title: Threats to intact tropical peatlands and opportunities for their conservation.
abstract: Large, intact areas of tropical peatland are highly threatened at a global scale by the expansion of commercial agriculture and other forms of economic development. Conserving peatlands on a landscape scale, with their hydrology intact, is of international conservation importance to preserve their distinctive biodiversity and ecosystem services and maintain their resilience to future environmental change. We explored threats to and opportunities for conserving remaining intact tropical peatlands; thus, we excluded peatlands of Indonesia and Malaysia, where extensive deforestation, drainage, and conversion to plantations means conservation in this region can protect only small fragments of the original ecosystem. We focused on a case study, the Pastaza-Marañón Foreland Basin (PMFB) in Peru, which is among the largest known intact tropical peatland landscapes in the world and is representative of peatland vulnerability. Maintenance of the hydrological conditions critical for carbon storage and ecosystem function of peatlands is, in the PMFB, primarily threatened by expansion of commercial agriculture linked to new transport infrastructure that is facilitating access to remote areas. There remain opportunities in the PMFB and elsewhere to develop alternative, more sustainable land-use practices. Although some of the peatlands in the PMFB fall within existing legally protected areas, this protection does not include the most carbon-dense (domed pole forest) areas. New carbon-based conservation instruments (e.g., REDD+, Green Climate Fund), developing markets for sustainable peatland products, transferring land title to local communities, and expanding protected areas offer pathways to increased protection for intact tropical peatlands in Amazonia and elsewhere, such as those in New Guinea and Central Africa which remain, for the moment, broadly beyond the frontier of commercial development.
authors.affiliation: School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews, Irvine Building, North Street, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9AL, U.K.
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Roucoux
authors.affiliation: School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews, Irvine Building, North Street, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9AL, U.K.
authors.forename: I T
authors.initials: IT
authors.lastname: Lawson
authors.affiliation: School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS6 9JT, U.K.
authors.forename: T R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana, Iquitos, Av. José A. Quiñones km. 2.5 - Apartado Postal 784, Loreto, Peru.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Del Castillo Torres
authors.affiliation: Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution for Science, 260 Panama St, Stanford, CA, 94305, U.S.A.|International Center for Tropical Botany, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th St, Miami, FL, 33199, U.S.A.
authors.forename: F C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Draper
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, U.S.A.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Lähteenoja
authors.affiliation: School of Integrative Studies, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 22030, U.S.A.
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Gilmore
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana, Iquitos, Av. José A. Quiñones km. 2.5 - Apartado Postal 784, Loreto, Peru.
authors.forename: E N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Honorio Coronado
authors.affiliation: School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS6 9JT, U.K.
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.affiliation: School of GeoSciences,The University of Edinburgh Crew Building,The King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3FF, U.K.
authors.forename: E T A
authors.initials: ETA
authors.lastname: Mitchard
authors.affiliation: Science and Education, The Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 S Lake Shore Dr, Chicago, IL, 60605, U.S.A.
authors.forename: C F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Vriesendorp
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D007214:Indonesia; D008296:Malaysia; D010568:Peru; D053833:Wetlands
keywords: Amazonia; Amazonía; Peru; carbon; carbono; peat; peatland; tropics; trópicos; turba; turberas