LoCARNet 7th Annual Meeting – November 21 2018 – Jakarta, Indonesia

Challenges of mitigating commercial agriculture over tropical peatlands in

IndonesiaJanice Ser Huay Lee

janicelee@ntu.edu.sg

Coupled Human and Natural Systems LabAsian School of the Environment | Earth Observatory Singapore

Nanyang Technological University of Singapore

Outline

• Tropical peatlands in Southeast Asia• Commercial agriculture expansion over tropical

peatlands in Indonesia• What we know so far• Changing actors in rapidly degrading landscape

• Peatland governance for low carbon development

Outline

• Tropical peatlands in Southeast Asia• Commercial agriculture expansion over tropical

peatlands in Indonesia• What we know so far• Changing actors in rapidly degrading landscape

• Peatland governance for low carbon development

“Peatlands are wetlands with a thick water-logged organic soil layer (peat) made up of dead and decaying plant material. Peatlands include moors, bogs, mires, peat swamp forests and permafrost tundra.”

Wetlands International

Photo: Global Carbon Project

What are peatlands?

Wahyunto et al. (2003) Wetlands InternationalPosa et al. (2011) Bioscience

Page et al. (2011) Glob Ch Bio

Southeast Asia’s peatlands

Photo: Greenpeace

Support Livelihoods

Photo: CIFOR Photo: ABC News.au

Photo: Outrop.org

Photo: Greenpeace

Photo: forclime.org

Photo: Orangutan Conservancy

Photo: Greenpeace

Yule (2010) Biod Cons; Posa et al. (2011) Bioscience

Production for…

Paper Wood Palm oil

Outline

• Tropical peatlands in Southeast Asia• Commercial agriculture expansion over tropical

peatlands in Indonesia• What we know so far• Changing actors in rapidly degrading landscape

• Peatland governance for low carbon development

Miettinen et al. (2012) ICCT

Industrial plantations over peatlands

Extent of planted oil palm area over peat

Koh et al. (2011) PNAS

Mature, 8 yearsArea > 2 km2

Area of oil palm planted on peatlands (ha)

Extent of closed canopy oil palm over peatlandsBo

rneo

Sum

atra

Indonesia

Large-estates or smallholders as agents of peatswamp deforestation?

Lee et al. (2013) Cons Lett

Smallholder plantations > 25 ha

Removed overlaps among sectors and with timber plantation concessions

Peatswamp forest loss from 2000-2010 in Sumatra: ~1.3 million ha

94%6%

Peatswamp forest loss within the oil palm industryPeatswamp forest loss

from the oil palm industry

30%

Others

Lee et al. (2013) Cons Lett

Peatswamp forest loss from 2000-2010 in Sumatra: ~1.3 million ha

94%6%

Peatswamp forest loss within the oil palm industryPeatswamp forest loss

from the oil palm industry

30%

Others

Lee et al. (2013) Cons Lett

70 – 77% of emissions from the oil palm industry came

from PSF loss within private enterprises

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Mangrove Peatswamp forest Lowland forest Lower montaneforest

Total forest cover

Perc

enta

ge fo

rest

cov

er lo

ss in

Sum

atra

for

2000

-20

10

Other

Acacia

State

Smallholder

Company

Are we missing the impacts from the pulp and paper industry?

Abood, Lee et al. (2014) Cons Lett

Peatswamp forest loss in different concessions

Abood, Lee et al. (2014) Cons Lett

Peatswamp forest loss in different concessions

Smallholders playing a more active role?

Who is the smallholder?

Outline

• Tropical peatlands in Southeast Asia• Commercial agriculture expansion over tropical

peatlands in Indonesia• What we know so far• Changing actors in rapidly degrading landscape

• Peatland governance for low carbon development

• Is any development sustainable at all?• Still lack in our understanding of peat ecosystem• Manage these systems in knowledge gap

Sustainable development of peat?

International/National/Sub-national Governance Systems

Changing corporate activities

Involving local communities

Diverting development away from PSFPeatland development within concessions• High Conservation Value

status under ISPO/RSPO • REDD+ to offset opportunity

costs for not developing PSF• Land swaps (under Peatland

Restoration Agency)• Moratorium over peatlands

Credit: Graham Usher, PanEco

Government action

Tripa Peatswamp forests in Aceh

1989: 61,000 ha2012: 10,700 ha

Political economy of PSF development

050

100150200250300350400

Without logging Logging degradedforests

Logging primaryforests

NPV

USD

/ha

Scenarios of oil palm establishment

Provincial

Producing district

Adapted from Irawan et al. (2013) Ecol Econs

Changing corporate practices

Involving local communitiesPeatland development outside of concessions- Recognizing land rights

of local communities- Encouraging more

community-company partnerships for smallholder agriculture

- Restoring degraded peatlands in Indonesia

JA - One boundary to rule them all

Tools for implementing JA

Future for Indonesia’s peatlands?

Miettinen et al. (2012); Carlson et al. (2013); Abood et al. (2015); Sloan et al. (2017); Wijedasa et al. (2018)

1970s: Logging of peatswamp forests - increased desiccation1980-2000s: Draining of peatswamp forests, industrial plantation development2000s-present: Mixed agency of companies and smallholders2020, 2030, 2040, 2050 – future scenarios for peatlands in Indonesia?

Implications for fires & carbon emissions• Fires are intricately linked to

peatland degradation through the years

• Peatlands moving from a carbon sink to carbon source

• Will Indonesia’s peatland restoration reverse this trend?

Thank you!

Gross carbon dioxide

emissions (Mt)

Oil palm sector

Sumatra Total Private enterprise Smallholder State-

owned

Mean 3,526-4,502 756-1,043 685-956(90.6-91.7)

67-83(8.9-8.0)

4.19-4.21(0.6-0.4)

Low 2,747-3,090 599-700 543-638(90.7-91.1)

52-58(8.7-8.3)

3.49-3.50(0.6-0.5)

High 4,387-6,231 919-1,462 830-1,342(90.3-91.8)

84-115(9.1-7.9)

4.89-4.93(0.5-0.3)

Gross CO2 emissions (Mt) from total forest loss

70 – 77% of emissions from the oil palm industry came from PSF loss within private enterprises

Lee et al. (2013) Cons Lett