Protect Northern Ireland’s Peatlands

Peatlands must come first. Northern Ireland should introduce an immediate moratorium on industrial-scale development on peatlands until a comprehensive assessment and mapping programme has been completed and robust protections are in place.

Peatlands are vital natural allies in the fight against climate change. They are among the most carbon-rich ecosystems on Earth, storing carbon that has accumulated over thousands of years. Although they cover only 3% of the world’s land surface, they store more carbon than all the world’s forests combined. When peatlands are drained, excavated, or disturbed, they can release this stored carbon and become a source of emissions rather than a natural climate solution.

All peatlands should be protected, whether they are pristine, damaged, degraded, or in recovery. Degradation should not be used as a justification for further destruction. Instead, damaged peatlands should be restored wherever possible, recognising their importance for biodiversity, water quality, flood management, archaeology, and climate resilience.

Developers should not be permitted to rely on mitigation, compensation, restoration proposals, peat reuse, or biodiversity offsetting to justify development on peatlands. Once peatland is disturbed, its ecological, hydrological, and carbon storage functions can be permanently altered, and replacement cannot replicate what has been lost.

Peatlands are not vacant land waiting for development, they are living ecosystems that have taken thousands of years to form and are part of Northern Ireland’s natural heritage. The presumption should always be protection and restoration, not industrialisation.

Northern Ireland’s peatlands are ancient, irreplaceable, and essential. They must be assessed, protected, and restored for future generations, not sacrificed for short-term development.