Information for UK policy makers/ land managers on peatland management, rewetting/restoration and resilience is often based around overly generic, ill-defined terminology and claims overlooking complexity (e.g., limitations to rewetting potential, differentiation of peatland types, direct and indirect “rewetting”, “degraded” vs “modified” or “unfavourable” vs “intact”), especially regarding heather-dominated uplands and their management (Heinemeyer et al., 2025).

There is an urgent need to provide more detailed and nuanced information to policy makers in relation to limitations and practicalities around peatland rewetting and wildfire. The IUCN UK Peatland Programme’s Policy Brief (IUCN, 2024) on “Wildfire resilience: why rewetting peatlands must play a key role” thus should provide important information to peatland policy and debates. However, the Brief lacks scientific rigour, overlooks important complexity and provides many opinionated statements and unevidenced claims.

To address these shortcomings, this document provides a critical commentary around 10 key concerns, often with similarities and linkages between them, for consideration by policy makers and any other organisations concerned with effects of fire on peat.