The Climate Project: Planting sphagnum moss
The Climate Project: Planting sphagnum moss
The BMC's Access & Conservation Trust (ACT) works with Moors For the Future to fund and raise money for their moorland restoration projects. BMC members can also volunteer to help plant sphagnum on Get Stuck In days in the Peak District.
What has happened to UK peat bogs?
Peat moorlands cover roughly 12% of the UK, but many have been dug up, drained or destroyed by 150 years of industrial pollution and over 400 wildfires. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates that 80% of the UK’s peatlands are in a damaged and deteriorating condition. Peat forms at approximately 1mm a year. It is not a renewable source. The Peak District and South Pennine moors have been described as ‘the most degraded upland habitat in Europe’ and damaged peat can be a great carbon emitter.
In their natural, wet state, peatlands are our biggest store of carbon in the UK, but only 22% of them are in good shape. The remainder are damaged (many drained for farming or taken for horticulture) and emitting 23,000,000 tCO2e of greenhouse gas per year, the equivalent of 5% of our emissions in 2018.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has calculated that restoring 55% of peatlands to a near-natural condition is estimated to have a net benefit value of around £50 billion. Recreation on peatlands has been valued at over £250 million (ONS 2016).
Moors for the Future was founded in 2003 to fight back. So far they’ve raised £50 million and delivered restoration work to 35km2 of degraded blanket bog with a large programme of associated engagement and science work - delivering critical evidence and a change in behaviour.
Why plant sphagnum?
This carbon-locking, water-absorbing green or red moss is fantastic for transforming the Peak District's degraded, dried out and eroded peat bogs into re-wetted, wildlife-loving, flood-reducing, wildfire-stopping habitats for a diverse range of flora and fauna. The Peak District moorland is the most degraded in Europe but our sphagnum-planting events are already revitalising and strengthening this beautiful hill walking area. Find out more about the amazing properties of sphagnum moss here.
Let’s plant moor
Thanks to our members and partners, we’ve raised over £70,000 for The Climate Project so far. This will restore more than 2,400 square meters of sphagnum on our Peak District moors. It costs £25 to plant one square metre of sphagnum moss and create a healthy moor.
Your donations will help:
Actively fight climate change
Avoid carbon loss
Reduce wildfire risk
Reduce flooding risk
Protect endangered wildlife
Preserve moorland habitats
Increase biodiversity
Your donation makes a huge impact:
£25 funds 1m2 of sphagnum moss
£70 can build a 1m timber dam. These dams are installed in gullies to stop peat washing down off the moor
£200 can build a 2m stone dam and block a deep, badly eroded, moorland gully
£2,500 helps us plant 100m2 of sphagnum moss and other native plants across an area of degraded upland moor to heal the bare peat and return the area to active, blanket bog habitat
Donate to The Climate Project
On our wild moorlands grows an amazing plant called sphagnum. When sphagnum is growing healthily, this plant powerhouse takes as much carbon out of the atmosphere as a tropical rainforest.
Get Stuck In: Sphagnum Planting Days
Why are our moors so damaged?
Human activity and nature's consequences have been damaging the state of our moors for decades. As part of The Climate Project's Let's Plant Moor series, Moors For The Future Partnership Officer Alice Leary takes a look at how the degradation of the moors has a knock-on effect on the nature surrounding us and what's being done to prevent it.
Why are bogs so important for a healthy planet?
Our peatlands store more carbon than all other vegetation types in the world combined and yet here on our doorstep, they're in a state of degradation. As part of The Climate Project's Let's Plant Moor series, Moors For The Future Partnership Officer Alice Leary takes a look at the knock-on effect on the nature surrounding us and what's being done to prevent it.
The Climate Project: Sphagnum is a campaign by the BMC's Access and Conservation Trust. Working alongside Moors For The Future. It's supported by Cotswold Outdoor and Snow+Rock.
