Peatlands are among the most valuable yet vulnerable ecosystems on our planet. They serve as vast carbon stores, biodiversity hotspots, and crucial hydrological regulators. However, despite their ecological importance, they have often been undervalued in economic decision-making. As a result, peatlands—especially those in the tropics, such as Riau in Sumatra, Indonesia—face relentless pressures from agricultural expansion, land conversion, and unsustainable resource extraction.
The booklet entitled “Unlocking Economic Value of Peatland Ecosystem Services and Implications for Effective Peatland Management in Riau, Sumatra, Indonesia” provides a timely and insightful exploration into the multifaceted benefits of peatland ecosystems and the potential for integrating their value into policy and management frameworks. By bridging ecological science, economics, and governance, this book illuminates the pathways through which peatland conservation can align with economic incentives, ensuring sustainable livelihoods while preserving critical ecosystem functions.
The case from Riau, Sumatra, is particularly compelling, given its vast peatland landscapes that have historically played a vital role in both local economies and global environmental stability. This book carefully illustrates the ways in which ecosystem services—such as food provisioning, carbon sequestration, water regulation, and biodiversity conservation—can be translated into quantifiable economic terms, making a strong case for investment in peatland protection and restoration. It also highlights policy mechanisms, market-based solutions, and community-driven approaches that can support effective peatland governance.
Tag: Carbon sequestration
Towards comprehensive blue carbon accounting in Vietnam
Key messages
- The Government of Vietnam pays great attention to protecting mangrove ecosystems as they play a vital role in climate change mitigation. In 2024, the government issued Technical Guidelines for Biomass and Carbon Stock Estimation of Mangrove Forests (Decision No. 316/QD-LN-SXLN). These Guidelines aim to standardize estimates for biomass and carbon stock, and increase carbon storage from their restoration. This brief looks at required improvements to the Guidelines to help Vietnam join the blue carbon market.
- Better estimates of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from converted mangroves are needed to understand baseline emissions from anthropogenic disturbances in mangrove forests, as well as the impact of ending conversion of mangroves to other uses like aquaculture. To that end, better information on conversion and land-management practices is needed. This includes excavation depth for construction of aquaculture ponds and infrastructure development, nitrogen inputs for aquaculture production, and knowledge on crop types, drainage depth, and GHG budgets in mangroves converted to agriculture.
- More refined estimates of GHG emissions from converted mangroves can help shed light on baseline emissions from anthropogenic disturbances in mangrove forests, as well as the impact of ending conversion of mangroves to other uses like aquaculture.
- Strategic alignment with established blue carbon standards—such as the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and the Gold Standard (GS) Framework—would enable Vietnam to harness the full potential of its mangrove ecosystems for high-integrity blue carbon crediting.
- Integrating remote sensing and machine learning techniques with species-level classification data can significantly enhance the accuracy and robustness of blue carbon accounting in mangrove ecosystems.
Bridging Technology and Local Participation: A Collaborative Approach for Peatland and Mangrove Restoration
Nowadays, global advancements in technology have revolutionized natural resource management and conservation efforts, offering new tools and frameworks to monitor and manage ecosystems. The integration of satellite imagery, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), drones, and mobile applications has facilitated real-time environmental data collection and analysis, enabling more informed decision-making. An effective monitoring system is recognized as essential to successful restoration and conservation efforts, as it allows to support adaptive management by measuring progress and helping to identify corrective actions needed for a long-term process. Learning from requirements, problems, limitations, and the emergence of new technologies, we develop a Community Based Restoration Monitoring System (CBRMS). The system is designed to be flexible, accessible, cost-effective, and user friendly. By utilizing affordable technologies, it ensures adoption by communities with limited resources also requires minimal technical expertise to maintain the system. The system can be adapted to different ecological and social contexts, ensuring its scalability and sustainability. It empowers local communities for an active role in monitoring environmental conditions and fostering local awareness that led to enhanced conservation efforts. This paper demonstrates the value of the CBRMS in supporting sustainable resource management and conservation efforts through combining participatory monitoring, science and technology. CBRMS serves as a bridge between local participation and modern ecological practices according to evidence of its application for community-based mangrove and peatland restoration in Indonesia. It measures the survival and growth of planted trees and related carbon sequestration. This system also demonstrates local participation in contributing to climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Editorial: Socioeconomic implications of forests and forestry in a changing climate and governance
Forests provide critical ecosystem services—provisioning, regulating, and cultural—that support biodiversity, human well-being, and climate resilience. While wood remains the most documented forest product, non-wood forest products and services such as wild foods and recreation are increasingly recognized for their cultural and economic value. This special topic highlights the importance of viewing forests as multifunctional landscapes and underscores the role of governance in shaping forest use. Studies from Ethiopia and Malaysia illustrate how household fuelwood use and indigenous land rights intersect with carbon emissions and climate policy. Strengthening inclusive governance frameworks is essential to ensure forests contribute equitably to climate mitigation, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable development.
Are traditional agroforestry systems nature-based carbon sinks? Empirical evidence from Tanzania
Traditional agroforestry systems (TAFS) in Tanzania—Alalili, Ngitili, and Faidherbia parkland—play a critical role in biodiversity conservation, rural livelihoods, and climate change mitigation. This study quantified their carbon sequestration potential using field data from 48 plots. Results showed significant variation in total carbon stocks, with Faidherbia parkland storing the most (151.91 Mg C ha⁻¹) due to large-diameter trees, while Ngitili stored the least (17.96 Mg C ha⁻¹) despite higher stem density. These findings highlight TAFS as valuable nature-based carbon sinks and support their integration into climate strategies such as REDD+ and carbon farming. Strengthening TAFS can yield co-benefits for carbon storage, ecosystem services, and sustainable development.
