Active peatland and peatland condition: NatureScot Research Report 1404

There is currently some uncertainty around peatland terms which are used in different situations, leading to ambiguity. This includes definitions within peatland classification, condition and use in development. These definitions will be reviewed as part of this work and some recommendations will be provided about how to reduce uncertainty and increase clarity.

At present, there are also a wide range of methods deployed for peatland condition assessment, developed for different purposes. This work will look at some of the existing peatland habitat condition classification systems and assessment tools and determine if there is a suitable existing methodology or one that can be adjusted to determine peatland condition in the context of development. Such a tool may be used as part of the Scottish Planning Biodiversity Metric for understanding the impacts of a development on peatland habitats, and indicating the scale of offsetting required to compensate for the loss of peatland habitats.

This commissioned report will be used to improve consistency and understanding of terms and be used to support NatureScot’s project to develop the Scottish Planning Biodiversity Metric to help show significant biodiversity enhancements in line with Policy 3(b) of National Planning Framework 4.

To improve readability, the report doesn’t follow a typical structure of introduction – method – result – discussion. Instead, it is split in three parts: the first part addresses the issues of clarity of terminology and definition around active peatlands through a lens of development on peat, the second part addresses the issue of classification and tools, and the final part tackles the development of a bespoke tool that could be used in the context of the Scottish Planning Biodiversity Metric.