Part of the issue with accounting for peat is its hidden beneath the surface. For almost all oil palm is grown on lands that were once tropical forests. Clearing the land to make way for planting inevitably results in biodiversity loss, but it’s the impact on what lies beneath the surface that is particularly damaging. Tropical forests stand above a rich bed of peat, a dense, soil-like material made up of partially decomposed organic matter.
Peat lying beneath the tropical forest stays moist, preventing the carbon from drying out and being released into the atmosphere. The problem is that oil palm prefers dry land. As tropical forests made way for plantations, canals were built to drain the land. This results in the peat drying out, leading them to rapidly degrade and release their carbon into the atmosphere.
Competition for natural resources such as these is only going to intensify as the world battles high agricultural food prices, and concerns over food security. It means that the price of nature based carbon credits arguably need to be much higher.
Part of the issue with accounting for peat is its hidden beneath the surface. For almost all oil palm is grown on lands that were once tropical forests. Clearing the land to make way for planting inevitably results in biodiversity loss, but it’s the impact on what lies beneath the surface that is particularly damaging. Tropical forests stand above a rich bed of peat, a dense, soil-like material made up of partially decomposed organic matter.
Peat lying beneath the tropical forest stays moist, preventing the carbon from drying out and being released into the atmosphere. The problem is that oil palm prefers dry land. As tropical forests made way for plantations, canals were built to drain the land. This results in the peat drying out, leading them to rapidly degrade and release their carbon into the atmosphere.
Competition for natural resources such as these is only going to intensify as the world battles high agricultural food prices, and concerns over food security. It means that the price of nature based carbon credits arguably need to be much higher.
https://carbonrisk.substack.com/p/nature-based-carbon-credit-prices?s=w