Total ecosystem carbon stocks of tropical peat forests and greenhouse gas emissions from their disturbance
Because of their unique biodiversity and inordinately large carbon stocks, tropical peat forests are considered key wetland ecosystems for conservation and restoration. Despite this recognition continued deforestation and land cover change result in these ecosystems becoming significant sources of greenhouse gases. There is a strong need for accurate quantification of carbon stocks and emissions at scales relevant for participation in carbon markets and nationally determined contributions. Based upon analyses of 125 forests in 4 continents (Asia, Oceania, the Americas) there was a broad range in peat depths (19–1414 cm) with total ecosystem carbon stocks (TECS) ranging from 172 to 9379 Mg C ha−1 (mean of 2137 Mg C ha−1). Among the 47 sampled sites known to be tidally-influenced (i.e., blue carbon ecosystems), TECS ranged from 206 to 5591 Mg C ha−1 with a mean of 1979 Mg C ha−1. Those sites with deep peats (> 7 m depth) have a mean TECS of 4620 ± 395 Mg C ha−1 and we know of no ecosystems with an equivalent ecosystem carbon stock. Peat soils composed a mean of 86 % of TECS, and peat depths were strongly correlated with soil carbon stocks at continental and global scales (R2 > 0.80) suggesting inventories that include measurement of peat depth can accurately estimate carbon stocks. Degradation of peat landscapes comes with high ecological and social costs including the largest greenhouse gas emissions from any forest land use globally. The social carbon costs to future generations associated with the conversion of tropical peat forests to oil palm plantations is conservatively estimated to be nine times the value of the palm oil generated from the conversion. Such costs and values of the tropical peat forests underscore the importance of the conservation and restoration of these wetlands for future generations – an important element of sustainability.
Reduction of deforestation by agroforestry in high carbon stock forests of Southeast Asia
Agroforestry is widely practiced for its socio-economic and ecological benefits, but its effectiveness in reducing deforestation at the landscape scale remains uncertain. This study applied causal inference methods to analyze agroforestry’s impact across 38 subnational regions in Southeast Asia, including areas with high carbon stock forests and deforestation hotspots. The findings indicate local variability but an overall net reduction in deforestation of 250,319 hectares per year, translating to 58.8 ± 15.5 megatonnes of CO₂ equivalent annually (P < 0.05). These results highlight agroforestry’s role as a natural climate solution, particularly in the biodiverse forests of Southeast Asia, which store significant amounts of carbon. This study underscores the nuanced relationship between agroforestry and deforestation reduction, offering valuable insights for conservation and climate mitigation strategies.
Protect young secondary forests for optimum carbon removal
Avoiding severe global warming requires large-scale removals of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Forest regeneration offers cost-effective carbon removals, but annual rates vary substantially by location and forest age. Here we generate grid-level (~1-km2) growth curves for aboveground live carbon in naturally regrowing forests by combining 109,708 field estimates with 66 environmental covariates. Across the globe and the first 100 years of growth, maximum carbon removal rates varied 200-fold, with the greatest rates estimated in ~20- to 40-year-old forests. Despite a focus on new forests for natural climate solutions, protecting existing young secondary forests can provide up to 8-fold more carbon removal per hectare than new regrowth. These maps could help to target the optimal ages and locations where a key carbon removal strategy could be applied, and improve estimates of how secondary forests contribute to global carbon cycling.
¿Crecen los árboles sobre el dinero?: implicaciones de la investigación sobre deforestación en las medidas para promover la REDD
This paper has two objectives. First, it analyzes the past research on deforestation and summarizes the findings of that research, in terms of its relevance to the development of future REDD regimes. Second, it highlights areas where future research and methodological development are needed to support national and international processes on avoided deforestation and degradation.
Measuring leaf area index in rubber plantations ? a challenge
In order to estimate water use, water requirements and carbon sequestration of tropical plantation systems such as rubber it is adamant to have accurate information on leaf area development of the plantation as the main determinant of evapotranspiration. Literature commonly suggests a number of different methods on how to obtain leaf area index (LAI) information from tree plantation systems. Methods include destructive measurements of leaf area at peak LAI, indirect methods such as gap fraction methods (i.e. Hemiview and LAI 2000) and radiation interception methods (i.e. SunScan) or litter fall traps. Published values for peak LAI in rubber plantation differ widely and show no clear trend to be explained by management practices or the influence of local climate patterns. This study compares four methods for determining LAI of rubber plantations of different ages in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, PR China. We have tested indirect measurement techniques such as light absorption and gap fraction measurements and hemispherical image analysis against litter fall data in order to obtain insights into the reliability of these measuring techniques for the use in tropical tree plantation systems. In addition, we have included data from destructive harvesting as a comparison. The results presented here clearly showed that there was no consistent agreement between the different measurements. Site, time of the day and incoming radiation all had a significant effect on the results depending on the devices used. This leaves us with the conclusion that the integration of published data on LAI in rubber into broad ranging assessments is very difficult to accomplish as the accuracy of the measurements seems to be very sensitive to a number of factors. This diminishes the usefulness of literature data in estimating evapotranspiration from rubber plantations and the induced environmental effects, both on local as well as regional levels. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd