By David Leask Chief Reporter
THE Lakes, the Dales, the moors of the west country and Yorkshire,
Snowdonia, and the Mountains of Mourne. And swathe after swathe of Scotland.
A new map of the United Kingdom produced by the RSPB looks like a tourist
guide to the country’s most stunning landscapes.
In fact, the conservation charity has been plotting Britain’s carbon sinks,
its rich peatlands and diverse uplands, rather than natural beauty spots.
But its findings suggest that they are almost one and the same thing.
“For the first time everyone can see the best places for nature are also
fantastic places to tackle climate change,” said the RSPB as it unveiled
its maps for World Environment Day. Its data shows there are millions of
tonnes of carbon stored in the most important places for plants and animals.
Scotland alone accounts for most of Britain’s “stored” carbon, 1.26 billion
tonnes, the equivalent to 33 years’ worth of greenhouse gases emissions
from Scotland.
The RSPB maps came out after Francesca Osowska, chief executive of Scottish
Natural Heritage, made a landmark pitch for nature to be put at the
forefront of tackling climate change.
The Scottish Government has officially declared a climate emergency and
aims to get to zero carbon – when it stops making a net contribution to
global heating – by 2045.
The RSPB, meanwhile, wants to make sure carbon already trapped in our
landscapes stays where it is.
The charity said: “Two thirds of the UK’s carbon in these maps is located
in Scotland showing the huge responsibility we have to protect and look
after it for the good of the planet.
“However, scientists are concerned that 63% of this carbon is in locations
that are not protected and are therefore vulnerable.
“The majority of this carbon is found in our peatland soils and with 80% of
Scotland’s peatlands damaged or in a poor condition we should all be
concerned that a large proportion are haemorrhaging carbon into the
atmosphere, instead of storing it safely in the ground.”
RSPB Scotland wants the Scottish Government to step up efforts to protect
peatlands and other vulnerable eco-systems. These could play a role in
removing more carbon from the atmosphere and slowing down climate change.
Or they could add to the problem.
Jim Densham, Senior Climate Policy Officer with RSPB Scotland, said: “We
need urgent action to protect nature in Scotland.
“Our natural world is in crisis with over half of our species vanishing
from our skies, lochs, rivers, towns and countryside, and to tackle the
climate crisis we must achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2045. So,
protecting the spaces that are beneficial for both species, wildlife and
store carbon is a clear no brainer.”
The RSPB said its project began by mapping all of the best places for
nature in the UK; the priority habitats for our wildlife and plant life. It
said it then applied carbon data for each habitat, including the top soil
layer.
It said: “Analysing the plants and just 30cm of topsoil on these areas
revealed how much carbon is locked up in the land and vegetation. This led
to the staggering discovery that these areas of the UK hold carbon
equivalent to over two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide and that two thirds
of this carbon is in Scotland’s nature-rich areas.
Mr Densham said: “There is a real opportunity to use these maps to protect
the things that are important to us all. We need the Scottish Government to
rapidly deploy nature-based solutions to tackle climate breakdown and the
global nature crisis.
“More funding is needed to help farmers, crofters and land managers to
restore and maintain these areas to secure long term benefits for carbon
and nature. With such a large area of peatland to restore the Government
needs to urgently boost Peatland Action funding to a minimum of £20m per
year.”
The Flow Country of Caithness, a potential Unesco world heritage site, is
one of Scotland’s biggest sinks.
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