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Local Authorities and Sustainable Peatland Management: Current Opportunities and Future Possibilities for Local Approaches
natural resource go beyond the anthropocentric focus of the enjoyment of ‘green space’ to make links with the global agenda for climate change.
PSBs are tasked with carrying out an assessment of wellbeing in the local area and creating a Local Wellbeing Plan (LWP) setting out its objectives and the steps necessary to meet them. LWPs are revised every 5 years and PSBs have recently completed their second planning cycle. In 2022, report by the Future Generations Commissioner found that PSBs are increasingly becoming more skilled in considering integrated approaches to wellbeing, especially in connecting environmental and other aspects of wellbeing. Recognising the wellbeing benefits of SPM, information on peatland resources in the local area can be included in any ‘mapping’ of natural resources as part of the local wellbeing assessment that underlines LWPs. An important issue is how the objectives of a LWP might support SPM. This could range from ensuring all the members of the PSB are aware of the multiple benefits of SPM to communities in the local area to considering how these organisations might work together to support practical action on SPM.
Education and information
If all the organisations in the PSB were educated about the multiple benefits of SPM, they could then consider its relevance to their individual objectives, and even pursue direct actions. The potential role of the PSB in providing information and education is significant given the wide range of actors involved in PSBs. Alongside NRW and local authorities, the other statutory partners are public health boards and the fire and rescue service. Representatives from Welsh Government, crime prevention organisations and voluntary organisations must also be invited and the PSB may also involve other partners, including community councils and national organisations representing higher education, sports, arts and culture. As core members of the PSB, NRW and local authorities could work together to develop the necessary data and information tools for other actors in the PSB on SPM. National Parks may also assist in this process but their role in PSBs is advisory, i.e., they are not statutory partners.
Supporting Practical Action
A key question is whether the PSB could be used as a vehicle to support more practical approaches to SPM. There are lots of examples across Wales of partnership action in support of SPM, especially peat restoration. These have usually arisen without a formal structure, but PSBs may be a mechanism for this in future. There are, however, several potential barriers to this given the current arrangements for the operation of PSBs. The first is that they have no dedicated funding stream to take collective practical action. Nevertheless, by bringing together these organisations this structure could support the development of strategies to apply for external forms of funding. The second problem is that the five-year planning cycle does not encourage the kind of long-term thinking that may be necessary in this regard. However, this rather depends on how the objective is defined, i.e., developing a strategy for funding applications or actually carrying out peat restoration works. Finally, PSBs focus on working across the sectoral boundaries of different public bodies, but SPM also highlights the importance of working across local area boundaries in developing nature-based solutions. SPM may, therefore, require greater collaboration between PSBs.
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