Peat Swamp Forests & Palm Oil

Peatlands cover 3% (some 4 million km2) of the Earth’s land area (Global Peatlands Initiative, 2002) and store a large fraction of the Worlds terrestrial carbon resources: up to 528,000 Megatonnes (Gorham 1991, Immirzi and Maltby 1992), equivalent to one-third of global soil carbon and to 70 times the current annual global emissions from fossil fuel burning (approximately 7,000 Mt/y in 2006 in carbon equivalents or 26,000 Mt/y in CO2 equivalents). This carbon is increasingly released to the atmosphere due to drainage and fires associated with plantation development and logging.

  • Peatlands make up 12% of the SE Asian land area but account for 25% of current deforestation. Out of 27 million hectares of peatland, 12 million hectares (45%) are currently deforested and mostly drained.
  • Over 1997-2006 an estimated average of 1400 Mt/y in CO2 emissions was caused by peatland fires that are also associated with drainage and degradation.
  • The current total peatland annual CO2 emission of 2000 Mt/y equals almost 8% of global emissions from fossil fuel burning.
  • Over 90% of this emission originates from Indonesia, which puts the country in 3rd place (after the USA and China) in the global CO2 emission ranking.
  • The primary culprit in the deforestation of Indonesia's Tropical Peat Swamp Forests is the Palm Oil Industry.
  • Palm oil is used extensively to make biofuels to help reduce Europe's CO2 emissions. Yet draining the peat will release 30 times more CO2 than will be saved by replacing fossil fuels with biofuels.