Kalimantan Forest and Climate Partnership (KFCP)
Under the KFCP, Indonesia and Australia are working together to support international efforts on REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries). The project is situated in peatlands within the ex-mega rice project in the Mentangai subdistrict of the Kapuas district in Central Kalimantan. What do peatlands have to do with global warming or climate change? While visiting a KGI radio station in Palangkaraya, Ogi from Kang Guru met Pak Alue Dohong and Pak Eko Pranandhita from KFCP. Here's what they talked about. |
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Ogi from KGI started by asking what is carbon emission?
Carbon dioxide, or CO2, is one of the greenhouse gases that creates a big problem in the atmosphere especially contributing to the global climate change. So carbon emission means to emit, to release greenhouse gases such as CO2 into the atmosphere. We have to reduce that otherwise our planet will become warmer and warmer from time to time. That's not good.
How do peatlands contribute to the greenhouse gases?
Peatlands actually contain huge amounts of carbon (organic matter) within that peat soil itself. If we burn it or if we drain the water from it that means we allow this carbon to make contact with the air. That creates a CO2 gases emissions. That means peatlands will be big source of emission of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Is it easy for a fire to start in peatlands?
It is quite difficult for fire to burn peatlands because it is naturally a wet environment. Once the peatlands are opened up and the water starts to drain away the peatland becomes drier. Remember there are large amounts of carbon or organic matters there so if just a small fire begins it can burn for a long, long time. This includes underground fires - you can’t see any flames but the smokes comes out from the peat itself.
How large is the contribution of peatlands to total carbon emissions?
There is no agreed data but there is one study tells us that Indonesia is the third biggest emitter of CO2 in the world if we include emissions from peatlands. If we take out peatlands from the data Indonesia is in 25th position. That shows how big the contribution from peatlands really is.
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Why was this project started?
The Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnerships want to reduce this kind of emission because the majority of CO2 emissions now actually come from peatlands ecosystem because of fires, overdrainage and using the peatlands for other land uses.
What is this project trying to do with the peatlands?
That’s why this KFCP is focused on the ex- mega rice project which cleared a lot of the land. Now we have to help the land recover to prevent more fires by damming opened canals and planting trees.
So KFCP has taken real action in reducing carbon emission.
We all need to see peatlands as strategic resources especially in related with the mitigation and adaptation of climate change. So if we want help lessen the effects of climate change we have to stop the degradation of these peatlands. We need to do something real on the ground like restore the degraded peatlands, stop the deforestation on the peat swamps ecosystem, and STOP digging canals on the peatland swamp ecosystem. That’s real action.
KGI vocabulary help:
peatland = lahan gambut
underground fires = kebakaran didalam tanah
CO2 emitter = penyumbang gas CO2
overdrainage = pengurasan air secara berlebihan dari ekosistem gambut
damming opened canals = membendung kanal yang terbuka |
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