How to monitor peatlands holistically… and practically
Purun (Lepironia articula) is a grass species of the Riddle-Tekian tribe (Cyperaceae), which is often used as a braiding material. Photo by Rifky/CIFOR
How can we tell if peatland restoration is progressing well? Let’s measure the groundwater level; ask the locals about their livelihood; Assess decision-making processes and gender dynamics; or add up statistics on the frequency of fires? Most likely: all that and more.
The conservation and restoration of peatlands is critical to mitigating climate change, maintaining healthy ecosystems and supporting community development in many parts of the world. However, due to existing pressures, peatlands have been drained and converted to other land uses (such as plantations, cropland, or ranches). These disturbed and degraded peatlands can be targeted for restoration to reduce the loss of carbon and other important ecological services that natural/undrained peatlands provide. But effective long-term recovery must be carefully monitored to adapt designs, strategies, site selection, and management approaches that can achieve specific goals while changing direction as needed.
In Indonesia, which hosts nearly a quarter of the world’s tropical peatlands, researchers at the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) have developed a scientifically robust, reliable and practical set of criteria and indicators (C&I) to help with the Evaluation to help progress and results of peat remediation. This effort is being undertaken in collaboration with the National Peat and Mangrove Restoration Agency (BRGM), the Riau University Disaster Risk Study Center and the conservation and development organization PT Rimba Makmur Utama, as well as consultations with several national and international peatland experts over the past year.
On July 7, 2022, CIFOR-ICRAF – in partnership with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the Global Peatlands Initiative (GPI) and the International Tropical Peatland Center (ITPC) co-hosted a virtual national workshop to share the blueprint of standardized C&I developed as a practical tool to support policymakers, practitioners and civil society. “Restoration encompasses many dimensions, since it is not done on a blank sheet of paper: the site to be restored is a dynamic social and ecological landscape, full of diverse interests and past practices that need to be corrected,” said BRGM researcher Myrna Safitri, who is responsible for the complexity of the task at hand. “In order to assess the success of renaturation, it is therefore necessary to understand the existing conditions of the landscape and the history of its formation. Developing C&I to determine the success of wetland restoration is therefore not a black and white tool but needs to be placed in the right context.”
To support this contextualization process, a panel discussion critically analyzed the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for using C&I approaches to peatland monitoring in four key aspects: biophysical, social, economic and governance. Regarding the economic aspect, Gusti Anshari, professor and soil scientist at Universitas Tanjung Pura, noted that “restoring peatlands not only keeps ecosystems alive, but also provides economic products and environmental goods and services for humans”. He pointed out that “it is impossible for marginalized people on degraded land to develop sustainable peatlands: they need more support. Bog projects depend on everyone involved.”
CIFOR-ICRAF Senior Scientist Michael Brady agreed on the importance of these types of economic considerations and stressed the need to validate priority criteria through field testing and to provide ongoing management, monitoring and evaluation – and to take these costs into account during planning and consideration Budgeting. Herry Purnomo, Chief Scientist of CIFOR-ICRAF, spoke of the need for governance at all levels of peatlands, characterized by accountability and clear rules that are easy to implement.
Workshop participants examined the biophysical elements of peatland restoration and provided feedback on progress towards hydrology, planting and fire reduction targets in a Slido survey. They also selected key social, economic and governance priorities for the impact assessment.
The participants then turned to the practical sphere: having decided what to measure, the process of implementation can create its own challenges. As such, the panel examined the “nuts and bolts” of the development and field testing of the consultative C&I process. The three CIFOR-ICRAF members on the panel – Anna Sinaga, Meli Sasmito and Siti Chaakimah – noted that while it is relatively easy to access and analyze information on the biophysical elements of peat remediation, the social and economic aspects are are often more “intertwined”. and difficult to get out. This meant that the C&I might need further revisions, including site-specific adjustments, to reflect the specifics of local contexts. Governance issues also require more complex contextual restatement and review by individuals with specific expertise in those areas.
At the other end of the implementation scale, the institutionalization of C&I approaches can also pose a challenge. A panel of experts, which included BGRM scholars Budi Wardhana and Agus Yasin, alongside Josi Khatarina from the United States Agency for International Development’s Sustainable Environmental Governance Across Regions activity, discussed opportunities, challenges and hurdles, capacity building and existing institutional support for implementation this exercise on a broad basis and effectively.
Despite these challenges, however, peatland restoration is gaining momentum around the world, as acknowledged by Maria Nuutinen – the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ (FAO) focal point for the Global Peatland Initiative (GPI). “I am very pleased to see that there seems to be a very broad common understanding of the status of the restoration and actual needs,” she said.
Part of what is needed on a global scale is better information, and C&I work will help achieve that goal, said Mark Reed, a professor at Scotland’s Rural College. He shared and summarized some of the GPI’s work “to standardize how we collect and synthesize people and data around the world so we can better inform policy and practice to protect these incredible habitats”.
The International Tropical Peatlands Center (ITPC) also plays a crucial role, particularly in terms of ‘coordination[ing] interdisciplinary scientists – national, regional and local – to respond to the strengthening of criteria and indicators to support global achievements in peatland ecosystem restoration with particular reference to tropical peatlands,” said the center’s coordinator Haruni Krisnawati.
As the broad spectrum of attendees, speakers and topics came together at the event, collaboration across levels, sites and disciplines has been and continues to be a key feature in the development of effective C&I and the successful delivery of the restoration. “To have any real impact, all these different streams of information, data and evidence have to come together,” said CIFOR-ICRAF researcher Rupesh Bhomia. “This event is another step in coming together to find out what tools, resources and capacity we have to identify the gaps and then try to fill them. This is only possible with combined forces, with the progress that we make together as a team. We may represent different organizations, forms of government or practitioners, but because we are all committed to the same goal, we can move forward.”
“While scientific evidence is presented, it is time to have an assessment tool that is both robust and practical,” said Daniel Murdiyarso, a senior scientist at CIFOR, who conceived the idea of a series of four webinars in 2021, the National Workshop culminated in the virtual. He recalled the support of several donor organizations, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI) and Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), and the International Climate Initiative (IKI), he added Closing the event: “This is a demand driven initiative and we recognize that.”
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