Latest news with #peatlands
Malay Mail
5 days ago
- General
- Malay Mail
‘We were born into the peatlands': Inside Indonesia's grassroots battle for the swamps
LEBUNG ITAM, July 26 — Indonesian environmentalist Pralensa steered his boat through a shallow canal in the marshy peatlands near his village, an environment he fears may soon disappear. His oar stirred up rich organic material in the brackish water, evidence of the layers of plant matter that make peatlands vital carbon dioxide stores and key to biodiversity. Indonesia has more tropical peatland than any other country, but it is also quickly losing this poorly understood ecosystem. That affects local residents and wildlife but also has global impacts, because converted peatland can release vast quantities of planet-warming carbon dioxide. Just 18.4 per cent of Indonesia's peatlands remain 'undisturbed', a 2023 study found, with vast tracts now palm oil or timber plantations. Pralensa worries a similar fate awaits much of the swampy peatland around his village of Lebung Itam in South Sumatra. An aerial view of a palm oil plantation (right) and a peatland forest in Bangsal, South Sumatra June 10, 2025. — AFP pic Locals say palm oil firm Bintang Harapan Palma has already begun digging canals to drain the peatlands for planting. 'We protested... we told them this is a community-managed area,' said Pralensa, who, like many Indonesians, uses a single name. 'According to them, they already have rights to this land.' Bintang Harapan Palma did not respond to AFP's request for comment. Peatlands are an in-between place -- seemingly neither water nor land -- an environment that slows plant decomposition and forms carbon-rich peat. Covering just 3 per cent of the world's surface, they hold an estimated 44 per cent of all soil carbon. Indonesia's peatlands are home to endangered orangutans, as well as economically important fish species. They also help prevent flooding and drought, lower local temperatures and minimise saltwater intrusion. For Pralensa, peatlands are no less than a 'spiritual bond'. 'From the moment that we exist, that we're born, we are aware of this peatland. We encounter it every moment of every day,' the 44-year-old said. Angkut Join, the head of Bangsal village, poses for a picture at the edge of the seasonally dry peat swamp in Bangsal, South Sumatra June 10, 2025. — AFP pic Catastrophic fires Indonesia's peatland has long been converted for agriculture, drained of the water that is its lifeblood, with severe consequences. Dry peat is highly flammable, and fire can smoulder underground and reignite seemingly at will. Peatlands were a leading cause of Indonesia's catastrophic 2015 fires, which burned through an area about 4.5 times the size of Bali and cost the country some $16.1 billion, or about two per cent of GDP, according to the World Bank. The blazes sparked calls for action, including a moratorium on new peatland concessions. Government regulations adopted the following year banned several damaging activities, including burning and drying out peatland. The environment ministry did not respond to questions submitted by AFP. Marda Ellius, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against three companies accused of causing wildfires, poses on a hammock next to the seasonally dry peat swamp in Bangsal, South Sumatra June 10, 2025. — AFP pic 'Weak oversight and law enforcement in Indonesia allow the exploitation of peatlands to continue,' said Wahyu Perdana at peatland preservation NGO Pantau Gambut. And fires still happen 'almost every year,' said Rohman, a farmer in Bangsal village, around two hours west of Lebung Itam. Like Lebung Itam, it is ringed by plantations on converted peatland. Bangsal residents could once rely on vast wetlands to feed their distinctive buffalo, which dive beneath the water to graze. Fish traps supplied additional income, along with small rice paddies. Now, buffalo are hemmed in by plantations, while fish are affected by walls that keep the plantations dry, and fertilisers and herbicides flushed out by rain. Indonesia has more tropical peatland than any country, but it is also quickly losing this poorly understood ecosystem. That affects local residents and wildlife but also has global impacts, because converted peatland can release vast quantities of planet-warming carbon dioxide. — AFP pic 'We must protect nature' Plantation infrastructure prevents water from subsiding properly when the rains end, complicating rice planting And then there is the seasonal haze. 'It's difficult to do anything' when it descends, said Rohman, with visibility sometimes dropping to just a few metres. Everything from 'economic activity to children playing and learning is very disrupted'. Rohman, 53, was one of several plaintiffs from Bangsal and Lebung Itam who filed a landmark lawsuit over the fires. They argued three companies with nearby timber plantations on peatland bore legal responsibility for the health, economic and social impacts of local fires. Filing the suit was not an easy decision, said Bangsal schoolteacher Marda Ellius, who alleges a company named in the case offered her money and help for her family if she withdrew. 'I kept thinking that, from the beginning, my goal here was for the environment, for many people,' she said. 'I chose to continue.' Water buffalo graze on aquatic plants in the seasonally dry peat swamp in Bangsal, South Sumatra June 11, 2025. — AFP pic AFP could not reach the companies named in the suit. Major firm Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), which buys from the three companies, did not respond. This month, a local court rejected the suit, saying the plaintiffs lacked standing. 'The pain cannot be described,' plaintiff Muhammad Awal Gunadi said of the ruling. 'It was tough because we were facing corporations. The group has pledged to appeal, and Bangsal's villagers are lobbying local government for a new designation to protect their remaining peatland. Healthy peat is 'like the lungs of the Earth,' said Bangsal resident and buffalo farmer Muhammad Husin. 'Hopefully, if we protect nature, nature will also protect us.' — AFP
