Innovation of Peat Land Management under Changing Climate

Background

Peatlands have attracted global attention due to its significance contribution to global carbon balance.   Although their overall surface area is relatively small, i.e. only 3% including forested peatlands), these peatlands have carbon stock more than the tropical forests.  Disturbance on these lands due to human activities such as agricultural expansion and drainage construction, peat mining, combined with extreme climate maniphestations contributed to the degradation of about 65 million ha of peatland area globally.   Emission resulted from these disturbances is very significance which reached to about 3 Gt CO₂ per year, or about 5% of the global carbon budget. 

On the other hand, peatland also play important role in economic development.  Therefore, policies, strategies and technologies for improvement the management of peatland is very crucial to enable the achievement of global commitments to mitigate climate change, as outlined in the Paris Agreement.  Many good practices have been implemented to manage the peatland in sustainable ways.  However, such practices have not been adopted widely as applying such practices also faces various challenges.  Forest for Life (FFL) Indonesia in collaboration with AFOCO held a half-day event entitle ‘Innovation of Peat Land Management under Changing Climate’ in the Asia – Pacific Forestry Week 2019, June 17-21.  The event is expected to be attended by a number of scientist and business people (privates)

Objectives

1. To provide an update of research progress on the status of peatlands and their importance in global carbon cycle and to national economies;
2. To share technologies and good practices on sustainable management of peat land for reducing the GHG emissions;
3. To share innovative approach for measuring, monitoring and reporting the emission from peatland.

Speakers

1. Prof. Dr. Rizaldi Boer & Marcel J. Silvius (Centre for Climate Risk and Opportunity Management of Bogor Agricultural University and Global Green Growth Institute):   Climate change, peatland, and development in tropical forest countries.
2. Dr. Muhammad Taufik (Bogor Agricultural University).  Amplifying greenhouse gas emission from tropical peat forest under changing climate. 
3. Dr. Shailendra Mishra (Nanjang Technolgical University, Singapore). Sustainable management of peatland for forest and agriculture plantation in Tropical countries.
4. Dr. Tsuyoshi Kato (MTI).  Water management technology for sustainable management of peatland in timber plantation
5. Dr. Jay Samek, Michigan State University. Innovative Tools & Methods for Community Forest Ecosystem Services Measurement, Monitoring and Reporting.