AGMA Announces Support for Protection of Peat

Wednesday 30th March 2011

AGMA has announced its support for the Government’s bid to reduce the use of peat by gardeners and professional plant growers.

The Government recently conducted consultation on the subject with the ultimate aim of informing an expected White Paper in the near future.

Since the mid nineteenth century, 99% of the lowland raised bog, known as mossland, habitat within Lancashire, Greater Manchester and North Merseyside has been destroyed. Within Greater Manchester, the areas of Chat Moss, Carrington Moss, Ashton Moss and Clifton Moss originally supported huge expanses of lowland raised bog. Many of these areas have been built on or ploughed up for agriculture and the remaining fragments of precious mossland habitat are increasingly isolated.

Chris Findley of AGMAs Planning and Housing Commission said:  “Intact lowland raised bogs are such a rare and threatened habitat that even degraded examples, including some currently used for peat extraction in Greater Manchester, are considered priority habitats at a European level.

“Reducing horticultural use of peat is crucial to turning around the fortunes of our remaining mossland and allowing degraded bogs to be restored so that they provide a haven for specialist species and a carbon sink. We must have strong targets for peat reduction and the phasing out of the use of peat in all markets with regular reviews. If the government’s proposed approach does not show sufficient progress then there must be direct intervention so we move forward on this issue.”

Mike Reardon, of the AGMA Environment Commission added “AGMA wants to see the horticultural use of peat phased out in all markets. Peat is an important store of carbon and bogs with healthy peat-forming vegetation that can act as a carbon sink and help in the fight against climate change.”

A copy of the  consultation response can be downloaded below. 

For more information please contact: g.bruff@agma.gov.uk