What is Paludiculture?

Hi, everyone!

I'm back! Indri from THINK-Research Team.

It's already June!

If you are studying at schools or universities, I think the holiday session will be coming soon. But stay safe, everyone! The pandemic is not over.

As I wrote in my previous post, I will continue to write about peatland. If you remember that I mentioned 3R in this post (https://www.su-re.co/post/how-to-manage-peatland-in-indonesia), I will write one of those: revitalisation. Also, I wrote about negative emission solution and land-use change in the peatland sector last week (https://www.su-re.co/post/how-to-manage-peatland-in-indonesia-pt-2). So, I will connect how paludiculture (as one of the revitalisation strategies) can contribute to the negative emission solution.

So, what is Paludiculture?

Decarbonisation efforts are carried out on both dry and wet (peat) land in the agroforestry sector. Agroforestry in peatland, also called paludiculture, is also part of peatland restoration strategy through socio-economic revitalisation. Also, paludiculture can be defined as planting commodity crops suitable to the wetland (BRG, 2016).

BRG/M (Peat/Mangrove Restoration Agency) has been helping farmers by introducing alternative crops that will thrive in wet soils. Also, under the revitalisation umbrella, BRG aims to increase sustainable peatland governance and management among the locals by introducing Peatland Care Village, a community-based peatland management programme. Initially, there were only 700 villages, but the number surged to 1000s villages. Besides, this programme also contributes to increased local climate adaptation and resilience since farmers can plant various crop commodities instead of single-crop dependence. Also, this programme can contribute to an improved local economy since BRGM also supports and helps local farmers to market the commodities from paludiculture and explore the carbon farming market.

As for the national target of paludiculture, GOI aims at expanding 185,000 ha of peatland-based agroforestry by 2020 (BRG, 2016). In Indonesia, there is the Paludiculture Consortium that was formed to encourage the expansion of the practice of paludiculture in Indonesia. The Paludiculture Consortium results from a joint meeting for cooperation between the BRG and Winrock International and 7 research institutes of Universities and Governments in Indonesia in November 2017. This organisation has the vision to realise sustainable management of degraded peat ecosystems using comprehensive, integrated science and technology through ecological, economic and social justice approaches.

Paludiculture practice is a form of cultivation without draining canal by keeping peatlands wet according to their natural hydrological conditions. These limits also include those types of vegetation that can adapt well to wetland conditions. There are around 1376 species that can be categorised as paludiculture commodities, and approximately 534 species have economic potential or benefits for communities (Giesen 2015).

So, if you ask me what carbon capture is? Carbon capture can include all activities to save or capture carbon, and the peatland sector has a key role in decarbonisation, especially in Indonesia. The forestry and Peatland sectors are the new ones for me. So, I learn so many new things. I will post about peatland (last part) in my next post. So, see you in the next post!