to climate change. News on peatland action was encouraging. There was brief mention in the evening about the need for more equal footing for the environment in Treasury thinking.

Yet our common interest in the natural environment, loved and enjoyed by so many, with such a large range of potential benefits, was mostly missing through the day’s events. Nature, our basic life support system, is profoundly affected by climate change. So, two things to act upon and take forward.

The UKCP18 climate change projections are a new spur to putting adaptation into practice. We should use them widely, across everything we all do, if we want our work today to last into tomorrow’s future. And greater emphasis on five yearly cycle of impacts and adaptation plans required by the Climate Change Act can help drive this.

The 25 Year Environment Plan, and the Environmental Land Management System, provide the timeframe and opportunity for new thinking that we urgently need to develop adaptation across the natural environment. They must both put climate change at their heart and embedded throughout, to make the natural environment work best for wildlife and for people.

And we can all help talk up the need for nature, its vulnerability to changing climate and the wide-ranging benefits we get from its healthy state - so that at the next milestone climate events, we prize the natural environment at the centre of our discussions and celebrations.

New report heralds vital role for nature in tackling climate change

2018-11-15T16:30:00Z

Melanie Coath, RSPB Senior Policy Officer, Sustainable Development

Today the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has published a landmark report on the critical role nature can play in the UK in addressing the threat of climate change and also helping us and nature adapt to a warming world.

The report comes at a critical time. We have a once in a generation opportunity, as we leave the EU and particularly the Common Agricultural Policy behind, to reshape the way we use our land. At the same time, the urgency of doing so couldn’t be greater: the IPCC has highlighted the very small window of time we have left to tackle the major threat of climate change. Every sector must play its part and our farmed landscape, which has made little progress in emissions reductions, must step up.

The CCC makes no bones about what we have been getting wrong: it cites unfertile soil as a result of intensive monoculture farming; major wildlife losses that mean that even our semi-natural habitats have reduced function; valuable carbon rich habitats such as peatlands are in poor condition and haemorrhaging carbon; and many of our woodlands suffer from inappropriate management.

Yet the CCC also highlights the tremendous opportunities we could harness. The way soil and livestock are managed could save millions of tonnes of carbon for a start, and whilst many farmers are demonstrating really innovative and progressive ways of reducing their carbon footprints, much more action is needed across the piece. Just as important, yet often highly contentious, is land that is currently farmed but has significant scope to be converted or restored to habitats such as woodland and peatland – allowing megatonnes of emissions to be locked up in natural systems. Arguably even more contentious are the changes highlighted by the CCC’s report about changes needed in the production and consumption of the most carbon-intensive foods, for the good of the environment not to mention human health.

The report is grand in scope, so here’s a focus on the key nature-based solutions that can play a significant role in tackling climate change

Policies to protect and restore nature can help to lock away emissions

What needs to happen to achieve the kind of transformative change envisaged in the CCC report? The RSPB is calling for policies that will protect, restore and create carbon and wildlife-rich habitats such as native woodlands, peatlands and permanent grasslands as well as those which secure significant shifts in agriculture to produce the food we need in sustainable and lower carbon ways. We’re working for these policies and measures to be included in the Westminster Agriculture and Environment Bills and subsequent policies, and the equivalent legislation in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Below we set out in more detail what we believe this means for each of these important habitats and the policy actions we need the four UK governments to undertake:

Peatlands and wetlands

Large areas of the UK’s peatlands are in poor condition, with dry soils releasing greenhouse emissions, prone to erosion and failing to support wetland species.

ACTION:

Set a target and provide measures in the Environment Bill for restoring all designated upland and lowland bog habitats to favourable condition by 2030.
Remove barriers to peatland restoration on degraded habitats outside protected areas, with a target for all such areas to be healthy functioning wetlands by 2035.
End the practice of burning on blanket bogs and make restoration to wet blanket bog the priority
Meet the Government targets for ending the use of peat in gardening and horticulture.
Introduce the measures required to tackle the serious, ongoing loss of lowland peat soils under intensive agricultural production and develop economic uses and land management compatible with the sustainable management of these wetland soils.

Semi-natural forests and woodlands

The UK has lost much of its native woodland and is now one of the least forested countries in Europe.

ACTION: New land management schemes should ensure that the few remaining areas of ancient and semi-natural woodland in the UK are properly conserved and new woodland creation is supported in appropriate locations, at the right scale and supporting appropriate native species

Grasslands

Permanent grasslands have high levels of soil carbon and high biodiversity value. They are now rare: for example 80% of the UK’s chalk grasslands have been converted to arable land since the Second World War.

ACTION: Government policies across the UK should protect permanent grassland from ploughing and overgrazing and the new environmental land management schemes must include measures to conserve and enhance permanent grasslands, as well as supporting appropriate reversion to species rich grassland.

Windfarms are all over the news, but can they be built all over our land and seas?

2018-07-26T04:17:00Z

Last week, a survey suggested that two thirds of people want to see the current onshore wind policy restrictions removed. Perhaps surprising to some, this is music to our ears here at the RSPB. UK Government is failing to encourage a low-cost low-carbon energy solution that is supported by the public and which has the potential to be wildlife-friendly. At the same time it is driving ahead with potentially more damaging and costly options that are out of sight, out of mind, with limited consideration of the consequences. Because of the potential risks, we think the UK approach to renewable energy needs to change.(read more)