CBC
7 days ago
- Science
- CBC
More research needed on wildfire smoke toxicity, scientists say as they warn of pollution 'time bomb'
Wildfire smoke in Manitoba could be even more toxic than usual and more research needs to be done on the pollutants being released into the air, according to scientists. The fires may be releasing pollution stored in the province's soil for millennia, including toxic chemicals from more than a century of resource exploitation in the north, said Colin McCarter, Canada Research Chair of Climate and Environmental Change. Peatlands cover about one-third of the province and the boggy wetland is a critical carbon storehouse and even acts as a natural fire barrier, but climate change is increasingly putting them at risk. As the landscapes dry out and become more susceptible to the flames, a "pollution time bomb" is potentially set to go off, McCarter said. Peatlands are "also regionally really important landscape stores or sinks of toxic metals," he said. "Toxic metals can range from everyday things that we think about [like] copper … [to] lead, arsenic, mercury — all these things that are associated with quite poor human health outcomes." McCarter said peatlands are able to sequester more of these toxic metals than other ecosystems, and that it's easy to find peatland-rich areas in Canada which are near places where there's been historical industrial activity and resource extraction, including Flin Flon. A fire that forced the evacuation of the city about 760 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, in late May was about 347,105 hectares large this week, making it the biggest active wildfire in the province. The community's last mine closed in 2022. Its copper-zinc smelter — which had been operating since the 1920s — shut down in 2010. At one point, the Flin Flon smelter emitted more than 200,000 tonnes of sulfur-dioxide a year. Studies done over the past three decades have found elevated levels of mercury and other trace metals in sediment cores, soil humus, plants and peat. Environment and Climate Change Canada said that while it was operational, the smelter was the largest single source of atmospheric mercury emissions in the country. "I can name probably half a dozen other sites across Canada where you have this kind of … landscape-level pollution from this historical industrial contamination in the boreal, which is a fire ecosystem," McCarter said, mentioning Thompson which is about 15 kilometres southwest of another wildfire. "It's a fire-adapted ecosystem and … normally burns." But McCarter said the level of toxicity of what may be released depends on several factors, including the temperature of the fire, the type of peatland and climate conditions. "Trying to make that link there … from what's in the peatlands to what is the risk is still a very active part of my research," he said. "We're starting to put some of those ideas to experiments, but we're still missing those linkages to really make these predictions about risk." 'We need studies' Michael Schindler is a professor with the University of Manitoba's department of earth sciences, and has previously done research on how pollutants mix with wildfire smoke. "Contaminants at Flin Flon are mainly lead, zinc, mercury," Schindler said, adding that selenium is an issue. The province limited consumption of fish at a nearby lake last year due to elevated selenium levels, which were likely a result of mine wastewater over the past century. Schindler said contaminants that couldn't normally be inhaled get attached to the finer particles in wildfire smoke, allowing them to get into the lungs. The particles "are literally the Trojan horse," he said. The smoke's "health effects are much greater." Many of the metal particles released by a smelter are "pretty locked up," Schindler said. "But some of them are already mobile and those could theoretically … be volatilized and attach, especially mercury which is a really volatile element. Selenium, also." Smoke from Canada's wildfires spread across North America and even crossed the Atlantic Ocean this summer. "It's huge amounts of wildfire smoke and you get those metals coming in … but it will delude over a long distance," Schindler said. The professor said he's more worried about the smoke mixing in with urban pollutants downstream, coming from sources like "literally every diesel engine." The toxic metals theoretically "may affect just the people in Flin Flon, but we need studies," Schindler said. "Is the population around Flin Flon more affected by the wildfire smoke in terms of health issues later on than a community where there has not been mining or smelting? I think people in Manitoba should know about this." Dave Price has lived in Flin Flon since the 1970s. A former geologist, he was among a group of volunteers who worked to rehabilitate land around the city that had been left barren because of increased acidity caused by the smelter's emissions for more than a decade. The project wrapped up in 2016. Price was among the 5,000 residents who were allowed to return to the community last month. "It was a very hot fire as far as I understand it. That is to say, the trees were burned down to the roots and the burning continued into the peat underneath, and the peat underneath did contain these metals," he said.
