Wetlands International welcomes the bilateral agreement between the Dutch government and Indonesia to restore Indonesia’s the degraded peatlands, with the aim of reducing CO2 emissions. Wetlands International has been the leading organisation in advocating and piloting peatland restoration in Indonesia as one of the most effective means for climate change mitigation.  

The EU Parliament has formulated sustainability criteria to prevent forest loss for biofuel production. Now, a leaked draft document shows how the Commission intends to allow and support conversion of for instance rainforest areas into palm oil plantations to produce biodiesel. 

Celebrating World Wetlands Day, today's spotlight is on the importance of wetlands for reducing impacts of climate change. Globally, there is a growing recognition of the key role that the protection and restoration of wetlands like marshes, peatlands, mangroves and coral reefs can play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to its impacts. Now, this recognition has to be turned into action.

December 19, 2009, 11.00. The COP just agreed on one sentence with a weak text as just an Annex. National short term interests have blocked any step towards solving one of the biggest challenges mankind faces. The momentum is now missing to move towards a low carbon economy and to reduce the loss of carbon rich ecosystems like forests and wetlands.

The Indonesian government acknowledges in Copenhagen that forestry and agriculture in peatswamp areas causes extreme carbon emissions, with just very limited economical revenues. Only a rapid development of a financial incentive such as REDD is able to protect and restore the remaining peatswamp forests.

This morning and yesterday; new steps are agreed regarding the texts on the Land Use part of the Kyoto Protocol (LULUCF) and on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing countries (REDD). Not all these new steps are positive, but they do allow addressing emissions from the loss of wetlands.

Wetlands International is present at the UN Cilmate Summit in Copenhagen. The outcomes of this summit may have a great impact on the future protection and restoration of wetland areas. We offer you direct updates via our website and via Twitter.

Barcelona – Prospects for a robust agreement to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation in developing countries (REDD) are on a knife-edge. This state forest and climate experts from the Ecosystems Climate Alliance - of which Wetlands International is part - as the United Nations climate change negotiations in Barcelona draw to a close today.

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) meeting this week in Kuala Lumpur has been unable to develop any clear criteria on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This means that there are no credible criteria for sustainable palm oil at this moment. Some hope does exist for the future thanks to the approval of a process to develop better GHG criteria catalysed by the adoption of the resolution from Wetlands International.

Wetlands International in cooperation with Greifswald University has presented the first ever overview of peatland emissions and peat stocks per country. The overview presented today turns the official emission figures of many countries upside down.

Wetlands International and Greifswald University will present the first ever overview of peat carbon stocks and drainage related carbon dioxide emissions of all 170 peat-containing countries world wide at the UN climate talks (UN-FCCC) Barcelona on Wednesday 4 November. Splitting the global 550 Gigaton carbon storage and alarming 2 Gton annual CO2 emissions from peatlands to national levels, these new figures turn the official total emission figures of many countries upside down.

While fires rage through the drained and logged peatswamp forests of Indonesia emitting huge amounts of CO2, the UN Climate Talks take place in Bangkok. The coming two weeks country negotiators will work towards a framework for a new climate treaty. This issue of greenhouse gas emissions from peatlands is now explicitly on the agenda of these crucial last negotiation rounds before the Copenhagen Summit.

Monday, 21 September 2009 - The Indonesian government has come forward with figures that confirm that the country is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gasses; for 80% due to deforestation and peatland loss. Wetlands International, the NGO that has been advocating the need to address peatland degradation strongly welcomes the acknowledgement by the Indonesian government of the issue.

 Wetlands International is concerned about the plans of the Russian government to support and allow large scale peat mining for energy. Using peat causes much larger carbon dioxide emissions than fossil fuels, will ruin precious nature and disrupt the hydrology of large areas. 

Global NGO Wetlands International has further expanded its reach and impact on conservation, restoration and sustainable use of wetlands. For the fifth consecutive year it has grown in both financial and operational size. This concludes the newly published Annual Review 2008.

Wetlands International and a coalition of NGOs have joined forces to demand palm oil company AAL to immediately halt the conversion of the Tripa peat forest in Aceh province, Indonesia into a palm oil plantation. The Tripa rainforest is home to the critically endangered Sumatran Orangutan.

Wetlands International in a coalition of environmental groups (see below) has accused a British company of funding the imminent destruction of a critical area of Indonesian rainforest for palm oil production.

Over thirty civil society organisations join together to avert the effects of biofuel development on food security and sovereignty in African countries. The civil society coalition on biofuels supported by Wetlands International Africa and Action Aid will be officially launched on Thursday, June 18, 2009 at Senegal's USE’s Centre de Bopp in Dakar.

Leading NGO  Experts Explain Climate Convention development on REDD and LULUCF:
 Where Are We and Where Are We Going?  See the webcast.

Experts from the Ecosystem Climate Alliance (ECA), a coalition of leading environmental groups around the world, have established a twitter feed to monitor the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) negotiations in real time at the Bonn climate talks from June 1 – 12, 2009.

Bonn, Germany. The enormous carbon dioxide emissions from degraded peatlands have finally become an integral part of the UNFCCC agenda. An impressive list of countries have pleaded for inclusion of these so far ignored emissions in national emission accounting in developed countries (Annex I).

The government of Indonesia took a promising step this week by asking World Bank for support in reducing carbon emissions from forest and peatland loss. However, last month, the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture issued a decree (Indonesian / English translation) to open up peatswamp areas for the development of palm oil plantations.

While in the EU and the RSPO policies are being developed to exclude palmoil from carbon rich soils like peatlands and to prevent the loss of their precious forests, the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture issued a decree to open up peatswamp areas for the development of palmoil plantations.

