{"id":371733,"date":"2026-01-15T17:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T17:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/371733\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T17:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T17:23:07","slug":"rspb-asks-for-evidence-of-burning-on-peatlands-across-the-uk-raptor-persecution-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/371733\/","title":{"rendered":"RSPB asks for evidence of burning on peatlands across the UK \u2013 Raptor Persecution UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

RSPB press release:<\/p>\n

RSPB ASKS FOR EVIDENCE OF BURNING ON PEATLANDS<\/p>\n

The RSPB is asking members of the public to report incidents of\u00a0moorland\u00a0burning on peatlands\u00a0using their burning reporting app\u00a0or through the RSPB\u2019s website.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n

The data collected will be passed on to the relevant authorities in England, Scotland,\u00a0Wales\u00a0and Northern Ireland\u00a0to help them\u00a0to\u00a0tackle illegal\u00a0and unsustainable\u00a0burning.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Peatlands account for 12% of the UK\u2019s land area and\u00a0contain\u00a0more carbon than the forests of the UK, France and Germany combined \u2013 an estimated 3.2 billion tonnes.\u202f\u00a080% of our peatlands are in degraded condition\u00a0and emitting, not sequestering carbon, as needed to help combat climate change due to historic, damaging land management including repeated burning.<\/p>\n

UK uplands\u202fare home to some of our most at-risk wildlife including Hen Harriers, Ring Ouzel, Winchat and Large Heath butterfly and globally important upland habitats, such as blanket bogs, which have developed over millennia and store large amounts of carbon.<\/p>\n

Every year from\u00a0October until April across the UK, upland vegetation is systematically burned\u00a0in many places, and our peatlands are often damaged as\u00a0a\u00a0result. \u2018Rotational burning\u2019 is a practice used by shooting estates, deer\u00a0managers\u00a0and farmers to encourage the growth of young heather shoots and grass\u00a0to\u00a0provide food and grazing for red grouse, wild\u00a0deer\u00a0and livestock.<\/p>\n

However,\u00a0scientific<\/a>\u202fevidence<\/a>\u202freviews<\/a>\u202fshow that regular burning has numerous harmful environmental impacts and has caused our peatlands to become a source of emissions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Scorched earth \u2013 the charred ground and ash following a \u2018management\u2019 burn (Photo: RSPB)<\/p>\n

Tom Aspinall\u00a0for RSPB England said:\u00a0\u201cDefra\u00a0extending the protection\u00a0from burning\u00a0to all peat over 30cms\u00a0in 2025\u00a0has been\u00a0a great step forward for nature, especially now\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0applied across all \u2018Less Favoured Areas\u2019 rather than just protected sites. This approach should better protect thousands of years\u2019 worth of accumulated carbon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn support of keeping England on the right track, the RSPB burning app has been a great \u2018citizen approach\u2019 to assessing how well Land Managers are following these vital new rules \u2013 and\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0already been making a difference. We encourage as many people as possible to send in reports via the RSPB app, providing important evidence to pass forward to Defra, and helping to make sure action is taken to keep the English Uplands in better health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duncan\u00a0Orr-Ewing for\u00a0RSPB Scotland said: \u201cWelcome\u00a0new legislation to licence all muirburn in Scotland will be introduced from autumn 2026 following a couple of delays. This\u00a0legislation\u00a0restricts burning on deep peatlands over 40cm, however, still makes provision for prescribed burning in some circumstances to reduce the risk of wildfires. Better information on the distribution and timing of burning activities is critical to make informed decisions around muirburn and to reduce wildfire risk\u201d.<\/p>\n

Arfon Williams for RSPB Cymru said:\u201cThe\u00a0large number\u00a0of uncontrolled fires across Wales in 2025 severely\u00a0impacted\u00a0important wildlife and habitats including our precious peatlands. Many of these fires were started deliberately.\u00a0\u00a0To understand the extent of this threat to nature we urge the Welsh public to report upland fires via the RSPB\u00a0app.\u00a0\u00a0This information will be invaluable in supporting our calls to Welsh Government to do more to protect nature and especially peatlands.\u00a0\u00a0This includes ensuring greater compliance with the Heather and Grass Burning Code for Wales.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claire Barnett, Area Manager for RSPB NI\u00a0said: \u201cPeatlands are a vital habitat in Northern Ireland but each year, we see the devastating impact of fires here. Fires that pose a risk to nature,\u00a0wildlife\u00a0and local communities. At RSPB NI we will continue to call for a\u00a0legal ban\u00a0on peatland burning and you can play a vital role in showing how\u00a0widespread\u00a0the issue is by downloading our app and reporting evidence of burning across our uplands.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

To anonymously report a burn, members of the public can visit the\u202fRSPB Burning website<\/a>\u202for download the My Survey123 app (available on iOS and Android).<\/p>\n

By downloading our app and reporting evidence of burning you can play a vital role in\u00a0helping to show our governments how much burning continues across our uplands and providing them with the evidence they need to act against those who\u00a0are not following regulations and\u00a0may be\u00a0damaging peatlands and also\u00a0risking\u00a0wildfires. Ending burning\u00a0on peatlands\u00a0will be\u202fa\u202fkey\u202fstep in\u202fensuring\u202fwe can turn round the fate\u202fof this globally important habitat\u202fin the UK.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RSPB press release: RSPB ASKS FOR EVIDENCE OF BURNING ON PEATLANDS The RSPB is asking members of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-371733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-unitedkingdom","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}