Enhancing the benefits of tropical peatland restoration for supporting local communities and ecosystem processes.
Lead Research Organisation:
University of York
Department Name: Biology
Abstract
There is a requirement to feed a rapidly growing human population whilst maintaining ecosystem services and reducing biodiversity losses. Across the world, previously extensive tracts of natural habitats have been degraded by human activities, with detrimental impacts for biodiversity and soils, and for the livelihoods of local communities living in these landscapes. Indonesia's forests are extremely biologically diverse but this hyper-diversity is threatened due to widespread loss of rainforest.
Peat swamp forests contain particularly large stores of carbon and support unique flora and fauna not occurring elsewhere, but have been drained and degraded to make way for agriculture, threatening wildlife and releasing large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere from loss of trees and soil. Much of this recent forest loss is due to conversion to oil palm plantations, which provide important sources of local incomes, although drained peatlands produce many ecosystem disservices (e.g. bare land and soil with low/no agricultural value, poor air quality). Thus there are moves to rehabilitate degraded peatlands with a focus on reducing emissions, but potential co-benefits (and risks) of restoration for biodiversity and consequences for local communities whose livelihoods are dependent on agriculture are not well understood.
The aim of this project is to understand the consequences of draining peatlands for biodiversity and local livelihoods, and to examine different scenarios for prioritising peatlands for restoration, according to biodiversity and emissions considerations and local community benefits and trade-offs.
Restoration of degraded peat forest and re-wetting of drained areas may remove agricultural areas from production thereby reducing small holder farmer incomes and food. Moreover, decisions about sites to restore need to be compatible with systems of local governance, land rights and devolved administrations, and require the identification of alternative livelihood options for communities in restored habitats. The size and degree of connectivity of forest areas is also important for maintaining population networks of species in degraded landscapes, and for promoting the responses of biodiversity to climate change, and so decisions about peatland locations for restoration also need to include consideration of connectivity and adaptation of species to climate change.
The issues we will address in this multi-disciplinary project will have a direct impact on local communities living in Indonesian peatland landscapes but the wider issues of balancing environmental, biodiversity and local community needs in multi-functional landscapes will be of broad generic importance.
Peat swamp forests contain particularly large stores of carbon and support unique flora and fauna not occurring elsewhere, but have been drained and degraded to make way for agriculture, threatening wildlife and releasing large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere from loss of trees and soil. Much of this recent forest loss is due to conversion to oil palm plantations, which provide important sources of local incomes, although drained peatlands produce many ecosystem disservices (e.g. bare land and soil with low/no agricultural value, poor air quality). Thus there are moves to rehabilitate degraded peatlands with a focus on reducing emissions, but potential co-benefits (and risks) of restoration for biodiversity and consequences for local communities whose livelihoods are dependent on agriculture are not well understood.
The aim of this project is to understand the consequences of draining peatlands for biodiversity and local livelihoods, and to examine different scenarios for prioritising peatlands for restoration, according to biodiversity and emissions considerations and local community benefits and trade-offs.
Restoration of degraded peat forest and re-wetting of drained areas may remove agricultural areas from production thereby reducing small holder farmer incomes and food. Moreover, decisions about sites to restore need to be compatible with systems of local governance, land rights and devolved administrations, and require the identification of alternative livelihood options for communities in restored habitats. The size and degree of connectivity of forest areas is also important for maintaining population networks of species in degraded landscapes, and for promoting the responses of biodiversity to climate change, and so decisions about peatland locations for restoration also need to include consideration of connectivity and adaptation of species to climate change.
The issues we will address in this multi-disciplinary project will have a direct impact on local communities living in Indonesian peatland landscapes but the wider issues of balancing environmental, biodiversity and local community needs in multi-functional landscapes will be of broad generic importance.
Planned Impact
WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM THE RESEARCH AND HOW:
Peat forests contain unique and poorly understood biodiversity and store vast amounts of carbon, but large areas have been degraded and drained for logging and agriculture and remaining areas are at risk from continued agricultural expansion. Restoration of peatlands is being proposed as an effective way to mitigate carbon emissions from degraded peatlands and to restore the natural species community, and such activities could be implemented by a range of stakeholders including government wishing to meet emissions targets and tackle fires and haze, the oil palm industry and other commodity sectors that need to comply with certification standards, and environmental NGOs aiming to restore habitat and connectivity for endangered species. The following key outputs from our research will be directly relevant to decision making for better land-use planning in peat dominated landscapes.
