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).
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
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