A Thurso-based research team is being asked to help quantify carbon-absorbent properties of the flow country.

The move is aimed at highlighting how important the expanse of blanket bog is to realising Scottish and UK Government climate change targets.

A conservation body is taking the initiative which it believes can help make the case for a new round of public funding to restore damage done to the 400,000 hectare site.

An official from the International Union for Conservation of Nature was in north Sutherland today to discuss a tie-up with North Highland College’s Environment Research Institute.

The visit of Clifton Bain, the director of the IUCN’s UK peatland programme, coincided with the launch of a public consultation into its commission of inquiry into peatland restoration.

Mr Bain said its efforts have been boosted by the recent agreement to include peatland restoration in Government climate change programmes.

This extends retrospectively to 1990, the base year for the international drive to curb carbon emissions. He said climate change scientists believe that 10% of emissions to the atmosphere are caused by damage to peat bogs.

Millions of pounds of public money has been spent in recent years in the flow country to cut down trees and block drains installed from a major upsurge in private forestation in the 1980s and 1990s.

This has led to 10,000 hectares being restored though three times that area remains to be done with no money yet committed. Edinburgh-based Mr Bain believes the ERI is ideally sited and resourced to carry out the research required.

Stuart Gibb, director of the ERI – part of the UHI Millennium Institute network – is seeking to firm up funding to go ahead with a research project.                                               

He said the international importance of the flow country is growing as people realise the vital role blanket peatlands can play in climate change. MSP Rob Gibson, a member of the cross-party climate change committee, is in no doubt about its significance.

MrGibson said the research project would be of great interest to scientists and politicians in many other countries.