1) Mapping of fragmentation, connectivity and emissions risk of peatlands in Sumatra.
2) New data and insight into peatland biodiversity and species responses to degradation and restoration
3) Understanding and incorporating the needs of local communities and the benefits/ dis-benefits of peat restoration projects on livelihoods and wellbeing
4) Priority areas for restoration which consider carbon, biodiversity, connectivity and communities.
KEY BENEFICIARIES AND HOW THEY WILL USE THE RESEARCH:
Local communities- Local communities are most affected by changes in our study system and by the potential impact of our findings and recommendations. Improved land planning which incorporates the needs of local communities as well as environmental considerations. will help to secure livelihoods and improve wellbeing through increased water, soil and air quality (especially linked to haze associated with fires)
ASEAN governments- Many ASEAN governments have commitments to meet Aichi targets and CBD commitments and to safeguard their natural resources and assets and this research will aid land planning to target areas for restoration and protection that will have the greatest benefits for environment and society.
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)-The voluntary certification standard for sustainably produced palm oil has more than 2500 members including some of the world's largest oil palm growers, and international consumer goods companies. The standard aims to minimise the environmental impact of the palm oil industry and will benefit from knowledge to inform their policies on land-use planning, placement and rehabilitation of conservation set asides, and management of existing oil palm plantations on peatlands to minimise negative environmental impacts and avoid fires.
Oil palm companies- RSPO member companies are required to avoid clearance and degradation of peatlands and to maintain and enhance High Conservation Value forest set asides within their concession areas. Additionally, companies are required to remediate and compensate for past non-compliance with certification standards, and restoration projects could be an effective option for meet this requirement. Our research will inform better land planning and management in peat dominated regions.
NGOs- Local and international NGOs concerned with protecting, managing and restoring forests, reducing carbon emissions/ mitigating climate change and conserving biodiversity, and improving livelihoods and wellbeing of communities in Indonesia and the SE Asian region will benefit from new biodiversity information for peatlands, bottlenecks for species dispersal, and priority areas for conservation efforts that will be identified by the project.
Peat forests contain unique and poorly understood biodiversity and store vast amounts of carbon, but large areas have been degraded and drained for logging and agriculture and remaining areas are at risk from continued agricultural expansion. Restoration of peatlands is being proposed as an effective way to mitigate carbon emissions from degraded peatlands and to restore the natural species community, and such activities could be implemented by a range of stakeholders including government wishing to meet emissions targets and tackle fires and haze, the oil palm industry and other commodity sectors that need to comply with certification standards, and environmental NGOs aiming to restore habitat and connectivity for endangered species. The following key outputs from our research will be directly relevant to decision making for better land-use planning in peat dominated landscapes.
1) Mapping of fragmentation, connectivity and emissions risk of peatlands in Sumatra.
2) New data and insight into peatland biodiversity and species responses to degradation and restoration
3) Understanding and incorporating the needs of local communities and the benefits/ dis-benefits of peat restoration projects on livelihoods and wellbeing
4) Priority areas for restoration which consider carbon, biodiversity, connectivity and communities.
KEY BENEFICIARIES AND HOW THEY WILL USE THE RESEARCH:
Local communities- Local communities are most affected by changes in our study system and by the potential impact of our findings and recommendations. Improved land planning which incorporates the needs of local communities as well as environmental considerations. will help to secure livelihoods and improve wellbeing through increased water, soil and air quality (especially linked to haze associated with fires)
ASEAN governments- Many ASEAN governments have commitments to meet Aichi targets and CBD commitments and to safeguard their natural resources and assets and this research will aid land planning to target areas for restoration and protection that will have the greatest benefits for environment and society.
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)-The voluntary certification standard for sustainably produced palm oil has more than 2500 members including some of the world's largest oil palm growers, and international consumer goods companies. The standard aims to minimise the environmental impact of the palm oil industry and will benefit from knowledge to inform their policies on land-use planning, placement and rehabilitation of conservation set asides, and management of existing oil palm plantations on peatlands to minimise negative environmental impacts and avoid fires.
Oil palm companies- RSPO member companies are required to avoid clearance and degradation of peatlands and to maintain and enhance High Conservation Value forest set asides within their concession areas. Additionally, companies are required to remediate and compensate for past non-compliance with certification standards, and restoration projects could be an effective option for meet this requirement. Our research will inform better land planning and management in peat dominated regions.
NGOs- Local and international NGOs concerned with protecting, managing and restoring forests, reducing carbon emissions/ mitigating climate change and conserving biodiversity, and improving livelihoods and wellbeing of communities in Indonesia and the SE Asian region will benefit from new biodiversity information for peatlands, bottlenecks for species dispersal, and priority areas for conservation efforts that will be identified by the project.
Organisations
- University of York (Lead Research Organisation)
- UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN (Collaboration)
- South East Asia Rainforest Research Programme (SEARRP) (Collaboration)
- University of Montana (Collaboration)
- SE Asia Rainforest Research Programme (Project Partner)
- Van Hall Larenstein University (Project Partner)
Publications
Crowson M
(2018)
A comparison of satellite remote sensing data fusion methods to map peat swamp forest loss in Sumatra, Indonesia
in Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation
Lopes M
(2020)
Improving the accuracy of land cover classification in cloud persistent areas using optical and radar satellite image time series
in Methods in Ecology and Evolution
Williams SH
(2020)
Incorporating connectivity into conservation planning for the optimal representation of multiple species and ecosystem services.
in Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology
Warren-Thomas E
(2022)
No evidence for trade-offs between bird diversity, yield and water table depth on oil palm smallholdings: Implications for tropical peatland landscape restoration
in Journal of Applied Ecology
Ward C
(2021)
Smallholder perceptions of land restoration activities: rewetting tropical peatland oil palm areas in Sumatra, Indonesia.
in Regional environmental change
Scriven SA
(2019)
Testing the benefits of conservation set-asides for improved habitat connectivity in tropical agricultural landscapes.
in The Journal of applied ecology
Ward C
(2020)
Wading through the swamp: what does tropical peatland restoration mean to national-level stakeholders in Indonesia?
in Restoration Ecology
Description | The loss of huge areas of peat swamp forest in Southeast Asia and the resulting negative environmental effects, both local and global, have led to an increasing interest in peat restoration in the region. Our project has had three main conclusions: 1. Satellite remote sensing offers the potential to provide up-to-date information on peat forest loss at a large scale, and support spatially explicit conservation and restoration planning. Fusion of optical and radar remote sensing data may be particularly valuable in this context, as most peat swamp forests are located in areas with high cloud cover, which limits the use of optical data. Our results show that all three fusion methods increase overall accuracy compared to the use of a single data source. Object-level fusion outperformed the other two methods in terms of overall accuracy, and produced a more homogenous map, with less detail but reduced speckle. We believe our findings can guide future efforts to harness the synergistic information provided by optical and radar sensors, and provide recommendations to help conservationists to capitalise on the potential of big data. 2. The multitemporal dimension that satellite data now offer is often neglected because tropical areas are primarily characterized by relatively low levels of seasonality and because the consideration of multitemporal data requires more processing time. 3. Our study demonstrates that preserving the temporal information provided by satellite image time series can significantly improve land cover classifications in tropical biodiversity hotspots, improving our capacity to monitor ecosystems of high conservation relevance such as peatlands. The proposed method is reproducible, automated and based on open-source tools satellite imagery. 3. Ecological restoration is considered to play an important role in mitigating climate change, protecting biodiversity and preventing environmental degradation. Yet, there are often multiple perspectives on what outcomes restoration should be aiming to achieve, and how we should get to that point. Our interviews of a range of policy makers, academics and NGO representatives explored the range of perspectives on the restoration of Indonesia's tropical peatlands, and our results exemplified how ecological restoration can mean different things to different people, but also highlighted important areas of consensus for moving forward with peatland restoration strategies. |
Exploitation Route | Findings could be used by Government agencies, land planners, academics and conservationist who can use our findings and development of new methods to better map land-use and changes in land-use from space. Information about these new methods can also be used to develop improved land-cover maps which can help guide habitat restoration. |
Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Environment |
Description | Our project examined trade-offs between crop yield, farm management and biodiversity in tropical peatlands. We fed back our findings to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil to ensure that the scientific findings about lack of trade-offs between re-wetting and crop yields are available for policy makers to inform the next revisions of the certification standards. This feedback and knowledge exchange occurs primarily via the SEnSOR program (Socially and Environmentally Sustainable Oil Palm Research program) that some of the co-authors are involved with.. |
First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
Sector | Environment |
Impact Types | Policy & public services |
Description | Stakeholder workshop in Indonesia |
Geographic Reach | Asia |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Title | No evidence for trade-offs between bird diversity, yield and water table depth on oil palm smallholdings: implications for tropical peatland landscape restoration |
Description | Tropical peat swamp forests retain large carbon stocks and support unique biodiversity, but clearance and drainage for agriculture have resulted in fires, carbon emissions and biodiversity losses. Initiatives to re-wet cultivated peatlands may benefit biodiversity if this protects remaining forests from fire and agricultural encroachment, but there are concerns that re-wetting could reduce yields and damage livelihoods, as relationships between drainage, on-farm biodiversity, and crop yields have not been studied. We examined oil palm fruit yields and bird diversity on 41 smallholder farms in Jambi (Sumatra, Indonesia), which varied in drainage intensity (12-month mean water table per plot from August 2018 to August 2019: -52 to -3 cm below ground). We also compared farm bird diversity with a neighbouring area of protected forest (11,000 ha, 21 plots; mean water table per plot -3 to +15 cm). Bird species richness (3-18 species per plot), species composition, and oil palm yields (4.5-19.2 t fresh fruit bunch ha-1 yr-1) varied among farms, but were not detectably affected by water table depth, although ground-level vegetation was more complex on wetter farms. Bird richness in oil palm (mean = 10.3 species per plot) was |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | http://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.rr4xgxd9v |
Description | Rainforest Trust project |
Organisation | South East Asia Rainforest Research Programme (SEARRP) |
Country | Malaysia |
Sector | Multiple |
PI Contribution | Information on biodiversity in forest areas across Sabah (Borneo), and modelling of connectivity and prioritisation for improved conservation. |
Collaborator Contribution | Information on biodiversity, carbon storage and plant functional traits across Borneo. |
Impact | None yet |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Rainforest Trust project |
Organisation | University of Aberdeen |
Department | Business School |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Information on biodiversity in forest areas across Sabah (Borneo), and modelling of connectivity and prioritisation for improved conservation. |
Collaborator Contribution | Information on biodiversity, carbon storage and plant functional traits across Borneo. |
Impact | None yet |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Rainforest Trust project |
Organisation | University of Montana |
Department | Marine Sciences |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Information on biodiversity in forest areas across Sabah (Borneo), and modelling of connectivity and prioritisation for improved conservation. |
Collaborator Contribution | Information on biodiversity, carbon storage and plant functional traits across Borneo. |
Impact | None yet |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | ATBC Merida |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Conference presentation |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Efforts' symposium, Bali, Indonesia; invited speaker |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Discussion of sustainability of palm oil cultivation. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Interview in the Times newspaper about attitudes to palm oil consumption |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Article written in The Times newspaper, after interviewing me, on the sustainability of palm oil. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Radio 5live! interview on palm oil |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Interview and discussion of issues around palm oil sustainability. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Radio interview for BBC World Service |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Discussion for 'More or Less' radio program about rain forest connectivity. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Regular blog post |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | Providing information and interpreting the findings and research outputs from the project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019,2020,2021,2022 |
URL | https://peatproject.wordpress.com/ |
Description | Speaker at Sabah Climate Change International Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | International conference examining adaptation to the impacts of climate change on biodiversity |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://ccepdsabah.wixsite.com/sccic |
Description | Unifying Tropical Ecology' BES/GTÖ symposium, Edinburgh, invited speaker |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Discussion of tropical biodiversity changes |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |