Peat, growing media
Our peatlands have formed very slowly over the last nine thousand years. They include upland blanket bogs and lowland raised bogs, as well as drained peatlands in agricultural uses. Peat soils provide a number of essential services and functions for society; supporting rare wildlife and biodiversity, storing reserves of carbon, producing food and playing an important role in the water cycle.
The UK has 15% of Europe’s peat resource. However, a majority of our peatlands are significantly degraded as a result of human activities and pollution. Defra’s long term policy is to protect peat soils, and promote management and restoration so future generations benefit from them.
Various mechanisms help us make sure peat is protected for future generations:
- Incentives are provided for land managers to restore peatlands through the Higher Level Environmental Stewardship. They can apply for funding to block grips, which reduces drainage of peat bogs.
- The Heather and Grass Burning Code provides information on how burning on peatlands can be conducted in a safe manner.
- Planning guidance on peat extraction is set out in Minerals Planning Guidance 13 “Guidelines for Peat Provision in England”. This provides advice for minerals planning authorities and others on planning controls over peat extraction.
- Defra is a part of the industry-led Growing Media Initiative which works to reduce peat use in horticulture.
Consultation on the horticultural use of peat
Defra recently undertook a consultation on reducing the horticultural use of peat in England. Building on progress already made in reducing the use of peat and switching to good quality, peat free alternatives, the consultation proposed options for a future policy framework with the eventual goal of completely phasing out the horticultural use of peat in England.
Following the consultation, Defra set out its plans for reducing the horticultural use of peat in the Natural Environment White Paper . This included an ambition to reduce peat use to zero by 2030, setting the following milestones:
- a progressive phase-out target of 2015 for government and the public sector on direct procurement of peat in new contracts for plants;
- a voluntary phase-out target of 2020 for amateur gardeners; and
- a final voluntary phase-out target of 2030 for professional growers of fruit, vegetables and plants,
- we will establish a Task Force bringing together representatives from across the supply chain with a clear remit to advise on how best to overcome the barriers to reducing peat use, exploring all the available measures to achieve this goal,
- building on the advice of the Task Force, we will review progress towards these targets before the end of this spending period and consider the potential for alternative policy measures if necessary.
Sustainable growing media taskforce
The taskforce is chaired by Dr. Alan Knight OBE and has representatives from retailers, growing media manufacturers, growers and environmental organisations. It has a clear remit to foster a partnership approach focussing on identifying and addressing supply chain issues, exploring all available measures to deliver our ambition and determining the criteria against which the policy will be reviewed.