Carbon Sequestration: What about Peatland?

10,000 year old peatland could join the fight against climate change. These wetlands could offer a natural solution for carbon sequestration, flood reduction and also provide a hub for rare biodiversity.

Peat forms in wetland environments. Image Credit: Lauri Poldre on Pexels

About Peatland

Peatland forms in areas where the ground is saturated with water, as they are in wetlands. When an area of land receives high amounts of rainfall and also has low evaporation rates, the water begins to stagnate and the soil becomes waterlogged. Since the soil is no longer in contact with the air and contains very little dissolved oxygen, a key component that microbes require for decomposition, dead plant material isn’t broken down. This causes a gradual accumulation of carbon-containing organic matter which is stored in the form of peat. 

The peatlands we see in the UK started forming after the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago, indicating just how slow these ecosystems developed. The landscape left behind by the melting ice provided the ideal environment for moss to grow, which helps create the waterlogged conditions required for peat to accumulate. A moss species central to this process is Sphagnum moss, which has the capacity to hold 20 times its weight in water and is found in most peatlands. Today, peatlands cover an average of 12% of the UK's land area and store more carbon than all other types of vegetation combined, underscoring their crucial ecological function.

The Past and Present

Humans are not new to the idea of exploiting peatlands for their resources. Rich in organic matter, peat has historically been used as a source of fuel for cooking food, heating homes and even for industrial processes like smelting. However, modern day rapid urbanisation and population growth brought with it the need to utilize land for agriculture and farms for domestic animals. This meant drying out the peatlands by burning them and digging artificial ditches. The result? Oxygen interacts with the organic peat, causing rapid decomposition and the release of stored carbon dioxide (CO2) in copious amounts. 

For centuries, we have been burning the vegetation on peatland to promote fresh growth for livestock or game. But, the environmental consensus, supported by Natural England's comprehensive evidence review, is that managed burning is ecologically damaging. Naturally, fire damages the surface of peatlands and disrupts the ecosystem that relies on it. 

Peatland burning makes the peat dry, making it more prone to further intentional or accidental fires. The peat can keep burning deep within the soil itself, causing what is known as a zombie fire. Zombie fires release massive amounts of CO2 that has been stored for as long as 10,000 years. While it is argued that rotational burning is necessary to reduce fuel loads and prevent wildfires, restoration advocates counter that a healthy peatland is naturally fire resistant.

Peat is made up of compacted organic matter. Image credit: David Stanley.

A Nature-Based Solution 

Carbon Capture and Climate Mitigation

The greatest advantage of peatlands is its potential to reduce carbon emissions. Peatlands hold approximately 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon, making it the UK’s most significant terrestrial carbon sink. This is more than the total carbon stored in all forests of Germany, Great Britain and France combined. Healthy peatland acts as a carbon store, successfully sequestering atmospheric carbon which builds up over years. On the flip side, when exploited, it becomes a big contributor of greenhouse gases; the truth of 80% of English peatlands. Each year degraded peatlands in the UK release approximately 10 million tonnes of CO2. However, re-wetting and restoring the peatlands can improve its carbon storage activity and create a healthy environment.

Water Regulation and Flood Resilience

Peatland provides a significant amount of the UK’s drinking water. Active peatlands effectively filter and improve the quality of water by reducing the amount of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), thereby reducing the operational costs for water purification industries, saving several million pounds. Peatland also proves to be an excellent tool for  storing water. Sphagnum moss and peat play the role of natural reservoirs, as they are capable of storing large quantities of water. This feature is highly effective for flood resilience and peatland acts as a nature based solution to prevent flash flooding by regulating the release of water.

Biodiversity and Ecological Resilience

Even the stagnant, acidic and nutrient-poor nature of peatlands, like poor-fens, provide an environment for several kinds of living creatures to thrive in. This includes many species of moss like sphagnum moss, cotton grass and carnivorous plants like sundews. Peatlands are home to many kinds of dragonflies, large heath butterflies and birds like the dunlins that use peatlands as their nesting and feeding grounds. Peatlands are a functioning ecosystem and contain valuable biodiversity.

Peat Projects Across the UK

The importance of a healthy peatland has been recognised, and active efforts are being taken across the UK to restore peatlands. These are primarily driven by government funding and environmental restoration partnerships that focus on blocking artificial drainage ditches, as well as managing the growth of invasive vegetation to regulate the water table of the peatlands.

In Wales, over 3,600 hectares of degraded peatland was restored in five years (2020-2025), surpassing the 3000 hectare target. This government funded project, National Peatland Action Programme (NPAP) delivered by Natural Resources Wales was able to store approximately 1.92 million tonnes of stored carbon. To put into context, the resulting emission saving is equivalent to taking 6,480 cars off the road annually. Peatlands cover only 4% of Wales’ land and store almost 30% of its terrestrial based carbon, of which 90% is currently degraded. The Welsh government plans to triple the rate of restoration by 2031.

In Scotland, efforts towards restoring over 1,300 hectares of peatland every year until 2028 are ongoing within the Cairngorms National Park funded by Scotland’s Peatland ACTION. It’s fascinating to note that Scottish peatland projects use the UK Peatland Code, a system which proves that they are saving carbon and allows them to sell Carbon Credits to corporations ultimately adding to government grants to ensure restoration work can continue successfully.

In England, many projects are focusing on removing birch and rhododendron, an invasive plant species at the Humberhead Peatlands National Nature Reserve. This form of vegetation control helps in re-wetting the large peatlands, effectively improving their activity.

Policy and Government Action

The UK Government has now banned the burning of vegetation on peatland in England, as well as a near-total ban on suggesting burning across areas of peatland, which has been confirmed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The primary justification for this ban is to protect the peatlands, focus on the net zero mission and improve the health of the general public. DEFRA points out that peatland burning not only releases greenhouse gasses but also releases pollutants that may be associated with serious respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. With the ban in full effect, the peatlands are protected and can work their true wonders by reducing flood risks, improving the quality of water and providing a home to several species of flora, fauna and invertebrates.

The Future of Nature-Based Solutions

The peatlands are the UK’s most significant carbon store, holding more carbon than all domestic forests combined, but years of draining and burning have turned them into major emitters of greenhouse gases. 80% of the UK’s Peatlands are still currently degraded, but recognising the importance of using peat in nature-based solutions to tackle issues such as CO2 emissions are helping us turn this around.. Actions like the new burning ban, UK Peatland Code and several restoration projects across the UK are bringing a positive change that can ultimately help us in the fight against  climate change. 

About the Author:

Harsh Sinha is currently pursuing his Master’s in Biotechnology at Nottingham Trent University. You can find him on LinkedIn at: Harsh Sinha.