More peat should be protected and not subjected to muirburn to help combat the climate crisis, say a coalition of organisations in a letter to the Scottish Government.
Nine groups have come together to write an open letter, seen by The Ferret, about the new Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill which was introduced last month.
Muirburn is a controversial practice whereby landowners and gamekeepers burn patches of heather to help boost populations of red grouse, so there are more birds available to be shot by paying visitors.
The practice is an issue of concern to some campaign groups, however, due to the intensity of burning on grouse moors and danger to wildlife, and particularly the effects of burning over deep peat.
Carbon is stored in peat and it leaks into the atmosphere when burned, undermining efforts to reduce climate emissions.
However, Scottish Land and Estates, which represents landowners, argues that muirburn is “hugely beneficial”, not only for upland estates, but for farmers and crofters managing habitat for livestock and ground nesting birds. The organisation says it also reduces the build-up of vegetation which increases wildfire risk.
The new bill seeks to ensure that grouse moors are run in a manner which is sustainable and complies with animal welfare standards.
Licenses for burning on peat would only be granted in exceptional circumstances, such as for wildfire prevention.
Vast areas are burned purely to enable the so-called sport of grouse shooting, often on land that is high in peat, and contains a massive amount of carbon, making this a serious climate issue
Mary Church, Friends of the Earth Scotland.
The open letter to Mairi Gougeon MSP, cabinet secretary for rural affairs, land reform and islands, has been signed by the nine organisations, some of whom are part of the Revive coalition, which aims to reform Scotland’s grouse moors.
The letter’s signatories are: League Against Cruel Sports Scotland; John Muir Trust; Scottish Raptor Study Group; Common Weal; RPUK; Friends Of the Earth Scotland; Rewilding Britain; Reforesting Scotland; North East Mountain Trust.
These groups argue that all muirburn should require a licence, regardless of whether it takes place on a grouse moor or not.
The letter also says that increasing grouse numbers for sport shooting is not an acceptable reason to get a licence.
“At least 163,000 hectares of Scotland’s landmass is regularly burned for grouse shooting, particularly concentrated in certain areas of the country,” the letter says. “It is estimated that around 40 per cent of the burned area has taken place over deep peat (as it is currently defined).
“Even if the muirburn code becomes a mandatory legal requirement of land managers, the large areas in which muirburn takes place will be hard to police without significant resources and without continued significant risk to our vital peat reserves.”
The government’s plan to redefine deep peat depth is backed by Revive, but it argues this should be redefined as 30cm instead of 40cm – to prevent more peat being burned.
Max Wiszniewski, campaigns manager for Revive, said monitoring huge areas of moorland is necessary but will be difficult and costly to do effectively. “We know that the grouse shooting industry cannot be reliably trusted with self-restraint so this must be fully funded by the cost of a licence,” he claimed.
“However, we should not be jumping through hoops just so a few people can shoot more grouse while risking damage to our vital peatlands. Shooting grouse for sport is not in our view a justifiable reason to get a licence to burn our land as it stops a more healthy mosaic of biodiversity from forming on our moors.”
Mary Church, head of campaign for Friends of the Earth Scotland, said that allowing landowners to burn land “puts our vital peatlands at incredible risk” by allowing the carbon it stores to leak into the atmosphere.
“Vast areas are burned purely to enable the so-called sport of grouse shooting, often on land that is high in peat, and contains a massive amount of carbon, making this a serious climate issue,” Church added.
She said the Scottish Government “must step up Scotland’s climate action across the board”, and that the management of peat-rich grouse moorland must “improve radically” to contribute to national efforts to cut emissions.
However, Scottish Land and Estates claimed the coalition’s campaign was a “blatant attempt to restrict and prohibit legitimate practices associated with grouse moor management, irrespective of what the latest science suggests”.
Ross Ewing, moorland director at Scottish Land and Estates, also expressed concern over plans to restrict muirburn on peat deeper than 40cm. He claimed this was an “arbitrary figure” chosen by the Scottish Government “without a shred of supporting evidence or logic – especially when you consider that muirburn is recognised to be an ‘above ground’ activity that does not protrude below the surface”.
“Unlike those associated with this campaign led by the Revive coalition, the minister responsible for this bill, Mairi Gougeon MSP, has actually seen muirburn being undertaken for herself at a recent demonstration event in the Angus Glens. It is our hope that she will see this campaign for what it is – a blatant attempt to restrict and prohibit legitimate practices associated with grouse moor management, irrespective of what the latest science suggests and wildfire experts say.”
Ross Ewing, of Scottish Land and Estates.
Ewing added: “For those who want to obtain a peatland muirburn licence under the proposed law, the onus would be on them to ascertain whether the underlying peat is deeper than 40cm, despite a recent NatureScot report noting that there would be considerable practical constraints in achieving this at the landscape scale.”
He pointed to scientific studies which, he said, recognise the value of muirburn, including a recent University of York report, which found that burnt plots became carbon sinks after burning and, over the 10 years, absorbed more than twice the amount of carbon compared to mown and unmanaged areas.
Ewing urged the Scottish Governmemnt to take a “sensible, informed approach on muirburn”, pointing out that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service “continues to support muirburn as a “mechanism for reducing fuel load”.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said it is committed to improving protections for iconic wildlife and biodiversity, and that the new bill places strict regulations on the use of muirburn, to ensure it is undertaken in an environmentally sustainable manner.
They added: “We have engaged with stakeholders at every step in the development of the bill and will continue to do so as it progresses through parliament. In 2020 we set out ambitious plans to invest more than £250m over ten years to restore at least 250,000 hectares of degraded peatlands by 2030.”
Featured photograph thanks to iStock and Danielrao.
