For any other French-speaking reader wondering as I did (because speaking English is one thing, but knowing all the botanical lingo is really something else), a peat bog is what we call a "tourbière".
Never mind industrialise. If they chop the trees down for lumber, as seems to be the destiny for all tropical forests, the soil will dry, and microbes will be able to start decomposing the biotic material currently locked up in an anaerobic environment. This has already been seen in Norfolk in the UK, where they increased drainage and removed ground cover, and ever since, the peat has emanted vast amounts of CO2 as ground levels fall by inches a year due to conversion of the solid matter into decomposition products (methane, CO2, etc.)
Just in case anyone is wondering - whisky isn't made from peat, it is made from malted barley that was often dried over a peat fire and this very distinctive aroma was imparted to the malt and then to the spirit.
NB When I was as student I used to have a summer job in a maltings that made malt from barley that was used by a number of distilleries. Note that most maltings are actually fairly large industrial plants - not really the normal image people have of the Scots whisky industry although lots of higher end distilleries do make their own malt.
I don't think there is any lack of peat in Scotland - I guess what there is a lack of is areas where people are happy to ruin the landscape to harvest peat.
e.g. The Flow Country of Caithness and Sutherland:
