Hydrogenetic Aspects of Peatland Restoration in Tibet and Kalimantan

Abstract

　Living peatlands are often intricate systems with important self-regulation mechanisms to maintain the balance between ‘vegetation,’ ‘water’ and ‘peat.’ An important part of this self-regulation is directly associated with vegetation, which is generally ignored or insufficiently acknowledged in hydrological approaches to peatland restoration. This paper illustrates the ecohydrological complications of restoration of recently degraded peatlands in Tibet (China) and Kalimantan (Indonesia).

　On the Ruoergai Plateau (China), long-term grazing has changed many original percolation mires into more vulnerable surface-flow mires that since the 1950s have become subject to overgrazing and drainage. In Kalimantan, especially since the 1990s, peat swamp forests have been disturbed by drainage and deforestation. For both areas, different peatland degradation stages are distinguished with their own restoration perspectives and approaches. Because restoration of severely degraded peatlands is extremely difficult to achieve, the highest priority is the identification and protection of undisturbed mires and the prevention of further degradation. In both areas the restoration of the water retaining and storing role of vegetation is indispensable to prevent the peat body from further erosion and to provide adequate conditions for the regeneration of living mires. As the vegetation in both peatland areas is the main object of human exploitation (overgrazing, deforestation), peatland restoration is not only a matter of technical management, but has an important social dimension.