Indonesian Peatlands Seen Playing Key Climate Role
Date: 29-Aug-07
Country: INDONESIA
Author: Sugita Katyal
But peatlands across the world are more than just simple
marsh land: they are one of the largest carbon stores on earth
and play a significant role in the regulation of greenhouse gas
emissions and global climate change.
Not for long, perhaps.
In recent years, experts say peat bogs have been stoking
global warming through increasing greenhouse gas emissions
because of massive deforestation and conversion into
agricultural land and palm oil plantations, especially in
Southeast Asia which accounts for a huge chunk of the world's
marshes.
"When you clear land, the easiest way is by burning. But
that emits sequestered carbon into the atmosphere," Bostang
Radjagukguk, an Indonesian peat expert, told Reuters at a
conference on peatlands in the historic city of Yogyakarta.
"In Indonesia, some 5 percent of 20 million hectares (49
million acres) of peatland has already been converted into
agricultural land."
CARBON STORES
Peat is created by dead plant matter compressed over time
in wet conditions preventing decay. Peat can hold about 30
times as much carbon as in forests above ground.
The world's peatlands -- a rich and fragile ecosystem
formed over thousands of years -- are estimated to contain 2
trillion tonnes of sequestered carbon.
When drained, peat starts to decompose on contact with air
and carbon is released, often aggravated by fires that can rage
for months and add to a choking smog or haze that is an annual
health menace to millions of people in the region.
Dutch research institute Wetlands International estimates
peatlands in Southeast Asia store at least 42 billion tonnes of
soil carbon or peat carbon.
Wetlands senior programme manager Marcel Silvius estimates
about 13 million of 27.1 million hectares of Southeast Asia
peatlands have been drained causing severe peat soil
degradation.
Although degraded peatlands in Southeast Asia cover less
than 0.1 percent of the global land surface, they are
responsible for about 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a
year, or close to 8 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions.
"By 2025, peatland emissions will decrease because easily
degradable peatlands would have disappeared altogether,"
Silvius told Reuters. "In Indonesia alone, 3 million hectares
of shallow peatland have already disappeared."
As concerns about global warming increase,
environmentalists say the problem is more acute in Indonesia
where emissions from peat, when drained or burnt, account for
some 85 percent of total emissions from Southeast Asia.
Indonesia is home to 60 percent of the world's threatened
peatlands, but its marshes are being destroyed at an
unprecedented pace because of massive conversion into pulp wood
and palm oil plantations to feed global demand for biofuel.
"Palm oil production on peatlands requires drainage,
leading to substantial emissions of carbon dioxide. This
renders it unsuitable as a biofuel, as biofuels should by
international standards at least be carbon neutral," said
Silvius.
MEGA RICE PROJECT
Indonesia has also lost a huge chunk of peat under a
project to convert about 1 million hectares of peat swamp
forests into rice fields in the mid 90s, dubbed the Mega Rice
Project.
The project deforested and drained massive amounts of
peatland in Central Kalimantan, only to find the acidic soil
underneath was unsuitable for rice farming.
Today, it's a giant wasteland, a spread of dry black peat
releasing enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the air. The
highly combustible material lights up in the dry season,
choking the area in thick haze for a couple of months a year.
"It releases carbon-dioxide, methane and a cocktail of
other gases, some of them toxic," Professor Jack Rieley, a peat
expert at the University of Nottingham, told Reuters.
Now, as the world battles global warmi