Deforestation and draining of the peatlands in equatorial SE Asia has greatly increased their flammability, and in September–October 2015 a strong El Niño-related drought led to further drying and to widespread burning across parts of Indonesia, primarily on Kalimantan and Sumatra. These fires resulted in some of the worst sustained …
Palm oil expansion in Southeast Asia is strongly associated with conversion and degradation of peatland. Find that past studies have generally significantly underestimated emissions from palm oil grown on peatland. In particular, this will have resulted in underestimation of the indirect land use change emissions from many biofuels. Suggest that …
The World Bank Institute and Forest Carbon Partnership Facility have released a manual for assessing the true costs of REDD+ action aimed at saving and restoring forests. “Estimating the Opportunity Costs of REDD+” is a guide for those formulating national avoided deforestation policies and programmes under the emerging global REDD+ …
It is well known that at least 20 million of Indonesia's people were directly or indirectly affected by the 1997/1998 Indonesian forest and field fires, where 10-11 million acres of forest and fields burnt.
The upcoming global mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries should include and prioritize tropical peatlands. Forested tropical peatlands in Southeast Asia are rapidly being converted into production systems by introducing perennial crops for lucrative agribusiness, such as oil-palm and pulpwood plantations, causing large greenhouse …
SMART stands firm in its belief that the independent verification exercise clearly demonstrates that the claims made by Greenpeace were exaggerated or wrong. SMART is not guilty of
Sinar Mas has been forced into a humiliating climb down as its independent auditors published a statement on their website saying that the audit had been misreported as it has been published and presented. The auditor
The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of forest fire on forest structure in the peat swamp forest. The study was conducted in Raja Musa Forest Reserve which has been experiencing fire occurrences since 1996. Ten plots each measuring 50x20 m were systematically set up both in …
Meter for meter, peatlands store more carbon than any other terrestrial ecosystem. Covering only about 3% of Earth's land area, they hold the equivalent of half of the carbon that is in the atmosphere as CO2. Waterlogged conditions slow decomposition, and slow rates of subsurface flow allow the partly decayed …
Meter for meter, peatlands store more carbon than any other terrestrial ecosystem. Covering only about 3% of Earth's land area, they hold the equivalent of half of the carbon that is in the atmosphere as CO2. Waterlogged conditions slow decomposition, and slow rates of subsurface flow allow the partly decayed …
Uncontrolled fires across Indonesia burn large areas of peatland and create vast palls of smoke on an almost annual basis. This has devastating effect on wildlife, human health, the economy and climate. Yet, more than 10 years after the massive fires of 1997-98 grabbed international headlines, the problem is still …
The feedback between the terrestrial carbon cycle and climate is one of the largest uncertainties in current projections of future climate, with the long-term sensitivity of carbon in peatlands remaining unclear. The combination of non-disturbing in situ measurements of carbon dioxide respiration rates and isotopic composition of respired CO2 in …
Wetlands perform many essential ecosystem services—carbon storage, flood control, maintenance of biodiversity, fish production, and aquifer recharge, among others—services that have increasingly important global consequences. Like biodiversity hotspots and frontier forests, the world’s largest wetlands are now mapped and described by an international team of scientists, highlighting their conservation importance …
The International Energy Agency, an organization that monitors the energy market of industrialized countries, has reprimanded Finland for subsidizing the electricity generated from peat-fired power plants. The UN energy panel considers peat a fossil fuel. In 2006, Finland introduced a policy, which makes large-scale, peat-fired power plants eligible for the …
With its total peatland extending over 26 million ha, Indonesia has the world's fourth largest reserves of peat. This Indonesian peat has a calorific value of 22 mega joules per kg. Experts say that at an average depth of six metres, the peat produced from an area of this size …
