Palm Policy

Blwyddyn Newydd dda i chi (Happy New Year to you.... in Welsh), good to be back after a break and we’re here today to follow on the previous posts discussion on tropical peatlands.

As a means of mitigating against climate change it is important to explore potential means of reducing the substantial greenhouse gas emissions produced by these systems outside of fire events, and that’s exactly what we’re up to today, taking a look at solutions based on policy frameworks.

The tropical forest peatlands of not only Indonesia, but also South East Asia as a whole have been under a programme of rapid conversion into productive agricultural land, with the introduction of perennial crops, oil-palm and pulpwood plantations under government legislation; In 1981 “planned deforestation” was given the go ahead encompassing an area of 30Mha of virgin forest within Indonesia (Murdiyarso et al. 2010) .

Greenhouse Gas Emissions are produced through biophysical processes controlled by peat decomposition, compaction, nutrient availability; soil water content and water table depth and thesehave been affected by land management (Mitsch and Gooselink 2000).

Figure 1: Palm oil Plantation (http://understory.ran.org/2010/02/24/cargill-leaves-a-palm-oil-mess-in-papua-new-guinea/# )

The land conversion process of burning vegetation and draining the peat substrate in order to plant oil-palm plantations has been estimated to produce a total carbon loss to the atmosphere of 59.4± 10.2 Mg of Carbon dioxide per hectare per year over the first 25 years of land use change. The process of clearance burning accounts for 25% of emissions directly after land clearing and once planted the palm-oil plantations then require the addition of nitrogen based fertilizers which form Nitrous oxide emissions adding to the Greenhouse gas output (Murdiyarso et al. 2010).

Unfortunately, the economic appeal of plans such as that aired by the Indonesian government in 1981, still hold sway, with a further regulation being issued in 2009, allowing oil Palm developments on all peat deposits of 3m depth or less going against findings such as those stated above on Greenhouse  Gas Emissions. Evidently Money moves mountains, or at least tropical peat forests, but do not despair.........................The Scandinavians are here!

REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) is a scheme under the UN that has produced economic stimulation for developing nations to maintain their forests. The purpose of this initiative has been to support policies of forest conservation, sustainable management and the reinforcement of terrestrial carbon sores, but it’s received a revamp in the form of a + symbol to now be...............wait for it............... REDD+.

Under REDD+ there has been an enhancement of opportunity in particular for those countries with Peat Swamp forest and in May 2010 a letter of intent was signed by the governments of Norway and Indonesia pledging $1 billion to the causes of REDD+ within Indonesia (Murdiyarso et al. 2010).

Since 2010 things have moved on with the initiative instigating a number of legislative decrees, establishing methodologies for Greenhouse Gas Emission estimates and encouraging active stakeholder participation. All in all, the scheme has produced attractive economic opportunities for Indonesia however, this has been a product of Foreign investment which as we all know may have come from Norway,( the country that’s got it together), but models the need for the global community to understand that stakeholders interest doesn’t simply end at the national scale, a message hard to dispel in the current economic climate.

Cheers

Matt

References:

Mitsch, W.J. and Gosselink, J.G. 2000 Wetlands, 3rd Edition. Wiley, Chichester, UK

Murdiyarso, D., K,Hergoualc’h., L.V, Verchot. 2010. Opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in tropical peatlands. PNAS, vol. 107, p19655-19660

Indonesia - FIRE FARMING

Within this post we are going to discuss the feedbacks mechanisms associated with environmental change in the Tropical Peatland of Borneo, Indonesia. Changes in land management practises and climate forcing have both been found to impact Carbon flux from the system and exacerbate the impacts of each other individually.

From the 1970s deforestation and drainage have expanded on a national scale exerting a persistent environmental change on the peatland which has threatened the balance of the systems and made them more susceptible to fire (Page et al. 2002).

These management practises were originally associated with indigenous and small immigrant farming communities within the swamp forests, involving small scale forest clearances. In recent decades these practises have expanded, with private corporations and government agencies clearing large expanses of land for lucrative agri-business such as palm-oil and pulpwood plantations as well as food crops (Page et al. 2002, Murdiyarso et al. 2010). These activities have enhanced carbon releases to the atmosphere, but have also increased the vulnerability of the systems to fire, which accelerates peatland degradation and carbon output (Takashi et al. 2007).

Takashi et al. (2007) studied a region of Indonesian Borneo called the Central Kalimantan (Figure 1), over a three year period and sort to understand the carbon dioxide flux. The site has been subject to drainage and subsequently depressed groundwater levels. The study found that peat decomposition associated with the lowering of the water table was the primary cause of large volumes of Carbon dioxide release.

 Figure 1: Central Kalimantan region highlighted in green within the Indonesian Borneo. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IndonesiaCentralKalimantan.png)

However, in addition to this an increased susceptibility to fire has proven important in carbon flux. In 1997 fires that were used for forest clearances grew out of control due to the drought conditions brought on by an ENSO (El Nino- Southern Oscillation) event that year and spread beyond their intended bounds causing widespread destruction across the region.

The relationship between land management, climate and subsequent extensive forest fires has been witnessed not only in 1997, but also 2002 (Takashi et al. 2007) and sparks significant interest not only due the disruptive impacts on the infrastructure and economy of Indonesia, but also the large and rapid outputs of Carbon Dioxide from the peatland systems into the atmosphere. Page et al. (2002) used satellite images of a 2.5million hectare region within the same site as Takashi et al. (2002); Central Kalimantan, Borneo, to inform wider estimations of carbon output for the whole of Indonesia.

Within the region it was estimated that 32% of the land was burned in the 1997 fires and within that 91.5% was peatland. By applying data from ground measurements for the burn depth into the peat substrate and vegetation burn it was estimated that 0.19-0.23 gigatonnes of carbon was released from peat burn and a further 0.05GT from the vegetation (Page et al. 2002). If these values are then extrapolated to account for the tropical peatland surface area of Indonesia, the 0.81-0.57 gigatonnes produced, totalled to the equivalent of 13-40% of the mean annual global emissions of fossil fuels in 1997(Page et al. 2002).

In conclusion the carbon flux of tropical peatlands in Borneo has been seriously impacted by land management practises and the impact of these in conjunction with ENSO drought events. The events seen in 1997 and over the 3 year study period of Takashi et al. (2007) show that the systems are currently contributing globally significant volumes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere both in the long term and as rapid events.  These occurrences of peatland degradation and carbon output are not unique in the context of tropical peatlands and are of importance as development continues within these regions of the world and future predictions of global climate in relation to climate change for see an increase in the frequency of ENSO events (Timmerman et al. 1999) and other climate modes. There is the potential for significant positive feedback loops to engage and further exacerbate climate change.   

Cheers 

Matt

References:

Page,S.E., F, Siegert., J, O’Rieley., H-D.V, Boehm., A, Jaya., S, Limin. 2002. The amount of carbon 

released from peat and forest fires in Indonesia during 1997. Nature, vol. 420, p 61-65.

Murdiyarso, D., K,Hergoualc’h., L.V, Verchot. 2010. Opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in tropical peatlands. PNAS, vol. 107, p19655-19660.

Takashi,H., H, Segah., T, Harada., S, Limin., T, June., R, Hirata., M, Osaki. 2007. Carbon dioxide balance of a tropical peat swamp forest in Kalimantan, Indonesia. Global Change Biology, vol. 13, p412-425.

Timmeremann, A., J, Oberhuber., A, Bacher., M , Esch., M, Latif., E, Roeckner., 1999. Increased El Nino frequency in climate model forced by future greenhouse warming. Nature, vol. 398, p694-697.