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Peat free gardening campaign

The Irish Peatland Conservation Council have been running public awareness and media campaigns as part of the Peat Consortium in the North of Ireland and the UK (a group of 13 non-governmental organisations including the World Wide Fund for Nature, Plantlife, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Royal Society for Nature Conservation among just a few) to try and persuade gardeners to reduce and eliminate their use of peat in the garden and substitute peat free alternatives. The campaigns have been run both in Ireland and Great Britain.

In 1990 an agreement was reached with Bord na Móna, the IPCC and the European Union on the conservation of raised bogs of scientific importance in the Bord ownership. The package involved the purchase and transfer of ownership of 2,018ha of raised bogs and 500ha of the blanket bog at Easkey in Co. Sligo. To date 1,625ha have been purchased by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

The moss peat campaign was instrumental in persuading Bord na Mona to sell 2,000ha of raised bog in their ownership, and earmarked for development, to nature conservation interests in Ireland. These sites are to be declared National Nature Reserves in the near future. To see a list of the sites currently protected click here.

The campaign aims not only to reduce the demand for peat - leaving it in the bog where bogland wildlife needs it - but it will also help to recycle large quantities of organic matter that might otherwise be dumped in landfills creating future environmental problems. As part of this work we published a Guide to Community Composting in 1998 which provides advise and guidance on how community groups, schools or interested parties an compost communally to help their local environment.

Part of our campaign also involves educating people to the ways in which they can create their own peat free compost from home and garden organic waste both as individuals and as a community group.

Or why not check out these IPCC information pages to learn more about the campaign