Peat

How old is old growth in Borneo? 130 million years. Almost 80 percent of the island of Borneo was covered with this old growth rainforest in 1973. Today, only 28 percent remains. Barely bigger than France, Borneo’s rainforests are packed with more rare and fascinating species than almost anywhere else in the world. However, Borneo […]

“This is the perfect land—flat, fertile—all we need to do is drain it,” a farmer thinks upon approaching a peat forest. Draining the area turns waterlogged, carbon-rich soil into arable land, but in the process releases tons of carbon into the atmosphere. Only 15% of peatlands worldwide have been drained, but this alone is responsible […]

A conversation with Atiek Widayati, Geospatial Analyst at ICRAF, during the Global Landscapes Forum thematic event Peatlands Matter in Jakarta, Indonesia, on May 18, 2017.

By Leona Liu, originally posted on Forests News. Indonesia – With 425 people in attendance in Jakarta — as well as over one thousand views of the event livestream and 5 million people reached through Twitter — the thematic Global Landscapes Forum: Peatlands Matter event brought together local and global actors to accelerate positive action in the management of […]

By Gabrielle Lipton, originally posted on Forests News. Indonesia – It may seem counter-intuitive to put human interests first when tackling an environmental issue as complex and technical as peatlands. The Global Landscapes Forum: Peatlands Matter event, however, sought to prove that local experiences are a crucial component to paving the best way forward for […]