Yes, I agree when deforestation
of peat land converter to oil palm plantation, Co2 released to the atmosphere caused global warming but in the other hand when Oil Palm Plantation already established, it also can absorb Co2 through photosynthesis.
Last year, 74,000 hectares
of peat land were set ablaze, making the haze disaster even worse.
It dates its history to December 20, 1625, when Roelof van Echten bought a large tract
of peat land from farmers of the district with the plan to harvest its peat.
The company is a signatory of the 2014 New York Declaration on Forests and has made a long - term commitment to only buy palm oil whose production doesn't lead to deforestation, fire or loss
of peat land.
Carrefour published its Sourcing Policy on Sustainable Palm Oil in 2014 which includes the RSPO standard and additional criteria such as protection
of peat lands and high carbon stock areas.
Over 60 % of mangroves and 45 %
of peat lands have already disappeared to meet these demands.
West Siberia is home to the world's largest expanse
of peat lands — covering an area nearly the size of Texas.2, 3 These peat lands are interspersed with boreal forest, and both are typically underlain with permafrost (permanently frozen ground).
Center for American ProgressWith other smaller changes in global emissions projections — including a decrease due to the recent economic downturn and reduced emissions from deforestation and loss
of peat lands — the high - end abatement path so far from the Copenhagen Accord commitments leaves us only 5 gigatons short of the 44 gigaton goal by 2020 — two - thirds of the reductions needed to achieve climate safety (Figure 3).
Not exact matches
However, rain forests and
peat lands in palm oil producing countries are under pressure — particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia — and in response, many
of the world's largest retailers and food companies have pledged to convert entirely to sustainable palm oil by 2015.
But changes in
land use — draining the water to plant acres
of crops that demand drier soil, a common practice in tropical regions, or building a road through an area — can dry out the
peat.
This map points out countries known to have peatlands (gray), as
of 2017, and the locations
of those
peat - filled
lands (green).
The planting
of oil palm plantations leads to the loss
of natural forests and
peat lands and plays havoc with ecosystems and biodiversity.
Tangible effects nearby also appear: clinking our
peat soil by water extraction is also a form
of land degradation, leading to more carbon dioxide emissions, and therefore triggering climate change.
Many
of the wildfires occur on
land that has deep reserves
of peat, which is rich in carbon.
In Indonesia and Malaysia, where some 85 %
of the world's palm oil is produced, more than 16 million hectares
of land — rainforest,
peat bogs and old rubber plantations — have been taken over by oil palm, and there is no sign
of the industry slowing down.
Globally,
peat covers 3 per cent
of the
land surface, with two - thirds
of the total in Canada and the former Soviet Union.
Unilever was also a player in palm oil trader Wilmar's recent agreement to adopt a no - deforestation policy, which prohibits its suppliers from establishing plantations on
lands with large amounts
of carbon — like
peat soils — or
lands with a high conservation value (ClimateWire, Dec. 8, 2013).
With the backdrop
of massive
peat land fires sending carbon into the atmosphere and the fast - approaching U.N. climate talks, environmental advocates expect today's visit between Indonesian President Joko «Jokowi» Widodo and President Obama to touch on climate change and deforestation challenges.
When the
peat fires, almost all
of which are intentionally set to clear forests for palm oil plantations, began this year, the president broke with past leadership, expressed his dismay and threatened to sanction palm oil company PT Tempirai Palm Resources after he paid a surprise visit to its
land concession in South Sumatra where fires are raging (ClimateWire, Sept. 14).
«Indonesia is one
of the major emitters in the world, and this year it's likely to be even more than usual,» because
of the raging fires burning carbon - rich
peat lands.
It is part
of an ongoing and unprecedented drive to protect Canada's northern boreal forests,
peat bogs, wetlands and tundra — a drive that is also changing how
land managers view their stewardship, civic leaders approach economic growth and companies view their bottom line.
Our ensemble fire weather season length metric captured important wildfire events throughout Eurasia such as the Indonesian fires
of 1997 — 98 where
peat fires, following an El Niño - induced drought, released carbon equivalent to 13 — 40 %
of the global fossil fuel emissions from only 1.4 %
of the global vegetated
land area (Fig. 4, 1997 — 1998) 46 and the heatwave over Western Russia in 2010 (Fig. 4, 2010) that led to its worst fire season in recorded history and triggered extreme air pollution in Moscow51.
These are the truly unnatural fires as tropical wet forests (and
peat fires too) are not supposed to burn but do so because
of unsustainable
land - uses.
