Flow Country World Heritage bid expected for 2023

Image source, Flow Country Partnership

Image caption, World Heritage status is to be sought for thousands of acres of the Flow Country
At a glance
  • Unesco World Heritage status is to be sought for almost 469,500 acres of Scotland's Flow Country
  • The area of Caithness and northern Sutherland includes treeless peatbogs and also lochs and hills
  • A nomination for the designation is to be submitted by January next year
  • Meantime, the Flow Country Partnership is consulting on the heritage site's proposed boundaries and draft management plan

A bid is expected to be submitted by early next year to have parts of Europe's largest blanket bog peatlands declared a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Called the Flow Country, the area of lochs, hills and treeless peatbogs stretches across almost half a million acres of Caithness and northern Sutherland.

It includes swathes of treeless peatbog and also lochs, lochans and hills.

Bogs in the tundra-like landscape have been growing since the end of the last Ice Age more than 10,000 years ago.

The Flow Country Partnership hopes to secure Unesco status for seven areas totalling 469,500 acres (190,000ha), which it believes meets the required criteria.

The partnership has started consultation on the proposed boundaries and has now made a draft management plan available for public scrutiny.

If successful, the Flow Country would be the first peatlands on the World Heritage List and would join other internationally important natural areas, such as Australia's Great Barrier Reef and the Serengeti in Tanzania.

Unesco decision

The Flow Country Partnership will ask UK government, which has responsibility for approving UK submissions to Unesco, to submit its nomination by the bid's January 2023 deadline.

Unesco is expected to make its decision on by mid-2024.

Several organisations are involved in the project including NatureScot, Forestry and Land Scotland, Scottish Forestry, Highland Council, RSPB Scotland and Plantlife International.

Also involved are the Environmental Research Institute UHI in Thurso, Highland Third Sector Interface, Flow Country Rivers Trust, Northern Deer Management Group and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.