Wetlands International signed today the agreement to offset all emissions of flights booked by its headquarters, according to the Gold Standard. The Climate Neutral Group will organise the offsetting programme by investing in alternative energies (wind energy) of an amount equal to the emissions of flying. The ambition of Wetlands International is to expand the compensation to other emissions and other parts of the global organisation as soon as administratively feasible.

The UN climate summit (UN-FCCC) currently taking place in Poznan is crucial for the question whether the huge emissions from degraded peatlands will finally be addressed. Today however, the working group on the methodologies for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) has decided to only deal with above ground biomass, ignoring carbon rich soils. This decision will therewith so far ignore or even worsen the emissions of 2000 Mt/CO2/yr from peatland loss in developing countries.

Huge areas of the world’s peatlands will be opened up for biofuel production if Finland and Sweden succeed in opening up a new loophole in EU legislation.

Peat is formed over thousands of years. Recovery of peat exploitation is usually irreversible or if it can be reversed, it will take hundreds or even thousands of years to be replenished. Given this evidence, Wetlands International is astonished by the proposal by Finland to consider peat as renewable energy source at the Permanent Representatives Committee of the European Union.

The UN climate summit in Poznan , Poland (1-12 December) is a key opportunity for addressing the huge greenhouse gas emissions from peatland degradation. A team of Wetlands International attends the summit to advocate policies that will address the loss of the worlds peatlands.

This Tuesday (11th Nov.), the world’s first certified palm oil under the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) arrives on European shores. This certified palm oil originates from a plantation which has palm oil grown on peatlands. Wetlands International strongly cautions that palm oil cannot be certified "sustainable" as long as the sector refuses to include a criterion on greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from land use change, in particular degradation of tropical peatlands.

Green Coast partners in Aceh (Wetlands International and WWF) have submitted an official request to Aceh Provincial Government to endorse, support and protect the 11 Green Coast demonstration sites after the partners will be phased out Mid 2009.

In the speech on behalf of the International Organising Partners of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (COP 10) in Korea, Jane Madgwick, CEO of Wetlands International welcomes the steps to increase the status of Ramsar Sites, especially with regard to Lake Natron in Tanzania, the Tana Delta and Lake Naivasha in Kenya. At the same time, there is disappointment about the little progress in addressing water, climate and development policies with a link to wetlands.

Wetlands International advocates chances for the proposed resolutions of this week’s Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Many proposed changes demand attention for the link between wetland loss and  climate change and for biofuels.

This is the Wetlands International Global Newsletter of Oct./Nov. 2008. It is filled with news on wetlands and climate change, migratory birds, international conferences, research, videos and publications.

Wetlands International supports the call of the global company Unilever for a moratorium on deforestation for palm oil. With the call, companies and NGOs dealing with palm oil urge companies to respect this moratorium. The call will also be translated into a resolution for the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (meeting in November 2008).

10 September 2008. Tomorrow, the Industry, Research and EnergyCommittee (ITRE) of the European Parliament will vote about the Renewable Energy Directive. Wetlands International calls for a rejection of the 10% target for biofuel use in 2020.

September 1, 2008.
The UK think tank Policy Exchange has presented the costs of the most important climate measures. Reducing emissions from tropical peatlands is by far the cheapest way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions; using biofuels is by far the most expensive measure.

Green Coast, a post-tsunami coastal restoration program led by Wetlands International, has been assessed independently as a highly cost-effective and successful approach to disaster risk reduction.

Influenced by a powerful joint NGO lobby, the Members of the Environmental Committee of European Parliament yesterday voted in favour of stronger sustainability criteria and a lower target for biofuels. The proposed 10% biofuel target for 2020 was reduced to a significant lower 4% in 2015  with criteria for ambitious greenhouse gas savings and exclusion of areas like wetlands with high carbon stocks and/or biodiversity values.

In CNN's show 'Business Traveller' the focus is this month on carbon offsetting initiatives worldwide. Wetlands International CEO Jane Madgwick tells about the NGO's recently launched Global Peatland Fund. Click here to watch the show which aired July 12, 13, 17 2008

25-06-2008 Press release
Wetlands International is shocked by the decision of the Kenyan government to convert large tracts of the Tana wetlands in Kenya into sugarcane-for-ethanol plantations. This dramatic development confirms the NGO’s recent outlook ‘Biofuels in Africa’, which shows that biofuel production in Africa will lead to loss of wetlands and rainforest.

Bonn, 26 May Africa is expected to produce a relatively small but still substantial part of the global biofuel demand. Millions of hectares will be turned into large scale biofuel plantations. This will hardly take place in current agricultural areas. Especially natural areas of wetlands and rainforest – the hotspots for biodiversity - are vulnerable for this development.

At this moment, the global governmental Convention on Biodiversity (CBD - SBSTTA) holds their meeting in Paris. The protection and restoration of peatlands in order to conserve their carbon stocks is an important item on the agenda. Peatlands all over the world store enormous amounts of carbon. Their degradation is causing CO2 emissions equivalent to 8% of all global fossil fuel emissions. These huge emissions are not addressed under the Kyoto Protocol at all. There is now a major opportunity for the CBD to take leadership over this issue.

More than 50% of the new palm oil plantations in Indonesia are planned on peatlands. With these criteria, many Indonesian and Malaysian producers will lose the markets of the 4th largest palm oil importer. Wetlands International calls for the EU, individual countries to take action to stop the rapid expansion of palm oil from peatlands and the adverse environmental targets and subsidies promoting this expansion.