ESTIMATION OF GHG EMISSIONS FROM PEAT USED FOR AGRICULTURE WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO OIL PALM

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Journal of Oil Palm and the Environment
Focus and Scope of Journal Journal of Oil Palm and Environment (JOPE) is an Open Access online forum to share knowledge that focuses on oil palm cultivation, palm oil production and applications. This will include the impacts resulting from such activities, particularly those related to the environment. JOPE will also feature articles related to issues and policies that affect any of the above palm oil industry activities. JOPE is targeted to reach a wide spectrum of readers. The contents of the Journal will be in the form of original research papers, short communications, editorials, viewpoints and comments. Due to its wide array of topics, JOPE will be useful to researchers, academicians, policy makers, practitioners and the general public who are associated with or have an interest in palm oil and the global oils and fats industry.

Journal of Oil Palm & the Environment (JOPE), Vol 1 (2010)

ESTIMATION OF GHG EMISSIONS FROM PEAT USED FOR AGRICULTURE WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO OIL PALM

Abstract

Drainage for agricultural use on peat soils in the temperate regions of the world releases 3.5 times more CO2 than similar activities carried out in the tropics, disregarding the use of peat for forestry and mining purposes. An estimated 421 Mt of CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere in the temperate and boreal regions annually while 119 Mt are released in the tropics. Oil palm cultivation on peat in South East Asia accounts for 53% of this emission on peat in the tropics or 12% of total CO2 emission from agriculture on peat globally. It was found that the cultivation of oil palm on 1.9 million hectares of logged over forest situated on peatland in Southeast Asia had resulted in a net avoidance of 83.7 Mt of annual CO2 emission into the atmosphere. The study also found that current reports on CO2 emission on tropical peat have overestimated its emission due to the lack of sound knowledge of tropical peat characteristics.

Foong Kheong Yew, Kalyana Sundram, Yusof Basiron

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