Compliers and protesters attitudes to peatlands regulation: Implementation of the EU Habitats Directive on Irish raised bogs

Irish raised bogs are unique in the global context and 2% of these were designated under the EU Habitats Directive. In addition to biodiversity, peatlands conservation has strong potential to contribute to climate change... [ view full abstract ]

Irish raised bogs are unique in the global context and 2% of these were designated under the EU Habitats Directive. In addition to biodiversity, peatlands conservation has strong potential to contribute to climate change mitigation. Cultural attachment to peatlands as productive natural resources has contributed to ongoing difficulties with peatlands regulation in Ireland, but does not fully explain ongoing regulatory challenges. In this paper Q Methodology is adopted to analyse local attitudes on governance and knowledge underlying regulation of raised bogs. The methodology adopted a naturalistic approach to statement generation for the concourse, by conducting twenty-one semi-structured interviews with stakeholders. Thirty-six statements were then selected to form the Q set. The Q sort was conducted by sixteen turf cutters, followed by a post-sort interview or focus group interview. The results were analysed using principal components analysis and subjected to factor analysis and varimax rotation.

The results reveal that legitimacy of regulation is undermined by post-colonial subjectivities on property rights and governance in addition to perceived government failure to regulate ongoing harvesting on non-SAC (Special Areas of Conservation) peatlands. Inattention to local knowledge, combined with the non-communicative approach of conservation authorities has also served to undermine peatlands regulation. Recent moves integrating bottom-up practices and local knowledge into relocation to non-designated peatlands, reveals a more positive attitude to conservation management, but also reveals ambivalence towards the conservation potential of non-SAC peatlands. Overall, the research reveals how inconsistencies and flaws in peatlands policy lead to complex and contradictory attitudes at local level.