Fact Sheet: Peatland Mapping Methodology

FACT SHEET November 2012

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PEATLAND MAPPING METHODOLOGY `Towards Improvement In Peatland Mapping`

The Importance of Accurate Peatland Mapping The well managed peatland has the potential to make a major contribution for greenhouse gasses reduction, especially in countries that have extensive peatland with significant peat forest carbon reserves. Peat forests can store far more carbon than other kinds of forest. However, if peat forests are degraded, it results in far more emissions than other ecosystems. Consequently, protection and prevention of forest conversion to other land uses is important.

In fact, peatland mapping with accurate data to accommodate all the necessary things in a peatland map, including the importance of appropriate land use management, is not yet available. This is, concurrently, one of the obstructing challenges for the efforts towards better peatland management. Indonesia has seen several peatland maps published, such as the map produced by Wetlands International in 2004 and the Ministry of Agriculture in 2011.

According to Deltares (2012), Indonesia’s existing peatland maps need to be improved in order to guarantee their accuracy, and the peatland boundaries indicated by the current mapping also need improvement. The inaccuracy of these maps is the result of the use of inconsistent data and imprecision in the appraisal of the peat depth. There are some deep peatland that have been mapped as being shallow and vice versa. As such, a revision of the mapping of peatland in Indonesia is sorely needed. A method of mapping that can be applied well in this country is also needed so that accurate peatland maps can be obtained. For this reason, a mapping method that will create precise maps needs to be formulated.

Peatland Mapping Theory and the Global Experience The largest area of tropical peatlands is found in Southeast Asia, and the largest portion of this is primarily found in Indonesia (in Sumatera, Kalimantan - the Indonesian name for Borneo - and West Papua), Malaysia (the Malaysian peninsula, and Sarawak and Sabah in Borneo), Brunei and Thailand (Whitmore 1995, Page et al.

2004). In Borneo, the peatlands extend along the coastlines of Sarawak, Brunei Darussalam, and Sabah, and the lowlands of Kalimantan, which is a region that is poorly drained and deep in the forest interior. Over a period of 4,500 years, the peat has reached a depth of 20 metres in several areas (Phillips 1998).

The existence of these tropical peatlands is extremely important, not only as a source of biodiversity but also for storing carbon (Tawaraya et al. 2003). Peatland and peatland forest that face deforestation have the potential to release carbon in large amounts, namely through fires, that can contribute significantly to the process of climate change. Available data and information from the field along with surveys from the air (by airborne and satellite) indicated that the combination of human activity (clearing forest for farming, illegal logging, etc.) and forest fires have resulted in changes to the forest cover in the peatland (Putra et al. 2008).

Indonesia has gathered a lot of data (such as changes in forest cover, forest management, biomass on the surface of the land, biomass under the surface, types of forest, forest growth), however, there is still a significant gap with regard to achieving a national system of monitoring. The differences in terms of uncertainty about the findings and data can be caused by the different assumptions, methods, and technology used. Different organizations can use methodology and resources that are different, which will give rise to different estimates, for example discrepancies with regard to estimates of carbon emissions.

Peatland Mapping Methodology Assessment in Indonesia During the period of 1986-1990, the Geospatial Information Agency (Badan Informasi Geospasial/BIG for short, once known as Bakosurtanal) worked with the Department of Transmigration and the U.K.’s Overseas Development Administration (ODA) to map the land resources in Indonesia on a 1:250,000 scale, which included peatland, through the RePPProT project (a Regional Physical Planning Program for Transmigration). The natural resources mapping method used by the RePPProT project is a land system concept.

Basically, this land system concept always uses landforms as the key to mapping land resources. A land system is a natural ecosystem in which rock, climate, hydrology, topography, soil, and organisms are all linked to one another closely in certain ways (RePPProT, 1990). Every land system has a unique pattern or proportions in its structure. The method for delineation of a land system usually involves a range of approaches such as aerial photography, airborne radar, Landsat and SPOT.

Proposed Peatland Mapping Methodology As a result of the meetings held several times by ICCC at which peatland mapping experts were brought together, the ICCC recommends the consensus on peatland mapping methodology for Indonesia, which is divided into the following stages:

1. Phase I of Mapping During this first stage, key corrections must be carried out quickly, on a short term basis, by conducting tests in the field in the regions that are prioritized. This stage has the target of finishing in 2012 or 2013.

• Geographical Focus: The prioritized regions, i.e. those regions that have large peat domes and are still forested, and the regions that have less or no data at all.

• Data: Use the already existing data, for example the peatland mapping by Wetlands International which uses data on peat depth of more than 20 cm, and also integrated with data on elevation from SRTM30, Glas, LIDAR, or others.

• Important note: As an interpolation, apply rules for geomorphologic decisions on the connections between the thickness of the peat, elevation, and lower peat (= spatial model)

2. Phase II of Mapping During this second stage, a medium term correction to the mapping of the peatland must be carried out, with the target of finishing in 2013 or 2014.

• Geographical Focus: All peatlands that tend to have a substantial area of peat with depth of more than 3 metres.

• Data: Collect additional information as follows: 1) a target survey of the peat depth conducted in a short space of time; and 2) correct elevation data (by using aircraft or satellite).

• Important note: There needs to be an update of regulations and decisions carried out, along with a validation and optimisation of data from each complex peat dome in order to improve the database.

3. Phase III of Mapping Details of corrections of the maps in the long term (2015 and beyond) • Geographical Focus: All peatland including that with a depth of less than 3 meters • Data: Collect additional information as follows: 1) conduct a survey on the depth of peat in all areas covered by peatland; 2) a survey of the LIDAR elevation; and 3) collect satellite data from new sources.

• Important note: Wider knowledge needs to be developed in connection with, for example, the role of the water table, fire hazards, and carbon emissions.

Follow-up Activities The ICCC will conduct an exercise in three selected pilot areas, Sumatera, Kalimantan, and Papua in order to test the methodology that has been formulated. Aside from this, the exercise is intended to create an example of mapping the peatland as an ecosystem and will result in policy recommendations about sustainable peatland management, as one of the efforts to support the reduction of greenhouse gasses from peatland.

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