PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The Kuan Kreng landscape (KKL) in south eastern Thailand contains the country’s second largest peat swamp forest area. The peat swamps provide many ecosystem services ranging from livelihoods for local communities, acting as a rainwater and runoff reservoir, buffering from the impact of rains and floods, acting as a natural sediment filter before waters drain into Songkhla Lake, being a major store of carbon, and harboring important biodiversity including a number of globally threatened species. By some estimates, however, about 65% of the KKL remains under constant threat of degradation from various threats with the primary one being conversion to oil palm cultivation and associated drainage and forest fires. The area of natural peatlands that harbor biodiversity and sequester carbon is being reduced. The long-term solution is to change the trajectory of baseline approaches and facilitate a transformative shift from unsustainable to sustainable and integrated use of peat swamps in Thailand. The project proposes three components: the first focusing on improving effective protection of remaining natural peat swamp forests in the KKL; the second helping to implement innovative approaches to avoid drainage and restore peat swamps; and the third helping to improve national strategies for land use in peat swamps. In doing so it will improve the status of indicator species in KKL, demonstrate good peat swamp forest management practices, maintain the carbon pool, reduce emissions from peatlands, enhance institutional capacity to account for GHG emission reduction and increase in carbon stocks, and develop a national strategy to guide the management of peat swamps.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For more information https//open.undp.org/projects/00084475