CBA call for better protection of Peat Bogs

Submitted by Andy B on Saturday, 25 August 2001 Page Views: 705

Archaeologists today leant their support to calls from environmentalists for the Government to speed up the designation of the most important of the UK's peat bogs as Special Areas of Conservation(2). The Council for British Archaeology believes that this is vital in precipitating an end to peat extraction on important bogs and mires which, year upon year, results in the irreversible and immeasurable loss of important archaeological and ancient environmental remains.

The environmental damage caused by peat extraction is well known - peat bogs are home to rich habitats inhabited by rare birds, plants and insects. But they also contain a wealth of well-preserved archaeological remains and represent a rich 'archive' of information about the changing human relationship with the environment over millennia. This is because archaeological artefacts made from organic materials such as wood, and accumulated ancient faunal and floral remains such as plant remains, seeds, trees, pollen, spores, insect remains and shells, are better preserved in
the waterlogged conditions present in bogs and mires, such as those at Thorne and Hatfield Moors in South Yorkshire, than on 'dry' land. The continued industrial-scale extraction of peat on such bogs therefore only serves to accelerate the loss of this important and non-renewable archaeological resource.

CBA Research and Conservation Officer, Alex Hunt explained: "The peat milling process destroys all archaeological and ancient environmental remains getting in its way. So the announcement last year to designate major peat bogs as Special Areas of Conservation also offered hope for protecting their archaeological and ancient environmental assets. But the process seems to have stalled and our concern is that the longer it takes to designate these sites, the greater will be the scale of irreversible
losses."

George Lambrick, Director of the Council for British Archaeology highlighted a general problem in the protection of such ancient environmental remains noting that responsibility for their care fell into a black-hole between the statutory heritage and nature conservation agencies(3). He said:

"Last year the Government ratified a European Convention(4) that formally extends the archaeological heritage to include any evidence of human interaction with the environment. B&Q have recognized this in their peat policy by specifically acknowledging the archaeological conservation value of peat bogs(5) - and we believe it is now time for the Government to bring its policy in line with the international obligations for heritage conservation to which it has signed up."

Notes:

1) The Council for British Archaeology is the principal UK-wide non-government organisation that promotes knowledge, appreciation and care of the historic environment for the benefit of present and future generations. It is a non-profit making education charity that has been nationally influential for over half a century, with a growing membership base of over 500 organisations and c. 10,000 individual subscribers of all ages.

2) Local campaigners will today be holding a mass demonstration on Hatfield Moor in South Yorkshire, to protest over the continued destruction of this and other peat bogs in spite of the announcement a year ago that they were to be designated as Special Areas of Conservation. See http://www.press.dtlr.gov.uk/0008/0562.htm for full details of that announcement. Friends of the Earth have also accused multi-national corporation, The Scotts Company, who are responsible for the extraction on Thorne and Hatfield Moors, of using delaying tactics to slow down progress over designation.

3) Whilst the statutory heritage agencies have powers to care for archaeological sites and monuments (as Scheduled Ancient Monuments) , and the nature conservation agencies for protecting important geological sites (as Sites of Special Scientific Interest), the environmental deposits from the last few millennia on the whole lies outside their statutory responsibilities. This means that many sites containing vitally important and detailed evidence for long-term environmental change and human relationships with the landscape cannot be protected either as Scheduled Ancient Monuments or as Sites of Special Scientific Interest and go uncared for.

4) The European Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage (Revised) was agreed at Valletta, Malta in January 1992. The UK Government ratified the Convention 21st September 2000 and this came into force on 21 March 2001. It contains a wide range of provisions for the identification and protection of archaeological heritage and its integrated conservation. Article 1 of the Convention in particular provides a very broad definition of the 'archaeological heritage' that extends beyond the terms of the current ancient monuments, historic buildings and maritime heritage legislation.

5) B&Q published their peat policy in April 2001 and announced their intentions to reduce the use of peat in their products with the goal of going completely peat-free. In their policy they stated that they would commit themselves to not "buying or selling peat extracted of peatlands of recognised ecological, archaeological or other conservation worldwide".

For further information or comment contact:

Alex Hunt - Tel: 01904 671417 or Mobile: 07944 748868

_________________________________
Council for British Archaeology
111 Walmgate
York
YO1 9WA

http://www.britarch.ac.uk

Tel: 01904 671417
Fax: 01904 671384
_________________________________

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