Studying the effects of peatland-to-palm-oil land conversion
MAR 08, 2011
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.025113
Nature : A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has quantified emissions from clearing peat-swamp forest in Southeast Asia for palm-oil plantations, writes Gayathri Vaidyanathan for Nature. By the early 2000s, up to 6% of the carbon-rich forests had been cleared in peninsular Malaysia and on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra to make way for oil-palm plantations, according to the study. The clearances, a response to rising demand for food and biofuel, released as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as the entire UK transport sector does in a year. Those clearings also put numerous species of wildlife at risk of extinction. The study is the first attempt to systematically assign a value to the carbon loss due to peatland destruction in Southeast Asia that can be attributed directly to conversion to oil-palm plantations.
© 2011 American Institute of Physics
