[Sumitomo Forestry Co., Ltd.] Starts demonstration project for restoration and management of tropical peatlands in Indonesia – Building a model that balances economy and environment by utilizing cutting-edge technology at the site of the Mega Rice Project – *Sumitomo Forestry Co., Ltd.*
Press release: September 17, 2024
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Demonstration project for tropical peatland restoration and management begins in Indonesia – Building a model that balances economy and environment by utilizing cutting-edge technology at the site of the Mega Rice Project –
Sumitomo Forestry Indonesia (PT. Sumitomo Forestry) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Forestry Co., Ltd. (President: Toshiro Mitsuyoshi; Head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo).
Indonesia) signed a business cooperation agreement (PKS) on August 17th with the Directorate General for Environmental Damage Management (PPKL) and the Peat and Mangrove Rehabilitation Authority (BRGM) of the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry. We will begin demonstration of new peatland management technology using cutting-edge technology at the site of the Mega Rice Project*1 in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Under the Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) signed between the Ministry of the Environment of Japan and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of Indonesia, a demonstration project for the restoration and management of degraded tropical peatlands covering approximately 10,000 hectares of the Mega Rice Project site will be carried out until August 2027. We will implement it. We also conduct verification of afforestation projects, aiming for forest management that is both economically and environmentally friendly.
Map of Kalimantan, Indonesia
This project was adopted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s Global South Future-Oriented Co-Creation Project (Large Demonstration ASEAN Member Countries). The Sumitomo Forestry Group has been leveraging its unique tropical peatland management technology cultivated in West Kalimantan Province to carry out initiatives that will help prevent peat fires, reduce CO2 emissions, conserve biodiversity, and create employment for local residents. I did. This project uses state-of-the-art satellites, drones, and AI to
demonstrate technology and aims to build a sustainable tropical peatland management model rather than temporary restoration of tropical peatlands. By building a new model and deploying Japan’s unique technology in the world, we aim to contribute to solving the international problem of tropical peatlands and achieving Indonesia’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goals (NDC*2). .
*1.
In 1996, the Indonesian government started a project to convert 1 million hectares of peat swamp forest in southern Central Kalimantan province into rice paddies in order to address food problems. It ended in failure due to lack of. After that, repeated peat fires destroyed all but a small portion of the forest.
*2. Nationally Determined Contribution.
Greenhouse gas emission reduction targets that each country must create, notify, and maintain based on the Paris Agreement.
■Summary
This project will examine the technology and economic viability of a new initiative that combines the Sumitomo Forestry Group’s tropical peatland management technology with an emission-reducing peatland management method that utilizes cutting-edge satellites, drones, and AI. We also aim to establish an inventory methodology*3 of the CO2 emission reduction effect of tropical peatland management and standardize it internationally. In the Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) signed between Japan’s Ministry of the Environment and Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry, “peatland restoration and management” was added as one of the areas of cooperation, making it a bilateral project.
*3.
Data that summarizes the amount of greenhouse gases that a country emits and absorbs in one year. We have developed a data calculation method that shows the balance of emissions and absorption of greenhouse gases such as CO2, N2O, and methane, depending on the type and activity.
Mega Rice Project site devastated by peat fires, etc.
■Tropical peatland
Tropical peatlands are soils where dead plants are deposited as organic matter without being decomposed in a humid (high water content) environment, and contain large amounts of water and carbon. The area of tropical peatlands distributed in Indonesia, the Amazon, and the Congo Basin is more than 82 million hectares*4 (approximately twice the land area of Japan) worldwide, and they store at least 89 billion tons*5 of carbon (as of 2017). (approximately 10 times the world’s carbon emissions).
Maintaining groundwater levels is important for the management of tropical peatlands. When water is drained away due to inappropriate land management, agricultural development, or plantations, the soil dries out and decomposition by microorganisms progresses. In addition, fires can cause large amounts of CO2 is released into the atmosphere. On the other hand, if the groundwater level gets too high, it will hinder the growth of trees, so managing the groundwater level is extremely important.
