Indonesia: Losing US$1 Billion a year from release of stored carbon in forested peatlands
Indonesia suffers an estimated US$1 billion in potential losses each year from the release of carbon stored in its tropical forests’ peatlands, a study has revealed. Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono issued a ministerial decree last month to allow oil palm companies to expand into peatlands with a depth of less than 3 meters. A report in 2006 from Wetlands International said Indonesia’s peatlands emitted around 2 billion tons of CO2 a year, far higher than the country’s emissions from energy, agriculture and waste, which together amounted to 451 million tons.
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Mitsuru Osaki, a professor at Hokkaido University’s Graduate School of
Agriculture in Japan, said the potential losses were due to poor
management combined with the massive opening of peatlands for
agriculture, such as in Central Kalimantan. Tropical peatlands —
including swamps and forests found in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Amazon
lowlands and central Africa — are estimated to reach 42 million
hectares and contain 148 gigatons of CO2.
Rising levels of CO2 emissions add to the greenhouse effect, thus increasing the temperature in the atmosphere, widely blamed for climate change effects. Bambang Setiadi, chairman of the Indonesian Peatland Association, told the conference Indonesia had about 27 million hectares of peatlands, mostly in Kalimantan, Sumatra and Papua.
“Indonesia’s peatlands store between 10 and 32 gigatons of CO2,” he
said. The depth of the country’s peatlands ranges from 1 to more than
12 meters. About 42 percent of the peatlands are more than 2 meters
deep, with deposits of 77 percent of total peat carbon.
“Fires have become the most dangerous threat to Indonesian forests and peatlands in the past 15 years,” he said. Studies show peat deposits in
Southeast Asia could be wiped out by 2040 due to fires. Bambang added
that up to 0.6 gigatons of carbon released into the atmosphere in 2006
were due to peat fires. He said carbon release from reclaimed peatlands could not be avoided. However, improved land management could lower the peat carbon loss rate.
LIPI peatland scientist Herwint Simbolon said the building of canals in peatlands would only accelerate the release of carbon. “The fact is, carbon release is far higher than storage in peatlands, because the use of canals has sped up carbon release,” he said.
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