Holyrood to recognise Flow Country’s Unesco World Heritage Site status
The first Scottish site to be granted World Heritage status purely on the basis of its natural criteria is now set to be recognised by the Scottish Parliament – along with the people behind the campaign.
Highland MSP Emma Roddick submitted a motion to get the approval of Holyrood to highlight “the fact that it is the most expansive and best preserved blanket bog in the world”.
The Flow Country joins the likes of the Grand Canyon and the Great Barrier Reef in the listing and is the world’s first peatland bog to gain the exclusive status.
The motion states: “That the parliament celebrates the designation of the Flow Country by Unesco as a World Heritage Site; understands that it is the first site designated anywhere in the world for its peatlands, highlighting the fact that it is the most expansive and best preserved blanket bog in the world.”
It continued, that the parliament applauds “the determination and hard work of many people and organisations within the Flow Country Partnership and their supporters to bid successfully for recognition, while working with community members, farmers and crofters to shape the bid”.
The basis for noting the designation is “the importance of peatland both as a nature-based solution to climate change and as a habitat for many endangered animals and plants”.
It also “acknowledges the support of the Scottish Government and its agencies for peatland restoration, and expresses the hope that efforts to protect and restore peatland and Scotland’s other unique habitats can be redoubled, as foreseen in the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy to 2045”.
