The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is calling on the Government to implement an immediate end to the burning of peatlands on moors managed for grouse shooting.

The call comes on the first day of this year's burning season and is being supported by communities and environmental organisations.

Beccy Speight, RSPB chief executive officer, said: “In a climate and ecological emergency, the continued burning of precious peatlands is simply not acceptable and undermines the UK Government’s legal obligations to restore nature.

"The Government has long promised to end the burning of peat, it has widespread public support, and the Secretary of State, George Eustice, now needs to make good on this pledge.”

The organisation said that healthy wet blanket peat bogs are home to peat-forming sphagnum mosses, cotton-grasses, and carnivorous plants, which support a diverse range of breeding birds, including breeding dunlin and golden plover.

They are also a crucial carbon store, with UK peatlands (in the uplands and lowlands) storing an estimated 3,200 million tonnes (Mt) of carbon.

In some areas these peat bogs are burned to ensure grouse have re-emergent young shoots of heather to eat season after season.

Pat Thompson, RSPB senior policy officer, said: “Burning not only directly releases carbon into the atmosphere but degrades the remaining peat – making it poorer for wildlife, less able to slow the flow of water thus increasing flood risk and reducing water quality.

"All these effects are felt both immediately by communities downstream and by wider society in terms of increased carbon emissions and the cost of treating water.

“England's upland peatlands are also increasingly vulnerable to changes in climate, particularly pro-longed periods of drought which dry out the surface vegetation making them vulnerable to accidental fires in spring and summer.

“Information from Natural England suggests there are over 400 consents to burn blanket bog on grouse moors in north England’s European-protected areas, covering around 950 square kilometers of the deep peat soils this precious habitat depends on. This simply must stop.”

A spokesman for Cumbria Wildlife Trust said they have been working on the restoration of peatlands in Cumbria for several years now, because they have been drained for grazing and/or cut for peat for many years.

They say this is more of an issue issue for peatlands in Cumbria than burning is but David Harpley, conservation manager for the trust, agrees with a burning ban.

He said: "The RSPB are absolutely right, burning on peatlands has got to stop; it kills the sphagnum mosses that are fundamental to the peat continuing to act as a carbon store"

Robert Benson, Cumbria representative of the Moorland Association, said that there are no incidences of burning in the RSPB report in Cumbria and added: “The figures in relation to bird crime are a decrease on the figures issued by the RSPB last year, when it was revealed that less than half the incidents happened in counties in England where grouse shooting occurs.

“In relation to heather burning, it is regrettable that the misnomers ‘peatland burning’ or ‘peat burning’ are being used.

"It is important to distinguish between summer wildfires and controlled heather burning in autumn and winter.

"Removing the heather canopy by controlled burning does not harm the peat or moss underneath and allows more light in to the understory of vegetation.

"This benefits a range of peat forming plants and also birds of conservation concern, such as golden plover and curlew.

"It also reduces fuel loads and risk of wildfire, such as those which caused such devastation at Winter Hill and Saddleworth Moor.

"There is growing evidence from the United States, which is suffering again from wildfires, and Australia that the abolition of controlled burning was a source of deep regret."

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms all forms of wildlife crime, including any incidents of bird of prey persecution, and the moorland sector has a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to such activity.

"The Moorland Association and its members are committed to restoring bird of prey populations to sustainable levels, and are delighted to have helped achieve the recent increases in their populations.

"For example, Natural England has recently reported a record breeding season for hen harrier in England with 12 out of 19 nests located on grouse moors producing 40 out of the 60 chicks.

"Given that grouse shooting takes place on about half of the land mapped as suitable for hen harriers in the English uplands, we are delivering more for hen harrier recovery than any other land use.

"There is also evidence of peregrine, merlin and other raptors doing well on grouse moors.

"Grouse moors are welcome habitats for a wide range of wildlife and we work diligently alongside local police groups to tackle any criminal activity.

"For example, a recent report from the Peak District Bird of Prey Initiative showed a marked decrease in raptor incidents.

"The report also highlighted the continuing improvements in the relationships between raptor field-workers, gamekeepers and shooting estates, noting that in areas where co-operation has improved, some of the larger raptor species are doing better.

“Recent scientific research has shown that areas of blanket bog can be capable of increased levels of carbon capture with burning as part of the management.

"Heather (not peat) burning, therefore, is a crucial tool – among others – for the restoration and protection of our peatlands.

"Burning is only carried out where there is no realistic alternative.

"We should also point out that grouse moors have been actively involved in the blocking of old agricultural drains in the uplands and planting of sphagnum, which help to mitigate flooding.”