Kampar peat bog

(c) New Scientist

The bog barons: Indonesia's carbon catastrophe
01 December 2007
Fred Pearce

"Until five years ago, Kampar was a true bog with water at the surface, and it was covered by a rich rainforest ...

"Next week, the world's governments will assemble on the Indonesian island of Bali to discuss what should follow Kyoto. The fate of peatlands like Kampar will be an important topic. The Indonesian government is expected to argue that the very companies destroying the bogs should be awarded carbon credits for stopping the haemorrhaging of even more carbon. But can the region's great despoilers really become its saviours?"

"With or without fires, the draining of peatlands is causing massive emissions of CO2.

"The critical process here is oxidation. As long as peat stays wet, the acidity and lack of oxygen preserve organic matter, allowing the peat to build up. But when water levels fall and the peat begins to dry, the organic matter starts to break down. The loss of forest accelerates the process by exposing bare peat to the tropical sun. Emissions continue until any peat above the water table is gone.

"Where water is drained to a depth of a metre, typical for many palm oil plantations, about 10 centimetres of peat disappears every year. This emits between 130 and 180 tonnes of CO2 per hectare each year."

"The next steps to resolving Kampar's future could come during the upcoming negotiations in Bali. At the conference, Indonesia is planning to make the case that any successor to the Kyoto protocol should reward countries in the developing world with carbon credits for avoiding carbon losses from deforestation and drained peatlands."


From issue 2632 of New Scientist magazine, 01 December 2007, page 50-53

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