reporter
Name Affiliation Title Ryunosuke Kataoka Research Officer, Forest and Natural Environment Conservation Group, Global Environment Department
summary
Date: November 21, 2025
Organized by Indonesian Peatland Restoration Center (ITPC)
Venue (Pavilion Name): Indonesia Delegation Office (The event was originally scheduled to be held at the Indonesia Pavilion, but the venue was changed due to the fire on the previous day.)
speaker
Name Affiliation Title Martin Krause Director, Climate Change Division, UNEP Amy Duchel Senior Forest Policy Officer and Leader, Forest and Climate Team, FAO Simon Lewis Head, Congo Peatlands Project and Professor of Geography, University of Leeds Mitsuru Osaki JICA Expert and President, The Japanese Peatlands Society Franziska TANNEBERGER Director, Greifswald Wetland Center
Background and Objectives
Tropical peatlands are essential ecosystems for global climate stabilization that store vast amounts of carbon over the long term. However, their contribution to climate change mitigation and adaptation is threatened by ongoing degradation, inadequate financial support, and methodological and regulatory uncertainty in emerging carbon markets. Many countries, including Indonesia, have responded by integrating peatland management and carbon emission reductions into their climate policies, most notably by codifying them as national goals in the Forestry and Other Land Use (FOLU) sector.
On the other hand, international carbon markets still face significant challenges such as Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) methodologies, ensuring transparency and credibility, regulatory instability, and greenwashing risks. Under these circumstances, Indonesia’s efforts in FOLU and the domestic carbon market have become an important mechanism to create economic opportunities while securing necessary funds through the trading of carbon credits generated by forest conservation and reforestation.
This session will discuss the latest developments in tropical peatland restoration and global carbon markets, and introduce the practices in Indonesia’s FOLU as a carbon market mechanism, as well as share the approaches of other peatland-holding countries such as Peru, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Republic of Congo, in order to exchange knowledge and international cooperation among countries The objective is to strengthen knowledge exchange and international cooperation among countries.
Contents
The session covered the latest developments in tropical peatland restoration, carbon management, and FOLU efforts in Indonesia, Peru, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Republic of Congo, with discussions comparing the challenges and progress faced by each country. Good practices for ensuring the credibility of carbon markets were also shared, and the ways of credit generation and fund mobilization that do not undermine credibility were discussed.
In his presentation on the current status of peatlands around the world, Mr. Krause mentioned in particular that the risk of tropical peatlands as a source of greenhouse gas emissions is rapidly increasing. He also introduced the results of UNEP’s South-South cooperation based on this, as well as case studies of cooperation with Indonesia through the ITPC, including the funding mechanism.
Mr. Ducier explained the “Peatland Breakthrough,” an initiative jointly adopted at COP30 by Wetlands International, UNEP, FAO, and others, emphasizing the significance and importance of the initiative. He also mentioned the need for funds by 2030. He also mentioned FAO’s past cooperation in the DRC, Peru, and other countries related to peatland conservation and restoration, and emphasized that peatland restoration is positioned as one of the main measures to achieve the NDC in Indonesia.
Using the example of the research and study on carbon map calculation of peatlands in the Congo Basin by his project, Mr. Lewis asserted the importance of stakeholder consensus for peatland conservation, and also mentioned the possibility of peatland conservation through TFFF from the perspective of finance.
Mr. Osaki introduced the development of a Tier 3 level monitoring system for greenhouse gas emissions from peatlands, which is currently being implemented by JICA under its technical cooperation “Climate Change LULUCF Sector Mitigation Project,” and emphasized the importance of MRV models that consider not only the carbon balance but also the water balance. He emphasized the importance of MRV models that take into account not only the carbon balance but also the water balance.
Mr. Tanneberger introduced peatland mapping efforts underway in Germany and shared the challenges of financing peatland conservation and the results of research related to ecosystem changes and accompanying ecosystem services due to the wettest peatlands.
1. presentation by Osaki expert
2. panel discussion
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