Amendment 85: Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
Amendment 85, in my name, seeks to address inconsistency across licensable purposes, which I feel needs to be rectified. In its current form, the bill enables the making of muirburn on peatland to restore the natural environment. That is at odds with the similar, but broader, licensable purpose for non-peatland habitats, which enables muirburn to be made to conserve, restore, enhance and manage the natural environment. Ministers have not provided any substantive rationale for differentiating in that way.
I am advised that a considerable body of scientific evidence suggests that muirburn has conservative, restorative and environmental enhancement. We heard about the Peatland-ES-UK study from Dr Andreas Heinemeyer and a number of cross-party colleagues at a recent event in Parliament. The study suggests that muirburn plays a role in retaining and enhancing the wetness of peatland habitats by reducing the extent to which evapotranspiration—a combination of evaporation and transpiration—takes place. Similarly, it purports that muirburn can be conservative and restorative by reducing the extent to which methane is produced while simultaneously locking up more carbon and providing more nutrients.