PEAT, PULP AND PAPER:

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PEAT, PULP AND PAPER Climate Impact of Pulp Tree
Plantations on Peatland in Indonesia

• PROFESSOR JACK RIELEY
• University of Nottingham, UK
• Ramsar Scientific Technical Review Panel
• International Peat Society
• Orang Utan Foundation UK

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AREA OF PEATLAND IN INDONESIA
Sumatra 8.3 M ha Kalimantan 6.8 M ha West Papua
4.6 M ha
Approximately 50 (20 M ha) of tropical
peatland occurs in Indonesia
A further 2.8 M ha occurs in Peninsular Malaysia
and northern Borneo (Sarawak, Brunei)
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Characteristics of Lowland Peatlands in Southeast
Asia

• Support a natural vegetation of peat swamp
  forest.
• Acidic, rain-fed, nutrient-poor systems.
• Thick organic layer peat thickness can exceed
  10m.

12 m
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Biodiversity

• Tree species recorded from peat swamp forests in
  SE Asia
• 800 tree species
• 71 families
• 237 genera
• Many display characteristic adaptations to the
  habitat, e.g. stilt roots, pneumatophores.

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Biodiversity

• Mammalian fauna
• includes several
• notable species
• orang-utan
• agile gibbon
• sun bear

Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus
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CARBON SEQUESTRATION AND STORAGE

• In tropical peatlands the vegetation and
  underlying peat constitute a large and highly
  concentrated carbon store
• Estimates of current carbon accumulation rates in
  tropical peatlands range from 59-145 g m-2 yr-1
  sequestering between 0.060.093 Pg C yr-1
• Some peatlands, even in a natural condition, are
  in a steady-state and are no longer accumulating
  peat, whilst others are undergoing degradation
• The peatlands of Kalimantan represent a carbon
  store of 13 Pg, those of Indonesia contain 35 Pg
  and the global total for tropical peatlands is
  estimated to be 54 Pg

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MEGA RICE PROJECTDURING AND AFTER
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FORMER MEGA RICE PROJECT SEPTEMBER 2002
There have been some problems!
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Two years after MRP commenced 1997 El Niño
promoted widespread forest fires
Peatland fires were widespread in Kalimantan and
Sumatra
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Carbon Emissions from Peatland Fires

• Carbon losses from Indonesian peatland fires
  during 1997/98
• Estimated 0.81 2.57 Gt C Page et al. 2002
• 55-95 of C emissions from all fires during
  that period in SE Asia Schimel Baker 2002
  van der Werf et al. 2004, 2006

Annual fire hotspot data for Borneo 1997 to 2006
Langner et al. 2007
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Haze from the forest/peatland fires blankets
much of SE Asia - Sept. 1997(NASA satellite
image)
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Sink to Source

• Carbon storage
• Above-ground 150 - 250 t C ha-1
• Below-ground 250 - gt5,000 t C ha-1
• Carbon sequestration severely impaired by land
  use change
• 120,000 km2 (45) currently deforested mostly
  drained
• Large areas impacted by recurrent fires
• Drivers of land use change
• Conversion to plantations (palm oil/Acacia)
• Logging (illegal logging rampant in Indonesia)
• Poor forest and (peat)land management
• Lack of understanding of peatlands and peat

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Modelling Carbon Emissions from Drained Tropical
Peatlands
Current (2005) 355-874 Mt CO2 yr-1 (100240 Mt
C yr-1 ) Projected (2015-2035) 557-981 Mt CO2
yr-1 (150-270 Mt C yr-1 )

• Drainage emissions are equivalent to 1.43.5
  of global emissions from fossil fuels
  (25,000 Mt CO2 yr-1)
• Hooijer, Silvius, Wosten Page, 2006

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Carbon Emissions from Drained Peatlands
Oil palm plantation 2.3 m loss 1976-2007
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Improved plantation water management
Reduced emissions/subsidence Linked to
protection of remaining natural forest
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Reducing the contribution tropical peatlands make
to C emissions

• Reduce emissions from remaining forests
  deforestation avoidance need for baseline
  monitoring data
• Reduce emissions from degraded peatlands
  hydrological restoration and reforestation
  pilot studies
• Improve understanding of vulnerability of
  plantations on peatlands e.g. improved
  plantation water management (best practice
  examples)
• Transfer/disseminate scientific knowledge to
  influence public policy-making

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STRATEGIES FOR WISE USE OF TROPICAL PEATLAND IN
INDONESIA
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LIFE CYCLE COMPARISONS ON TROPICAL PEATLAND

• The impact of different land uses on tropical
  peatland in Indonesia (oil palm and pulp tree
  plantations) on CO2e emissions compared to
  natural, peat swamp forest and deforested,
  drained and degraded peatland.

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DATA, METHODS AND ASSUMPTIONS

• We use data from both primary and secondary
  sources to estimate the likely magnitude of the
  inputs to and outputs from tropical peatland
  carbon stores under different land uses and the
  changes that will take place to these stores over
  a period of 25 years representing the average
  economic life of an oil palm plantation (Corley
  Tinker, 2003). Our focus is on carbon dioxide
  (CO2). Methane emissions from tropical peatland
  under all land uses is very low (Jauhiainen,
  2005, Melling, 2005) while emissions of other
  greenhouse active gases, notably NO2, have not
  been studied in detail so far and are not
  included in this assessment.

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TROPICAL PEAT LAND USE CARBON BUDGETS
(calculated for a 25 year period t C ha-1)
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TROPICAL PEAT LAND USE CARBON BUDGETS
(calculated for a 25 year period t C ha-1)
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ENDWORD

• The four land use scenarios are benchmarked to
  specific assumptions and conditions and are
  indicative only. For example the major
  assumptions of peat thickness of 4.4 m, bulk
  density of 0.09 g cm-3 and carbon content of 56
  are the best estimates available at present and
  are obtained from detailed field sampling and
  analysis of peat cores. Of course not all
  tropical peat will have exactly these values and
  when data from other locations for similarly
  long, intact peat cores become available the
  model depicted in this paper can be updated. The
  comparisons, however, will remain valid.

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