S1E27: Making peat forests pay for their own conservation: Green Pulse Ep 27

Green Pulse Ep 27: Making peat forests pay for their own
conservation 


18:05 mins


Synopsis: Green Pulse is an environmental podcast series at The
Straits Times which analyses the beat of the changing
environment, from biodiversity conservation to climate
change. 


The dry season in South-east Asia is just around the corner,
bringing with it the prospect of haze. Fires in Indonesia can be
started by accident, or deliberately to clear land. And because
they take place on carbon-rich peatlands - naturally water-logged
ecosystems that are flammable when drained for agriculture - the
fires can burn underground and for days on end, causing them to
spiral out of control.


But in the heart of Borneo, a businessman has a novel idea for
how to make peat forests pay for their own conservation. The
Katingan Mentaya project in Central Kalimantan is a preserved
peat forest more than twice the size of Singapore. Healthy
peatlands have plenty of carbon locked in their depths - and that
is essentially what the Katingan Mentaya project in Central
Kalimantan hopes to "sell" as carbon credits.  


Active conservation and restoration efforts, such as the
replanting of trees in degraded areas, have allowed the land to
remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it underground,
equivalent to taking two million cars off the road each year.


The 7.5 million carbon credits that the Katingan Mentaya project
produces each year are sold to businesses. Each unit purchased
prevents a tonne of carbon dioxide from entering the earth's
atmosphere.


Tune in to this episode for more on the ‘black gold’ in the heart
of Borneo, as we chat with Mr Dharsono Hartono, the co-founder of
the Katingan Mentaya project. 


Produced by: Audrey Tan (audreyt@sph.com.sg) & David Fogarty
(dfogarty@sph.com.sg) & Ernest Luis


Edited by: Adam Azlee


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Stop Scams: https://str.sg/wuZB


Invisible Asia: https://str.sg/wuZn


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