By Nancy Harris and Sarah Sargent
Tropical regions (click here) face an emissions challenge from an important, but relatively little-known source: drained peatland. Peat soil, made up of partially decomposed, wet plant material that forms over thousands of years, is highly concentrated in Indonesia and Malaysia. Peatland in these countries has become a common target for agricultural expansion, particularly for oil palm, as fertile land becomes increasingly scarce. When land is cleared for plantations, the underlying peat needs to be drained, releasing CO2 into the atmosphere.
Tropical regions (click here) face an emissions challenge from an important, but relatively little-known source: drained peatland. Peat soil, made up of partially decomposed, wet plant material that forms over thousands of years, is highly concentrated in Indonesia and Malaysia. Peatland in these countries has become a common target for agricultural expansion, particularly for oil palm, as fertile land becomes increasingly scarce. When land is cleared for plantations, the underlying peat needs to be drained, releasing CO2 into the atmosphere.
In fact, the estimated annual emissions from peat drainage in Indonesia and Malaysia—the world’s two largest sources of tropical peat—equate to emissions from nearly 70 coal plants, or the total annual emissions of Vietnam.
Indonesia and Malaysia are among the world’s major emitters (6th and 19th respectively). But their contributions to global emissions may be even worse than we think as most estimates of emissions from land use and land use change leave out those from drained peatland....
