Prescribed fire in UK heather peatlands

The authors challenge a 2021 Natural England update to the 'Carbon Storage and Sequestration by Habitat' review, arguing that it lacks transparency in its review protocols and misrepresents evidence regarding prescribed fire in blanket bog ecosystems.

• The authors identify a lack of transparency in the Natural England review's protocols, noting that the authors of the original publication did not provide detailed descriptions of their processes or explain how evidence was categorized within their red, amber, green (RAG) assessment system.
• The Natural England review is accused of misrepresenting evidence on prescribed fire impacts on blanket bog ecosystems across eight areas, including the overstatement of water level increases for fire risk reduction, the distortion of fire's historical role in blanket bog formation, and the misreporting of findings from Heinemeyer et al (2019).
• The authors contend that prescribed fire is a potentially beneficial management tool for blanket bog ecosystems and that a robust, unbiased assessment approach is required.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2023). Prescribed fire in UK heather peatlands. https://www.sei.org/publications/prescribed-fire-uk-heather-peatlands/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Prescribed fire in UK heather peatlands. 2023. https://www.sei.org/publications/prescribed-fire-uk-heather-peatlands/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Prescribed fire in UK heather peatlands |date=16 May 2023 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/prescribed-fire-uk-heather-peatlands/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2023prescribed, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Prescribed fire in UK heather peatlands}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2023}, month = may, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/prescribed-fire-uk-heather-peatlands/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }