2. Introduction

This document sets out plans for the development of new official statistics on peatlands in Scotland. The early sections explain the need for these new statistics, covering:

• What are peatlands and why are they important?
• Current problems with peatland data, user need, and data gaps
• The aims of these future statistics
• Our development strategy

This is followed by proposals for specific content and definitions, grouped under three main steps:

Step 1: get the fundamentals right first.

Focus on the core themes of peat extent, condition, restoration and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Improve data quality and ensure that it has a spatial basis. Substantial benefit can be gained from collating and presenting existing data in a more user-friendly manner.

Step 2: geographic breakdowns can provide additional insight.

For example:

• Agricultural land, public land and protected sites can tell us about peatland land use, protections and ownership.
• River catchments can help us to link peatlands, water quality and flood resilience.

Step 3: choose the most important topics for further development, based on user requirements.

Further potential topics relating to peatland restoration, protection and management include:

• water quality and flow regulation
• biodiversity
• wildfire mitigation
• game management
• agricultural land use
• peat extraction
• renewable energy and other developments on peatland
• land ownership
• socio-economic benefits of peatland restoration