Written by Felix Meister, D.Phil., Advisor Scotland
New provisions
The Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 introduced a new licensing scheme for making muirburn in Scotland. Scottish Government have confirmed that the new will come into effect on 01 January 2026.
A crucial provision of the new scheme is that NatureScot will grant separate licences for burning on non-peatland (less than 40cm of peat depth) and on peatland (more than 40cm). The legislation allows fewer licensable purposes for burning on peatland, and it is therefore expected that it will be more challenging to obtain a licence for these areas compared to non-peatland.
To help applicants identify areas of peatland and non-peatland on their ground, NatureScot is providing a Muirburn Peatland Map as part of the online application. For the purposes of licence application, any areas classified as “peatland” on this map can only be burnt under a valid peatland licence. Areas classified as “uncertain” will default to peatland as well unless they are surveyed using a standardised methodology and found to have shallow peat.
Surveying uncertain areas is curial in order to make sure that non-peatland licences are available for them. Moreover, our own experience in working with NatureScot’s Muirburn Peatland Map has shown that areas of shallow peat are frequently wrongly classified as peatland. Surveying areas shown as peatland therefore holds the potential to make them, or at least parts of them, available for burning under a non-peatland licence as well.
GWCT Muirburn Planning Services
The GWCT Advisory Services in Scotland offer Muirburn Planning Services to assist estates in obtaining the right muirburn licences. We have developed spatial datasets over several years through collaboration with estates. These datasets operate at a much finer scale than NatureScot’s Peatland Map and take into account other environmental factors important for planning muirburn. Drawing on these resources and our extensive experience, we can produce highly accurate peat-depth maps.
Peat depths indicated by our datasets are then confirmed through on-site peat-depth surveys using specialised equipment. In order to keep costs low, we can also train estate staff to carry out their own surveys, providing high-resolution survey maps and navigation technology.
More information on our Muirburn Planning Services can be found on our website or by contacting scottishadvisory@gwct.org.uk.