The Independent
23-07-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Warmer summers ‘could boost growth rates in European peatlands'
Warmer summers could help boost growth rates in European peatlands, new research has found. The peatlands, which contain around half of Europe's soil carbon, need a combination of warm temperatures and a water table of around 10cm to thrive, researchers at Queen's University Belfast found. Peatlands form where there is a sustained build-up of partially decomposed plant matter, and they play a very important role in locking away greenhouse gases and absorbing industrial pollution. They contain approximately five times more carbon than its forests. However, European peatlands have been damaged by human activities including pollution, draining and climate change. Professor Graeme Swindles from the School of Natural and Built Environment at Queen's University has been leading a team examining peat accumulation rates, studying cores from 28 peat bogs across Europe. The study, which has now been published in research journal PLOS One, reveals that the fastest peat accumulation – nearly 0.5cm per year – occurred around the Baltic Sea, at sites in Denmark, Poland, Sweden, and Finland which experience warm and humid summers. The slowest peat accumulation was measured in northern Sweden, which experiences cold winters and a short growing season. Across all sites, peat was found to have accumulated fastest in regions with warm summer temperatures, which improves plant growth, and a water table around 10cm below the surface. Professor Swindles said the study suggests that warmer summer temperatures could boost growth rates in European peatlands – but only if the water table stays high enough. 'We also found that maintaining a water table around 10cm below the surface is key to allowing peat to grow quickly and store carbon over the long term,' he said. 'These findings strengthen current evidence and have important implications for how we restore and rewet peatlands as part of global efforts to tackle climate change.' Professor Swindles has also suggested that previous peatland restoration programs should be evaluated to determine if their relative successes or deficiencies corroborate these findings.
Yahoo
23-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Warmer summers ‘could boost growth rates in European peatlands'
Warmer summers could help boost growth rates in European peatlands, new research has found. The peatlands, which contain around half of Europe's soil carbon, need a combination of warm temperatures and a water table of around 10cm to thrive, researchers at Queen's University Belfast found. Peatlands form where there is a sustained build-up of partially decomposed plant matter, and they play a very important role in locking away greenhouse gases and absorbing industrial pollution. They contain approximately five times more carbon than its forests. However, European peatlands have been damaged by human activities including pollution, draining and climate change. Professor Graeme Swindles from the School of Natural and Built Environment at Queen's University has been leading a team examining peat accumulation rates, studying cores from 28 peat bogs across Europe. The study, which has now been published in research journal PLOS One, reveals that the fastest peat accumulation – nearly 0.5cm per year – occurred around the Baltic Sea, at sites in Denmark, Poland, Sweden, and Finland which experience warm and humid summers. The slowest peat accumulation was measured in northern Sweden, which experiences cold winters and a short growing season. Across all sites, peat was found to have accumulated fastest in regions with warm summer temperatures, which improves plant growth, and a water table around 10cm below the surface. Professor Swindles said the study suggests that warmer summer temperatures could boost growth rates in European peatlands – but only if the water table stays high enough. 'We also found that maintaining a water table around 10cm below the surface is key to allowing peat to grow quickly and store carbon over the long term,' he said. 'These findings strengthen current evidence and have important implications for how we restore and rewet peatlands as part of global efforts to tackle climate change.' Professor Swindles has also suggested that previous peatland restoration programs should be evaluated to determine if their relative successes or deficiencies corroborate these findings.