The paper giant has been dogged by allegations that is destroying key wildlife habitat, driving substantial greenhouse gas emissions through the conversion
of peat forests, dispossessing local communities
of land, and engaging in a heavy - handed campaign to undermine its critics within Indonesia and abroad.
Pratseyo is now attempting to save the country's
peat forests which contain eight times the carbon content
of other rainforests by engineering a massive
land - swap, essentially by convincing palm oil producers to move their operations to degraded
land.
Would we expect to see these emissions and emission rates change for different
peat lands in different parts
of the world?
The United Kingdom included emissions from
peat extraction, drainage
of wetlands and deep
peat in their
land - use change and forestry estimate.
The coverage
of the 2006 IPCC Guidelines on wetlands was restricted to peatlands drained and managed for
peat extraction, conversion to flooded
lands, and limited guidance for drained organic soils.
Fires also emit methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2), but
peat fires may emit up to 10 times more methane than fires occurring on other types
of land.
In Southeast Asia, one fourth
of all oil - palm plantations are located on drained
peat lands.
Taken together, the impact
of peat fires on global warming may be more than 200 times greater than fires on other
lands.
Woody plantations crops like oil palm and coconut rate much better, although their advantages are reduced when they are grown in place
of carbon - rich tropical rainforests and
peat lands.
And they found that the highest post-thaw emissions
of nitrous oxide came from the bare
peat soils: these emissions were fivefold those from still - frozen soils and matched the kind
of outgassing observed in tropical soils, which are the world's largest natural
land - based nitrous oxide source.
In Indonesia, for example, where oil palm covers approximately 10.5 million hectares
of land, companies have vowed to halt deforestation and the draining
of peat swamps, thereby certifying their products as not having contributed to the destruction
of forests or increased greenhouse gas emissions.
Borneo's
peat lands going up in smoke Fire in the Peat Lands Borneo's peat lands going up in smoke Tina Butler, mongabay.com April 21, 2005 The tropical rainforests of Kalimant
lands going up in smoke Fire in the
Peat Lands Borneo's peat lands going up in smoke Tina Butler, mongabay.com April 21, 2005 The tropical rainforests of Kalimant
Lands Borneo's
peat lands going up in smoke Tina Butler, mongabay.com April 21, 2005 The tropical rainforests of Kalimant
lands going up in smoke Tina Butler, mongabay.com April 21, 2005 The tropical rainforests
of Kalimantan...
The permafrost
of the world's largest
peat bog, in West Siberia, 10 contains some 70 billion metric tons
of methane — equal to about 16 percent
of all the carbon added to the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion,
land - use changes, and cement manufacture over the course
of the past 150 years (from 1850 to 2000).7
The INCAS system will expand in the coming months, to produce national level estimates
of greenhouse gas emissions and removals from all
of Indonesia's forest and
peat lands.
But a study published today in the National Academy
of Sciences, found that half
of oil palm plantations in Indonesian Borneo were established on
peat lands.
Muddy mangrove swamps hold onto as much 25 %
of the carbon stored in similarly threatened tropical
peat lands - despite covering a much smaller area.
•
Land Use, Land - Use Change, and Forestry (17 % of 2004 global greenhouse gas emissions)-- Greenhouse gas emissions from this sector primarily include carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from deforestation, land clearing for agriculture, and fires or decay of peat so
Land Use,
Land - Use Change, and Forestry (17 % of 2004 global greenhouse gas emissions)-- Greenhouse gas emissions from this sector primarily include carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from deforestation, land clearing for agriculture, and fires or decay of peat so
Land - Use Change, and Forestry (17 %
of 2004 global greenhouse gas emissions)-- Greenhouse gas emissions from this sector primarily include carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from deforestation,
land clearing for agriculture, and fires or decay of peat so
land clearing for agriculture, and fires or decay
of peat soils.
And, it underscores how important it is to conserve the vast
peat land resources
of the far north - instead
of mindlessly squandering them with oil extracting enterprises.
But this is the really short version in regards to climate change: When you chop down the forests grown on
peat and drain the
land to depths sufficient for oil palm cultivation, the soil starts oxidizing and releasing massive amounts
of CO2.
It has brought all sorts
of disasters including destruction
of rainforest, draining
of peat bogs, eviction
of subsistence farmers from their
land etc etc..
These «degraded»
lands however still contain large amounts
of carbon in the case
of water logged organic
peat soils.
Although they make up only 1 %
of all tropical forest areas, the thickness
of this carbon - rich layer means mangroves hold as much as a quarter
of the carbon
of tropical
peat lands.
In 2015, after months
of forest fires and choking pollution levels, the Indonesian government identified dozens
of companies responsible for millions
of hectares
of torched forest and
peat land.