The natural resources functions of tropical peatlands
2004
Page, S. E.
Tropical peatland is a unique ecosystem: it is both a peat-forming wetland and a tropical rain forests. As a peatland, important natural resource functions include carbon, water interception, flood control and ground water recharge. As a forest, tropical peat swamp contributes to microclimate stabilization and to the maintenance of regional and global biodiversityit also provides a range of economically important timber and non-timber products barks, resins and rattans. These functions, products and attributes are often greatly enhanced by the vast areas of landscape which tropical peatlands cover, for example the Sg. Sebangau catchment in Central Kalimantan covers 5,000 square km , most of which is peatland. These large blocks of tropical peatland not only have an importance at the local scale (e.g. for habitat provision or the supply of forest products), but they also have a wider influence, both regionally (e.g. through their hydrological role) and globally (through their role in global carbon dynamics). Owing to the sensitivity of this "dual ecosystem" to natural and man-induced changes, "wise use" principles should be applied in any land development project. In this way the role that tropical peatlands play in providing goods and services to society can be assessed properly and the scale and consequences of various impacts forecast. This paper reviews current information on the resource of tropical peatlands, highlighting both strengths and weakness in the published literature, and concludes that ecological, environmental and socioeconomic values should be fully recognised in any framework for the sustainable management and wise use of these wetland resources.
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