The Scottish Government has launched a national consultation as it gets ready to ban the sale of peat in Scotland.
The retail sale of peat for home gardens would be prohibited first before consideration is given to how a wider ban might impact businesses including whisky manufacturers.
The ban aims to protect peatlands and the wider environment. Peat, which is most commonly used for horticulture, releases carbon when it is extracted.
The Scottish Government is seeking the views of gardeners and commercial growers - and also wants to hear from those in industry who extract or supply peat and other users such as the fuel and whisky industries.
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In Scotland, roughly between one and 2,000 hectares from a total peatland area of over two million hectares, is used for commercial peat extraction. It is used typically for horticulture with a small amount for fuel and 1% for the malting process in whisky production.
Environment Minister Màiri McAllan said consultation responses will inform the timescale for moving away from using peat products.
She said: “Peatlands are an integral part of our cultural and natural heritage and cover over a third of Scotland’s land area.
“In good condition, they help mitigate climate change and can support communities with green jobs.
“In poor condition, though, the benefits are lost and peatlands become a source of carbon emissions.
“Restoring Scotland’s peatlands can help us fight climate change, support biodiversity and provide good, green jobs – often in rural communities.
“This is why we have invested £250m to restore 250,000 hectares of peatlands over a 10-year period to 2030.
“Hand in hand with our efforts to restore degraded peatlands, we must also do all we can to protect them. This means we must consider how to stop using peat, whether extracted in Scotland or elsewhere.”
Raoul Curtis-Machin, director of horticulture at Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh (RBGE), said: "The use of peat by gardeners now needs to be seriously challenged, when healthy non-degraded peat bogs in Scotland are critical to our fight against climate change and are immensely valuable for biodiversity.
"The RBGE is dedicated to plant conservation and stopped using peat more than 20 years ago, with no negative impacts on our world-class horticulture.
"Materials like milled pine bark and other fibrous woody material have proved to be a successful alternative to peat, even for the most challenging plants."
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