Development Paludiculture on Tropical Peatland for Productive and Sustainable Ecosystem in Riau

Abstract

There are 2 million hectares of tropical peatland that are critical and must be restored by the Indonesian Government to reduce the greenhouse effect until 2020. The clear-cutting of peat swamp forests has changed from natural ecosystems into degraded ecosystems. When peat was dried for monoculture, it will stimulate forest fires. Peatland forest fire in 2015, caused Indonesia as one of the largest CO2 emitters in the world. The magnitude of the increase in CO2 emissions due to land use change caused peatland degradation. Paludiculture is an alternative technique for managing productive peatlands for food crops while maintaining ecological functions. Rewetting in peatland could reduce the emission of carbon, while food crops increase the quality and quantity of biomass. The plasticulture system can produce biomass on wet peatland conditions, maintain the sustainability of ecosystem services and can increase carbon accumulation. The principle in paludiculture is to restore the sustainability of the peat ecosystem while still paying attention to economic interests. Development of paludiculture of peat swamps land in Kepulauan Meranti Riau is very suitable to be implemented because could support their function of the hydrological buffer in natural peat swamp forest and source of food.