.3 land use

• Humans reduce the amount of land available for other animals and plants by building, quarrying, farming and dumping waste.
• The destruction of peat bogs, and other areas of peat to produce garden compost, reduces the area of this habitat and thus the variety of different plant, animal and microorganism species that live there (biodiversity).
• The decay or burning of the peat releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
• Peat is an important store of carbon which has been locked away from the atmosphere for thousands of years.