Scientist restoring Wales’ peatlands in climate change fight

Dr Peter Jones has spent the past 30 years immersed – quite literally – in bogs, fens and wetlands, trying to help save the planet and earning himself the nickname The Bogfather in the process.

These landscapes are now at the forefront of the climate crisis and Jones has been making an offer that policymakers are finding hard to refuse, a nature-based solution that tackles climate change, flooding, wildfires and biodiversity loss all at the same time.

Peatlands store 30% of Wales’ land-based carbon, despite covering only 4% of the surface, but they are about 90% degraded, meaning they leak greenhouse gases instead of storing them.

Healthy peatland can slow the flow of water, helping prevent flooding, and act as natural firebreaks during wildfires – both of which are expected to become more common as the climate warms – and protecting them has become Jones’s lifelong mission.

“I certainly wouldn’t have come up with that myself,” he laughs when asked about his nickname.

“A couple of our younger, enthusiastic colleagues started calling me that.”

But the name stuck and, given how much work he has done to restore peatland, few would argue with it, said colleague Hanna Huws.