Sales of peat to amateur gardeners will be banned in England from 2024
THE GOVERNMENT HAS ANNOUNCED THAT sales of peat to amateur gardeners in England will be banned from 2024. The move has been warmly welcomed by conservation groups who have been calling for a total ban on the use of peat for many years to help protect peatlands.
Ailis Watt, peat policy officer at The Wildlife Trusts, says: “It is fantastic to see tangible progress on this critical issue after decades of campaigning. Using peat in gardens is bad news for our climate and leads to the destruction of beautiful wild places on which many of the UK’s rarest and most threatened species depend.” As well as carbon capture and storage, peatlands provide habitat to some of the UK’s most threatened wildlife and filter water, preventing flooding downstream.
Environment minister Richard Benyon says: “This government understands the importance of keeping peat healthy and in the ground, here and around the world – to lock up carbon, strengthen drought resilience and serve as a powerful naturebased solution to climate change.”
Whilst the ban is expected to apply to around two-thirds of the peat currently sold in England, conservation groups are now calling on the government to go further and take action towards a total ban on peat extraction and its use in the professional horticulture industry.