Scotland’s Flow Country is the first peatland to become a world heritage site – reassigning nature its leading role, says author Sophie Yeo
‘The Flow Country was chosen for its natural characteristics: for the outstanding assemblage of plants and animals that inhabit the region.’‘The Flow Country was chosen for its natural characteristics: for the outstanding assemblage of plants and animals that inhabit the region.’Scotland’s Flow Country is the first peatland to become a world heritage site. It’s time we cherished these biodiverse landscapesor centuries, peatlands have had a bad reputation.
The inscription recognises, too, that these peatlands are not humankind’s enemy but an important ally in the fight against climate crisis. Carbon has been accumulating in the soils of the Flow Country for about 8,000 years, when wetter weather initiated the formation of peat. To avoid any further global heating, it is vital that it stays there.
Prioritising culture might make sense for places like Stonehenge or Durham Cathedral, but the Lake District? Not so much. The Cumbrian fells are remarkable for their natural geography: their deep valleys, rugged peaks and glacial lakes. The history of human activity there is fascinating, encompassing everything from Neolithic axe-makers to Romantic poets, yet the imprint of people has only ever been a shifting veneer upon an inherently sublime environment.
None of that is to ignore the role that humans have played in the Flow Country, now or in the past. If the landscape seems wild and unpeopled, that is largely because the Highland Clearances emptied it. But humans have been living in and shaping the environment there for thousands of years, doing all the things that humans do: hunting, farming, burning, burying, building.
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