The Central Kalimantan Peatland Project is a project which works in a specific area in Central Kalimantan to protect the remaining peatswamp forests and restore the degraded peatlands in Indonesia.

Kalimantan's peat swamp forests are of international importance for the conservation of biodiversity and mitigation of global climate change. Unfortunately, unsustainable agricultural practices and logging activities pose a strong threat to the future existence of these globally important ecosystems.

Drainage leads to decomposition

Drainage of the peatswamps leads to rapid decomposition of the organic carbon of the peat and to annual peat fires. This degradation has a devastating impact on the means of income for local people, their health, biodiversity, air pollution in South-east Asia and last but not least climate change as huge quantities of organic carbon become carbon dioxide. Peatland emissions from degraded peatlands will continue until all peat has disappeared. Emissions of degraded peatlands can only be reduced by restoration of the peatlands.

Failed Mega Rice project

The Central Kalimantan Peatlands Project (CKPP) is conducted in one of the main degraded peatlands of the region: the ex-Mega Rice project in Central Kalimantan. A poorly planned agricultural project of thousands of hectares has turned a rich and beautiful peatswamp rainforest largely into a disaster area.

Dedicated to maintain and restore the great natural and economic values of Kalimantan's tropical peatlands the project is restoring the area by closing drainage canals, ending the drainage, replanting forests and developing sustainable livelihoods.