By Dr Hans Joosten, Department of Peatland Studies and Palaeoecology in the Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Germany. Presented at the panel discussion organized by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) for the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club (JFCC) in Jakarta, Indonesia, on May 19, 2017. #peatlandsmatter

1. Peatlands: problems and solutions
Hans Joosten
joosten@uni-greifswald.de

2. In living peatlands:
• Production is larger than decay
• Dead plants accumulate as ‘peat’
Georgia

3. Lesotho
Peat accumulates during thousands of years and stores
concentrated carbon in thick layers
Peat of
2 m deep,
>50% carbon

4. Belarus
Peat accumulates through water saturation:
Natural peatlands are always wetlands!

5. Peatlands are found in almost every country.
Worldwide: 4 million km2
peatland cover

6. Peatlands are ‘everywhere’ and very diverse
Sichuan, China

7. … this is a peatland in the tundra …
Yakutia, RF

8. Brunei
… this is a peatland in the tropics …

9. …this is a peatland 1000 km from Antarctica…
Argentina

10. Colombia
…this is a peatland in the high mountains …

11. Archangelsk, RF
… this is a peatland in the sea …

12. Not recognized - not appreciated: the Cinderella Syndrom
Ruoergai, China

13. UNFCCC 2006 (Nairobi): In Kenya there is no peat…
10 km from the Convention venueKenya

14. UNFCCC 2011 (Panama): We didn‘t know we hàd peat swamps
Panama

15. Living peatlands are climatically ~neutral. Globally:
CO2 sink 150-250Mt CO2-eq.a-1, CH4 source 200 Mt CO2-eq.a-1
Norway
CH4 CO2

16. More important: carbon stock! Peatlands are the most space-
effective carbon stores of all terrestrial ecosystems
Java

17. Compared to other formations, peatland store
disproportionally much Carbon, especially in their peat

18. In the Boreal zone peatlands hold 7 x more C per Ha than
other ecosystems, in the Tropics 10 x.
Onega delta, Russia

19. While covering only 3% of the World’s land area, peatlands
contain >500 Gigaton of carbon.
Germany

20. Sabah
i.e. twice the carbon stock of the world’s total forest biomass

21. Through a forest you can walk…
Brunei

22. Karelia, RF
…through a peat body not…

23. Living peatlands: they still exist worldwide (>80%) ….
Scotland

24. …but that is not where it is all about…
Sarawak

25. Bostang RadjagukgukKalimantan
‘Peatlands and climate’ is about desert plants cultivated on
deeply drained peatland…
Aloe vera

26. … semi-arid Maize on drained peatland …
Germany

27. …cows on drained peatland…
Denmark

28. … potatoes on drained peatland…
Ukraine

29. … forests on drained peatland….
Scotland

30. Palm oil can grow and produce well on peat
… oil palm on drained peatland…
Malaysia

31. … pulpwood on drained peatland….
Sumatra

32. Mobilisation of the carbon stock by peatland drainage (for
agriculture and forestry) leads to huge emissions
Kalimantan

33. Jurasinski et al. 2016
Deeper water table  more GHG emissions

34. A potato field on peat in Europe emits 37 T CO2e /ha/yr
= 185.000 km with middle class car
Germany
Potatoes from peat are fossil resources…

35. Malaysia
Oil palm on peat in SE Asia emits 60 T CO2e /ha/yr
= 300.000 km by car: every hectare, every year

36. German peatland agriculture emits twice as much CO2 as the
7th dirtiest power plant in the world

37. Globally, drained peatlands emit 2 Gigatonnes CO2e /yr,
i.e. 0.6 % of the land produces 5% of all emissions
Indonesia
And in some years much more…

38. Indonesia leads the list of global top emitters, also without
the enormous fires…
Indonesia

39. But the European Union is a good second …
Germany

40. 24 UNFCCC parties, incl. 12 European and 9 EU countries are
responsible for 95% of all global peatland emissions

41. Peatland emissions per country (in Mt CO2e/yr):
highest global urgency for peatland rewetting

42. In 25 countries, peatlands emit > 50%, in 50 countries >10 %
compared to their emissions from fossil fuels & cement
Uganda

43. Peatland emissions as % of national fossil fuel & cement
emissions: importance for national climate policies

44. Peatlands emissions per unit national land area (tCO2e/km2):
most relevant for national land use policies

45. Global emissions from agriculture : 1/3 from CH4 (rice, cattle),
1/3 from N2O (fertilizer), 1/3 from CO2 (peat)
Indonesia

46. Example: Agriculture in Germany: little land (7%) causes
much emissions (37%)  focus for Paris Agreement!

47. Peatland drainage leads to various societal damage
effect damage where solution
fire + haze
health, welfare,
economy and
politics
local,
national,
regional
full rewetting
OR better
management
emissions climate global
rewetting: the
higher the better
subsidence
land availability,
food security
local,
national,
global
full rewetting

48. Peatland drainage leads to various societal damage
effect damage where solution
fire + haze
health, welfare,
economy and
politics
local,
national,
regional
full rewetting
OR better
management
GHG
emissions
climate global
rewetting: the
higher the better
subsidence
land availability,
food security
local,
national,
global
full rewetting

49. Peat is like atjar tjampoer: when you remove the conserving
acid/sweet water, the organic material rots away

50. By peatland drainage the soil subsides
1939
2013
Netherlands

51. drainagewater table rise
wet peatland
subsidence
… “vicious circle of peatland utilisation”…

52. …Nether-lands: bogged down by 1000 yr of peatland drainage
and subsidence
8 m subsidence

53. …Nether-lands: now half the country deep under sea level…

54. …and subsidence continues…

55. …and subsidence continues…
In
tropics
subsidence
5 times faster!

56. Many peatlands are coastal and will - with continuing
drainage - be flooded…

57. Drained land use on coastal peatland will – in the near future
- lead to the loss of substantial tracts of land
Aljosja HooijerSumatra

58. time
height
Tidal range
Whereas the sea level rises, we bog the peatlands down….
start of drainage

59. flooding
salt intrusion
drainagesubsidence
food security
acid sulphate soils
ghg emissions
fire
haze
fodder
land loss
fuel
fiber
biodiversity loss
productivity
That thing with the
Three gears cannot work.
Can it, daddy?
No girl,
It can‘t…
Drained peatland use destroys its own subsistence base

60. We are loosing land, now that we need it most: for more
people, for less poverty, and for replacing fossil resources
Kalimantan

61. Rewetting solves most of these problems
Germany

62. …especially when combined with paludiculture
(wet agriculture and forestry)…
Sumatra

63. Fire + haze wet drained
unused conservation abandoned
used paludiculture plantations

64. Emissions wet drained
unused conservation abandoned
used paludiculture plantations

65. Subsidence wet drained
unused conservation abandoned
used paludiculture plantations

66. • Keep wet peatlands wet
• Make drained peatlands wet
• Develop wet land use (paludicultures)
Brunei

67. Peatlands must be wet:
for the climate, for the land,
for the people, for ever…