There was an ordinary shank standing at the edge of a pool of water.
In the 1980s, Scotland planted commercial trees across parts of 9,000-year-old peatland; Decades later, conservationists remove them to protect wildlife and conserve carbon stored in the ground.The massive project is centered on the Flow Country, a vast area of wet moorland covering more than 400,000 hectares across Caithness and Sutherland in northern Scotland. In July 2024, UNESCO classified the area as a World Heritage Site, placing it alongside natural treasures such as the Great Barrier Reef and the Grand Canyon. It became the first peatland in the world to obtain this special status. King Charles III marked the event by visiting the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)’s Forcinard Flies Sanctuary to unveil a special plaque.Although world-famous today, large parts of this ancient landscape were virtually in ruins forty years ago. During the 1980s, tax rules and government grants encouraged forestry companies to drain wetlands, build deer fences, construct roads, and plant long rows of commercial trees.
Destruction of wild habitats
The rapid growth of these tree plantations is damaging the sensitive swamp. The trees pulled water from the muddy ground, causing the deep peat soil to dry out and collapse.
The loss of open land threatens native birds, which need large, treeless areas to build nests. Before government action halted farming, the area had lost about 900 pairs of golden plover, nearly 800 pairs of dunlin, and 130 pairs of greenshanks. The area is also a vital habitat for Hen Harriers, insect-eating sundews and Red-throated Divers, which lay their eggs near small marshy pools.
There was an ordinary shank standing at the edge of a pool of water.
Eventually, pressure from the Nature Conservation Council, the Royal Society for Conservation of Nature and other green groups forced the government to change its plans.
In January 1988, Malcolm Rifkind, then Secretary of State for Scotland, announced that the government would protect more than 140,000 hectares of peatlands as sites of special scientific interest. Later that year, Nigel Lawson, then Chancellor, ended the tax breaks and grants that had made tree farming on peat profitable.
Reverse damage in Forsinard Flows
The real clean-up work began in 1994 when the RSPB bought the Forsinard Estate in the middle of the Flow Country, paid for by donations from its members.
Today the RSPB Forsinard Flows is the largest nature reserve managed by the charity in the UK.Using funds from two major grants from the European Union’s LIFE Nature initiative, conservation teams tested commercial logging methods, plugged drainage ditches, and flooded the land again. The main goal is to convert thousands of cleared hectares into healthy, working swamps.The choice to cut down trees goes beyond just helping wildlife. Peatlands are often called the lungs of the Earth because they absorb and sequester carbon.
The Flow Country alone contains almost 400 million tonnes of carbon in its soils, the equivalent of more carbon than all the UK’s forests and forests combined. When the peat dries, the trapped carbon escapes back into the air as a heat-trapping gas.
Government support and broader goals
Peatlands cover more than two million hectares across Scotland, making up 25 per cent of the country’s land area and more than 60 per cent of all peatlands in the UK.To help restore these lands, the Scottish Government has promised £250 million over ten years to restore 250,000 hectares of damaged peatlands by 2030 through the Peatlands Action Programme.
Official records show that more than 75,000 hectares have been rehabilitated so far, including a record 10,360 hectares completed during the 2023-2024 fiscal year.Scotland’s peatland policy focuses on three main steps: protecting healthy sites, nurturing arable land, and restoring damaged areas. The new science shows that other practical steps, such as preventing farm animals and deer from overgrazing, rewetting agricultural soils, and changing how grassy peatlands are used, could reduce gas emissions even further.
Bringing communities to the swamp
Restoring remote peatlands means working in difficult conditions, where cold weather and wet mud make field tasks difficult. To gain public and political support, conservation groups have built better visitor sites on the Forsinard Falls.The reserve now includes an observation tower that gives visitors a wide view of the open landscape. New investments have added modern research rooms and housing to the site, allowing scientists, researchers and volunteers to live in the reserve while studying how healthy marshes sequester carbon and bring back rare birds.Alongside carbon storage and creating homes for wildlife, the Scottish Government sees peatland restoration as a way to create green jobs. The long clean-up effort has brought rural work to the north of Scotland, helping local hotels and cafes, and building green tourism.
