From Peat to Palm: a Carbon Nightmare
Carbon Confidential…. If man-made carbon dioxide causes global warming, biodiesel derived from palm oil is no solution, according to a new scientific study. In fact, the data shows that use of palm-based biodiesel will do more harm than good.
A data analysis undertaken by Dr. Susan Page of the University of Leicester Department of Geography shows conclusively that large amounts of carbon dioxide are released from peatland in Southeast Asia when it is converted from natural swamp forest to plantations of palm oil or pulpwood trees.
Their work supports the findings of a recent Greenpeace report on the impact of growing oil palm on tropical peatlands.
According to Professor Jack Rieley of the School of Geography, University of Nottingham these new life cycle analysis calculations show that all forms of land use change on tropical peatland lead to massive losses of carbon from the peat store and the transfer of large amounts of CO2 to the atmosphere.
Worst Land Use Scenario
The worst land use scenario is degraded peatland. This is peatland that has been deforested and drained but is not currently managed; these degraded peatlands are susceptible to fire in every dry season which leads to large carbon emissions. Plantations of oil palm and acacia trees grown for pulpwood, however, also lose large amounts of carbon owing to rapid decomposition of the peat carbon store as a result of oxidation caused by deep land drainage.
Natural peat swamp forest acts as a carbon sink. Since the areas occupied by oil palm plantations on peatland in Malaysia and Indonesia are huge, in the order of 420,000 hectares for the former and 2,800,000 hectares for the latter, the combined 25 year life cycle CO emissions are enormous.
More CO2 than Petro-Diesel
According to Professor Florian Siegert of Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany, who is studying land cover change in Southeast Asia, the large increase in area of oil palm projected to take place in coming years to satisfy the biofuels market will release much more CO2 emissions than the fossil fuel it is supposed to replace (up to 30 times more depending upon management of individual plantations). The emissions associated with palm oil plantations growing on thick tropical peat are particularly massive.
In Indonesia it is estimated that producing 1 tonne of palm oil on peatland will cause emissions of between 15 and 70 tonnes of CO2 over the life cycle of 25 years as a result of forest conversion, peat decomposition and emission from fires associated with land clearance. The range of emission values is so large because oil palm fruit harvest can be much lower on nutrient poor and poorly drained peat soils. Peat swamp forests are the only major land area not yet developed in Southeast Asia, but increased demand for palm oil and pulp for paper is already leading to accelerated conversion of peat swamp forests into plantations.
Source: http://chinaconfidential.blogspot.com/2007/12/from-peat-to-palm-carbon-nightmare.html