CBC
20-07-2025
- Science
- CBC
Wildfires send Canada's carbon emissions soaring. And our peatlands emit even more
Social Sharing It's been another smoky summer, with estimates suggesting that 2025 is set to be Canada's second-worst wildfire season year. Already, more than 5.5 million hectares have burned, almost triple the 10-year average for this time of the year. But it's not just the forests that are burning. Canada is home to a quarter of the world's peatlands — boggy wetlands that are a rich store of carbon from millions of years of decaying plant and animal life. They are burning, too. But the scale of emissions from fires in the peatlands is not accounted for in current government statistics. However, that's all about to change, with a new government effort to estimate peatland emissions and their impact on climate change. "The better able I am to quantify these impacts, the better able we might be able to mitigate them," said Kelly Bona, who is leading the effort to produce a Canadian model for peatland emissions at Environment and Climate Change Canada. Bona said the new data could be included as early as next year in Canada's official greenhouse gas reporting to the UN. Its inclusion would provide a new look at the severity of the problem, which researchers say is getting worse. Why peatland fires are a climate problem Much of Canada's peatlands are in the boreal forest zone, where trees like black spruce — which are prone to burning — are common. The presence of those trees, along with rich carbon deposits in the soil, can make peatlands very flammable, especially during dry periods. Peat fires also smoulder over longer periods, rather than going up in one giant flame. Some of these fires can burn for months or years, according to researchers, releasing large amounts of their stored carbon into the atmosphere. Greg Verkaik, a peatlands researcher and PhD candidate at McMaster University, collects post-fire field measurements to estimate the emissions. He painstakingly measures the depth of the peat at various points to figure out how much has been burned. His time in the field provides him with a close look at the impact of climate change and worsening wildfires. "You get days where you just can't go into the field because everything's smoky and it's hard to breathe and it's not safe for you to be out there," he said. "You are sort of seeing that more frequently, especially over these last couple of fire seasons where it's been really bad." Wildfire emissions don't count toward Canada's anthropogenic (human-caused) totals, but they are still reported to help inform the public and keep track of how forests are doing. In recent years, the statistics have been sobering — wildfire emissions in 2023, the worst fire year in Canada's history, reached one billion tonnes — significantly more than the 694 million tonnes of emissions attributed to human activity. The feedback loop is that climate change has made fire weather more frequent and severe, and those fires are worsening climate change itself. In the peatlands, research has shown wildfires speed up permafrost melt, which in turn releases carbon, according to David Olefeldt, a peatlands researcher and assistant professor at the University of Alberta. Olefeldt also said that peatlands continue emitting carbon long after a fire, as all the carbon in the soil takes longer to be lost to the atmosphere. "If you want to understand the full impact of wildfire, you need to understand what happens in the years and even the decades after the fire," he said. A study published in 2024 used the Canadian-developed model to estimate greenhouse gas emissions from Canada's boreal and temperate peatlands. Preliminary results suggest that fire-related emissions are about 11.5 million tonnes annually but noted estimates can vary significantly from one year to the next. Wildfires over the past few years highlight those variations. 2020 was a mild fire year, with emissions of only 13 million tonnes, while 2021 was a more severe season, with emissions skyrocketing to 270 million tonnes. According to the study, peatlands are generally a carbon sink, absorbing and storing more carbon than they emit, therefore helping counteract the effects of climate change. But during a severe fire season, they become a carbon source, and release more than they absorb. How could better peatland emissions numbers be used? The new data would have a range of practical uses, both for resource development as well as conservation in the peatlands. Bona said the data could be used in conducting environmental assessments for peatland projects. Olefeldt noted that knowing more about peatland emissions — including identifying ones those that are most at risk — could help aid in discussions about protecting them. Maria Strack, a professor at the University of Waterloo who leads Can-Peat, a major research collaboration on the peatlands, pointed out that most peatlands are in regions where there's an interest in resource extraction. The new data could help inform future decisions on developing mines and other infrastructure in those areas, she said. "There's risks of mining disturbing more peat and all the infrastructure like roads to access those mines will also change the hydrology of peatlands, which could lead to more emissions." She also sees them as a nature-based solution to combating climate change. "We have about one-fourth of all the world's peat soil carbon stock, and I just think most Canadians don't even know what a peatland is," she said.
