peatlands, carbon and climate change
Post on 14-Sep-2014
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Peatlands, carbon and climate changeTRANSCRIPT
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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
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Peatlands occur everywhere … from the tundra …
Yakutia, Russian
Federation
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...to the tropics…
Berbak National Park, Indonesia
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… from the mountains …
Kyrgystan
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Over permafrost
NWT, Canada
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Under grasslands …
Sichuan, China
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… along the rivers …
KyrgystanRuaha River Tanzania
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Archangelsk, RF
… to the sea …
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…to the end of the Earth…
Tierra del Fuego Argentina
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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
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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?
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Peatlands are water
Flow Country, Scotland
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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
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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
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Kalimantan, Indonesia
Drainage: emissions of up to 100 t CO2-eq ha-1 y-1
…that continue for many decades
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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
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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
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Peatland issues• Deforestation• Degradation
– Drainage– Fires
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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
(%)
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Logging and drainage
• Channels used to transport equipment and logs
• Result: drainage and oxidation of peat soil
• High emissions of CO2
• Increased fire risks
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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
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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
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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
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Rewetting
CO2 N2O CH4
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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
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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
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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
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Rapid action needed
or 2020…?