The Flow Country to feature tomorrow at COP26
The Flow Country peatland, which stretches across Caithness and Sutherland in the north of Scotland, and the importance of the blanket bog environments it contains and the biodiversity they sustain will be highlighted at COP26 event.
Tomorrow morning (3 November) Joe Perry from The Highland Council’s Climate Change team will be speaking at the multi-level pavilion in the Blue Zone at COP26 at an event called “The Flows and the Future: Scotland’s Unique Contribution to Saving the Climate and Nature. The event, which will be moderated by NatureScot CEO Francesca Osowka, will feature presentations and then a panel discussion followed by questions and answers.
This will be followed on Saturday (6 November) by further presentations on the Flow Country in the Peatland Pavilion, again in the Blue Zone at COP26. These will cover the Flow Country World Heritage bid, the Flow Country as a focus for global research in peatlands and its importance for achieving net-zero. Joining Joe at this will be Project Officer Dr Steven Andrews, Professor Roxane Andersen (UHI), Dr Sam Rose and Graham Neville (NatureScot).Fittingly, tomorrow morning, at approximately the same time COP26 delegates will be hearing about the Flow Country members of the Council’s Caithness Committee will be discussing the progress being made on its World Heritage Site nomination.
The bid process is being supported by Project Officer, Dr Steven Andrews whose post is co-funded by NatureScot, RSPB, Wildland Ltd and The Highland Council.
He will update members of the Caithness Committee on the work undertaken to date to prepare a detailed dossier and management plan which will be ultimately be submitted to UNSECO towards the end of next year. The dossier will highlight the Flow Country’s outstanding universal value; a justification of its global significance; its state of conservation; the protective and management measures in place and what monitoring will be undertaken to ensure it continues to be a resource for future generations to draw upon.
The compilation of the nomination dossier is being led by Dr Steven Andrew, with input from across a partnership including NatureScot, RSPB, UHI, Wildland Ltd., who are amongst the wider Steering Group which also includes community, landowner and business representatives. This group, along with an associated Technical Working Group, has been formalised to provide a longer term, post-inscription management structure.
The committee will hear that significant progress has been made on defining a draft boundary, which is key in the description of the site. This is now complete and undergoing a peer review and will form the backbone of consultation in the coming months. Alongside work on the boundary a workshop, engaging with leading experts, has helped further define the attributes that the site can be nominated for now including its role in the sequestration and storage of carbon and its importance to the riverine habitats which are sourced within the site.
Consultation undertaken during the technical evaluation (the first hurdle in progressing the World Heritage bid) indicated broad local support for the project. To maintain engagement during the early stages of the dossier preparation presentations have been given widely to a broad range of groups. As the draft nomination dossier is nearing completion, consultation will become a major focus of the project with maildrops, online forums and face to face drop-in sessions planned to ensure the project is further shaped by the communities which live and work in and around the site.
Further information, updates on progress, and information on future consultation can be found by visiting https://www.theflowcountry.org.uk/