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Local Authorities and Sustainable Peatland Management: Current Opportunities and Future Possibilities for Local Approaches
Why should local authorities be interested in SPM? Local authorities have a significant role to play in managing local land and natural resource use. SPM is related to the core responsibilities of local authorities for land use planning, flood prevention and access routes to the countryside. Land use planning Local authorities have significant duties and powers to contribute to SPM through its responsibilities for land use planning. Land use planning helps to ensure that peatlands are protected from the potentially damaging effects of new structural and building developments, such as housing and renewable energy. Peatlands are a carbon store, and any direct destruction can contribute to GHG emissions. Furthermore, peatlands are a key element of ecohydrological units that form part of wider resilient ecological networks. Development on peatlands that interferes with these systems can have wider environmental consequences, for example, impacting on flood risk and biodiversity. Flood prevention - Local authorities have long had powers over drainage in their areas, but since 2010 they have also had powers and duties related to flood prevention planning and management. Peatlands form part of larger ecohydrological units the functioning of which can be essential in helping to mitigate against flooding. Flooding is caused by a wide range of factors that interact in many different ways. For the purposes of this report, it is suffice to say that a peatland in a ‘good condition state’ can make a contribution to the prevention of flooding from rivers, even though that peatland may exist a long way from the point of river overflows. Access to the Countryside - Local authorities have long had responsibilities as a highway authority for designating and maintaining public rights of way. More recently local authorities have also been given responsibilities for access to areas of mountain, moor, heath, down, and commons all of which are particularly important in the context of upland peatlands. In addition, they are required to develop active travel routes. These are designed to improve sustainable transport methods in the local area, but they may provide routes to peatlands in the countryside. Access to peatlands is important in ensuring that local communities are able to engage with the cultural and recreational benefits that peatlands can provide. However, it is also important to ensure that access to peatlands for recreational purposes is balanced against the rights of private landowners and wider interests in natural resource management. For example, it is important to ensure peatland ecosystems are not damaged by inappropriate behaviour such as, the use of off-road vehicles or deliberate or accidental creation of wildfires. On the other hand, peatlands often exist in fairly inaccessible areas of the uplands and careful thought needs to be given to the ways in which local communities can be encouraged to engage with them.
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