Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) by the Government conservation
body, the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC).^32
Fisons was by far the largest cutter of peat in the UK. According to the
conservationists, 90 per cent of its cutting was on land which had been
awarded SSSI status.^14 The company was legally entitled to continue
working the sites where planning permission predated the SSSI designa-
tion. Despite protests from environmentalists, Fisons resolved to continue
cutting the peat, claiming that there were no viable substitutes for its cus-
tomers. But in March 1990, Fisons overstepped the mark when it illegally
drained and severely damaged a 65-acre peat bog on the edge of Thorne
Moor, a South Yorkshire nature reserve. The company owned large areas of
the surrounding moorlands, and had been cutting peat legally from the
adjoining Hatfield Moor for 30 years. Both moors had been designated as
conservation areas of international importance since the early 1970s.
Fisons was clearly sensitive about outside interest in the site. In 1989 a
Sunday Timesphotographer had to be rescued by police after being held
against his will by Fisons’ employees, who blocked in his car for 45
minutes, demanding that he hand over his film.^15 The company admitted
destroying the Thorne Moor bog, but claimed that it had been a ‘genuine
mistake’. Environmentalists were not convinced. Similar incursions had
been made before, when the company had accidentally cut peat from
important conservation sites on neighbouring Snaith and Cowick Moor.^16
This latest ‘mistake’ had come to light when the local government author-
ity, Doncaster Borough Council, demanded that the work on the site be
stopped and threatened legal action. A report by the NCC had revealed
that in the year 1988–89 peat extraction destroyed 2250 acres of lowland
peat mires with SSSI status and as such it was the largest single cause of
damage to SSSIs in Britain. The NCC duly set about gathering evidence to
support the first ever prosecution under The Wildlife and Countryside Act,
1981.
The Thorne Moor incident prompted 10 highly influential conservation
groups – including Friends of the Earth, The Royal Society for Nature
Conservation, The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and the
Worldwide Fund for Nature – to take up the cause, banding together to
form The Peatlands Campaign. The campaigners, led by The Prince of
Wales, called for gardeners to boycott peat products and save the remain-
ing peat bogs from total destruction. In a well-publicized statement, Prince
Charles announced that:
As patron of the Society for Nature Conservation, I was most concerned to
learn that 96% of the lowland peat bog in this country has already disap-
peared. The campaign by a number of respected conservation bodies, with
over two million supporters, to attempt to secure the continued existence
of the remaining 4%, has my full support.^17The referral and influence market domains 275