Sale of horticultural peat to be banned in move to protect England’s precious peatlands

The sale of peat for use in the amateur gardening sector is to be banned by 2024 to protect peatlands and the natural environment. One area in which the CLA will be keeping a close eye on and looking for further details on will be the news that funding has been awarded to protect and restore 35,000 hectares of our ‘national rainforests’, with the aim to create ‘green jobs’ and achieve Net Zero goals.

The launch of a new £5 million fund to promote the use of peatlands for sustainable farming, is intended to support the uptake of paludiculture – the practice of farming on rewetted peatland, which will help further safeguard food security, produce alternatives to horticultural peat and reduce environmental impacts.

Commenting on the implementation of these measures, CLA President, Mark Tufnell, said: “Peatlands are an essential carbon store and they are also some of our most productive agricultural land. It is encouraging to see that these new measures cover food crops, as well as emerging markets such as sphagnum." Mark continued: "Many farmers are already trialling raising water tables and farming regeneratively to mitigate their climate impacts. The CLA hopes that we will continue to see a wide variety of measures for peat to minimise emissions and encourage sustainable British food production.

Mark reassured members in his concluding remarks by stating: “The CLA will be very interested in the recommendations from the Lowland Agricultural Peat Task Force and we await the publication of its report. We will be keeping a close eye on developments of these measures and will aim to learn the exact details of the funding programmes as more details emerge.”