*4. Source: PEATMAP: Refining estimates of global peatland distribution based on a meta-analysis (Xu et al., 2018)
*5. Source: Age, extent and carbon storage of the central Congo Basin peatland complex (Dargie et al., 2017)
■Background
In accordance with the Paris Agreement adopted in 2015, governments, companies, and investors are accelerating efforts to realize a decarbonized society by 2050. The Japanese government has also announced that it will raise its greenhouse gas reduction target by 2030 from 26% to 46% compared to 2013. Reducing emissions through the restoration of tropical peatlands and absorbing CO2 through forest conservation are not only measures against global climate change, but also nature-based solutions to social issues.
Solutions (NbS)*6.
Consideration of this project began in December 2022, when Indonesian President Widodo Widodo requested support for tropical peatland management as the technology would help prevent peat fires and haze (smoke pollution). Based on a request for assistance, we planned to introduce and deploy tropical peatland management technology at the site of the Mega Rice Project, where the need for fire prevention is greatest and the risk of smoke pollution to the new capital Nusantara is high. At the Asia Zero Mission Community (AZEC) bilateral meeting in December 2023, Indonesian President Joko Widodo mentioned our tropical peatland management as one of three national priority projects.
Until now, the Sumitomo Forestry Group’s waterway design and management for tropical peatland management has been a technology that has not been highly reproducible, but by utilizing cutting-edge technology such as satellites, drones, and AI, we are able to achieve sustainability that is not individualized. We aim to construct a management model that will lead to possible tropical peatland management. This know-how is based on the vast amount of data and experience accumulated over many years in tropical peatlands in West Kalimantan, and we believe this technology will enable large-scale commercialization after the demonstration project.
*6.
Nature-based solutions. A concept that is gaining ground in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity, and is a concept that is gaining ground in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity. It is defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as action for the protection, sustainable management and restoration of protected ecosystems.
■Future developments
If business feasibility is confirmed during the demonstration period until August 2027, we will aim to expand the scale of management in the future. In addition to income from forest management, we are also building a methodology for carbon credits by reducing emissions from tropical peatlands, with the aim of turning the credit business into a new source of income. Furthermore, establishing a methodology for reducing emissions from peatlands will not only lead to our company’s profits, but will also lead to the promotion of the Japan-Indonesia Bilateral Credit Mechanism (JCM). Our company will hold joint study sessions with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Ministry of the Environment, and the Forestry Agency, with the aim of contributing to the achievement of the NDCs of both countries. In the future, we are considering expanding the project not only to Indonesia but also to other tropical peatlands such as Brazil and the Republic of Congo, as we continue to restore and manage tropical peatlands around the world.
The Sumitomo Forestry Group globally operates businesses centered on wood, from forest management to the manufacture and distribution of wood building materials, contracting for single-family homes and medium- to large-scale wooden construction, real estate development, and wood biomass power generation. Long-term vision until 2030 “Mission
TREEING
2030″, we aim to increase the amount of CO2 absorbed by forests by implementing Sumitomo Forestry’s “Wood Cycle” value chain, and by spreading the use of wooden buildings to fix carbon for a long period of time, contributing to the decarbonization of society as a whole. We will form a global forestry fund and expand forest area in order to “accelerate the recycling-oriented forestry business” as stated in our long-term vision.
■Sumitomo Forestry Indonesia Overview
Head office: Summitmas II 8th Fl., JL.Jend. Sudirman Kav. 61-62Jakarta 12190, Indonesia
Representative: Fumihide Nakatsu
Established: May 2011
Business overview: Import/export and wholesale sales of lumber and building materials
(Reference)
The Sumitomo Forestry Group has been conducting large-scale forestry operations in West Kalimantan since 2010. The managed land was subject to commercial logging from the 1960s to the early 1990s, and repeated illegal logging and slash-and-burn practices led to the deterioration of the forest. It took five years to survey the topography, conduct boring surveys to understand the distribution of peat, and design the waterway. We have built a unique tropical peatland management model that manages forests while stabilizing groundwater levels. By stabilizing groundwater levels, greenhouse gas emissions and forest fires are suppressed, and the water cycle is maintained appropriately, making a major contribution to the realization of a decarbonized society.
Reference website: https://sfc.jp/treecycle/value/peatland.html