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The peatswamp forests of Central Kalimantan have heavily been
degraded by logging and drainage for conversion into agricul-
tural lands and oil palm and pulp plantations (UNEP, 2007).
This situation leads to incredible carbon dioxide emissions and
annually long lasting fires, causing smoke and health problems.
The peatlands in Central Kalimantan constitute some of the
poorest areas in Indonesia, largely because of unsuccessful de-
velopments, large scale environmental destruction and peat fire
disasters. The poverty rates in the area are 2 to 4 times higher
than in other areas of Indonesia.
Peatland degradation will continue unless action is taken. So
far 12 million hectares of peatland are currently deforested and
mostly drained in Southeast Asia, including over 1.5 million hect-
ares in Central Kalimantan, with severe consequences for global
climate, biodiversity and local communities. Peatland conserva-
tion and restoration is therefore extremely urgent. A consortium
made up of the Borneo Orang Utan Survival Foundation (BOSF),
CARE, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Wetlands Inter-
national and the University of Palangka Raya therefore worked
closely with the provincial and local authorities to help.
The priority of the project was peatland rehabilitation, which
involved the restoration of the hydrology of the drained peat-
swamp forests, reforestation efforts and fire control. The proj-
ect resulted in the establishment of 18 dams in large drainage
canals and over 150 blocks in small drainage channels, contrib-
uting to the restoration of thehydrology of 10,000 ha in the Se-
bangau area and over 50,000 hectares of drained and degraded
peatlands in the Ex-Mega Rice area. In total we estimate a re-
Peatland restoration in Central Kalimantan for climate,
biodiversity and livelihoods
duced emission of at least 4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide
per year by reducing decomposition only. These emissions
would, without these restoration activities, have continued for
some decades until they would gradually phase out as a result
of the overall decimation of the peat store. Additionally reduced
emissions resulting from fires were achieved; around 250,000
hectares of peatland now has improved security from fires and
fire-fighting capacity has been improved in 25 villages. A total of
1500 ha of the hydrologically restored area was replanted with
indigenous tree species.
Another focus of the project was to conserve any remaining
peat swamp forests. This work was complemented by a range of
efforts to reduce poverty, including improving local health facili-
ties, the development of an alternative livelihood strategies and
investments in socioeconomic development through the devel-
opment of sustainable fisheries, agriculture and forestry. On a
global level the project has strongly increased awareness about
the peatland problems in Indonesia. The proposed REDD policy
under the UN climate conference (deforestation in developing
countries; status after Copenhagen 2009) now opens the road
to also address peatland loss; with funds provided by developed
countries to reduce deforestation and forest degradation in de-
veloping countries.
With its innovative approaches, CKPP can be seen as an example
for provincial and country authorities, institutions and NGOs of
how to integrate the principles of sustainable development into
policies and programmes for large scale restoration of logged
and drained peatlands and for the protection of intact area.
CASE STUDY #22
the sea floor (Nellemann
et al
., 2009). Coastal vegetation is esti-
mated to take up an average of 0.11–0.13 GtC per year (Cebrián
and Duarte, 1996; Duarte
et al
., 2005; Bouillon
et al
., 2008).
Mangroves are large carbon sinks (~0.018 GtC per year glob-
ally) and highly productive in terms of primary productivity and
wildlife (Bouillon
et al
., 2008; Laffoley and Grimsditch, 2009).
Coastal habitats can also be crucial for climate change adap-
tation, such as coastal defence, and provide many resources
important to livelihoods. In Vietnam, a mangrove restoration
programme found that the economic value of such benefits
outweighed the costs (Table 1; Tri
et al
., 1998).
Salt marshes sequester ~0.06 GtC per year globally and 1.51
x10
-3
GtC/ha/year (Duarte
et al
., 2005), a great proportion of
which is sequestered in the soil (Chmura
et al
., 2003); as such