1. UN-FCCC Bonn meeting June 2009 Peatlands, carbon and climate change

2. Countries with most peat
World wide 400 million ha
3% of global land area
40% of all wetlands
In all climate zones

3. Peatlands occur everywhere … from the tundra …
Yakutia, Russian Federation

4. ...to the tropics…
Berbak National Park, Indonesia

5. … from the mountains …
Kyrgystan

6. Over permafrost
NWT, Canada

7. Under grasslands … Sichuan, China
im Folgenden will ich am konkreten Beispiel die Herangehensweise zeigen
Sichuan, China

8. … along the rivers …
Kyrgystan
Ruaha River Tanzania

9. … to the sea …
Archangelsk, RF

10. …to the end of the Earth…
Tierra del Fuego Argentina

11. 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
im Folgenden will ich am konkreten Beispiel die Herangehensweise zeigen

12. Tropical peat swamp forest
What are peatlands?
Peat:
Organic matter accumulated over thousands of years, storing concentrated carbon in thick layers
The peat bog is rain water fed
River
< 1m
> 3m
Tropical peat swamp forest
Organic carbon
Mineral Soil
This picture shows the location of a peat dome in the flood plain in between two lowland rivers. A substantial part of the peat dome is located above river water surface. These forms of peatlands are called bogs, they are oligotrophic (poor in nutrients) and rain water fed. The peat lies like a gigantic drop a water on the lowland plain, held together by the dead organic material and protected by a blanket of living forest that maintains a humid micro-climate and prevents direct solar impact.
Peat dome

13. Peatlands are water
Flow Country, Scotland

14. 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 Gt CO2 / yr
~ % of LULUCF
Peatlands store large amounts of carbon
Peatland degradation leads to GHG emissions which contribute to global warming

15. In longer-term peatlands are climate cooling
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

16. Drainage: emissions of up to 100 t CO2-eq ha-1 y-1
…that continue for many decades
Kalimantan, Indonesia

17. Hotspots of CO2 emissions from drained peat
< 0.5% of land surface % of global emissions
~ half from Annex 1 countries
First click: Some relatively minor emissions are derived from peatlands in arctic and sub-arctic zones
Second click: More substantial emissions are derived from peatlands in the temperate zones and tropical zones of the Americas
Third click: The most substantial emissions, covering over 70% of global peat-based emissions are from SE Asia.
SE Asia:
5-8% of global emissions
world’s main source area of peat emissions

18. 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
SE Asia
Russia
N America
Most concentrated land-use related CO2 emissions in the world
Greater
Indonesia
Malaysia

19. Peatland issues
Deforestation
Degradation
Drainage
Fires

20. 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

21. Logging and drainage Channels used to transport equipment and logs
Result: drainage and oxidation of peat soil
High emissions of CO2
Increased fire risks

22. 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

23. On the issue of continued emissions Conversion of peatswamp rainforest
to oil palm plantation
2500
loss: > 430 tC/ha
2000
1500
carbon store (t C ha-1)
1000
500
loss: > 130 tC/ha 10 20 30 40 50
years after conversion

24. Peat drainage increases the risk of fires
Adapted from data provided by Siegert and Page
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

25. Rewetting
CO N2O CH4

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. Rapid action needed
or 2020…?