UN-FCCC Bonn meeting June 2009

Peatlands, carbon and climate changeMarcel.Silvius@wetlands.org

Countries with most peat

• World wide 400 million haWorld wide 400 million ha• 3% of global land area 3% of global land area • 40% of all wetlands40% of all wetlands• In all climate zonesIn all climate zones

Peatlands occur everywhere … from the tundra …

Yakutia, Russian

Federation

...to the tropics…

Berbak National Park, Indonesia

… from the mountains …

Kyrgystan

Over permafrost

NWT, Canada

Under grasslands …

Sichuan, China

… along the rivers …

KyrgystanRuaha River Tanzania

Archangelsk, RF

… to the sea …

…to the end of the Earth…

Tierra del Fuego Argentina

But peatlands are overlooked…

• Unfamiliarity

• Large diversity Peatland habitat diversity climate conditions

• Spatial heterogeneity thickness, landuse

• Various greenhouse gases

• Variability of parameters over time Weather Water level Vegetation Land-use

Mineral Soil

River River

< 1m> 3m

Tropical peat swamp forest

Organic carbon

Peat: Organic matter accumulated over thousands of years, storing

concentrated carbon in thick layers

The peat bog is rain water fed

Peat dome

What are peatlands?

Peatlands are water

Flow Country, Scotland

Peat, carbon and climate change• Globally peatlands store 550 Giga ton (Gt) Carbon • Equivalent to 30% of terrestrial carbon

– twice the carbon stored in forest biomass

– 75% of all carbon in the atmosphere

• Global emissions 2 - 3 Gt CO2 / yr

~ 30 - 40% of LULUCF

Peatlands store large amounts of carbon Peatland degradation leads to GHG emissions which contribute to global warming

C-sink: ~ 250 Mt “CO2” a-1

C-source: ~ 10 Mt CH4 a-1 = ~ 250 Mt CO2-eq 100 y time horizon

In longer-term peatlands are climate cooling

Kalimantan, Indonesia

Drainage: emissions of up to 100 t CO2-eq ha-1 y-1

…that continue for many decades

Hotspots of CO2 emissions from drained peat

SE Asia: • 5-8% of global emissions• world’s main source area of

peat emissions

< 0.5% of land surface 9-15% of global emissions

~ half from Annex 1 countries

SE Asian peatland emissions disproportionately high

6% of global peat area

50-70% of global peat emissions

< 0.1% of global land area

5-8% of global CO2 emissions

CO2 emissions from oxidation in drained peatlands

(fires excluded), by region(global total: 887 Mt/y; source: PEAT-CO2)

Indonesia (58%)Other SE Asia (13%)C. America (8%)N. America (5%)Africa (4%)S. Asia (4%)C. Europe (4%)W. Europe (3%)S. America (3%)E. Asia (3%)N.W. Europe (2%)C. Asia (1%)Russia (1%)Australia Pac.S. EuropeMiddle East

Peatland extent by region (global total: 381 Mha; source: PEAT CO2)

S.E. Asia (6% )C. America (1% )N. America (35% )Africa (1% )S. AsiaC. Europe (1% )W. Europe (1% )S. America (2% )E. Asia (2% )N.W. Europe (5% )C. Asia (1% )Russia (43% )Australia Pac.S. EuropeMiddle East

Indonesia

Malaysia

RussiaN America

SE Asia

Peatland issues• Deforestation• Degradation

– Drainage– Fires

Tropical peat forest deforestation

Peatland deforestation:

• since 2000: 1.5%/yr: twice the rate for non-peatlands

• currently 45% deforested

• 96% degraded

Peat forest conservation

• < 5% of total peatland area

Relative total vs PSF area decline Insular SE Asia

90.00

91.00

92.00

93.00

94.00

95.00

96.00

97.00

98.00

99.00

100.00

Year

Are

a re

mai

ning

sin

ce 1

999

Total forest decline

Peat forest decline

Preliminary results presented at UNFCCC CoP

Nairobi, 07-11-2006

(%)

Logging and drainage

• Channels used to transport equipment and logs

• Result: drainage and oxidation of peat soil

• High emissions of CO2

• Increased fire risks

Conversion SE Asian peat forest areas

A total of about 13 million ha of SE Asian peat swamps have been drained

for agriculture and plantations

On the issue of continued emissions

Conversion of peatswamp rainforest

to oil palm plantation

carbon store (t C ha-1)

years after conversion

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

0 10 20 30 40 50

loss: > 430 tC/ha

loss: > 130 tC/ha

Peat drainage increases the risk of fires

• Between 1997 and 2006 there were over 60,000 fires in peat swamp areas on Borneo in 3 out of 10 years (1997, 1998, 2002)

• Most affected were deforested and drained peatlands

Tentative estimate of CO2 emissions from fires in Indonesia

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

C e

mis

sio

n f

rom

pe

at

fire

s

(CO

2, M

t/y

)

Minimum estimate(1.42 Gt/y average)

Maximum estimate(4.32 Gt/y average)

Adapted from data provided by Siegert and Page

Rewetting

CO2 N2O CH4

What if current ignorance continues

No incentive mechanism to address 2-3 GT CO2-eq emissions

No incentive to deal with almost half of LULUCF

Peat in REDD• Include all 5 carbon pools (IPCC 2006)• Most promising mechanism for addressing emissions

from degraded peat swamp forests• Include emissions from deforested peatlands (i.e.

emissions resulting from past deforestation)• Similar mechanism needed for non-forest peatlands• Exclude drained plantations

REDD for peat forests recommendations• Support developing countries to get

REDDI– Inventories and assessments– MRV capacity

• Community-based, pro-poor approach

– New mechanisms for equitable sharing– Local ownership and capacity

Bio-rights

Rapid action needed

or 2020…?