Agricultural use of wetlands: opportunities and limitations

Abstract

Agriculture has been carried out in several types of (former) wetlands for millennia, with crop fields on river floodplain soils and rice fields as major examples. However, intensive agricultural use of drained/reclaimed peatlands has been shown to lead to major problems because of the oxidation and subsidence of the peat soil. This does not only lead to severe carbon dioxide emissions, but also results in low-lying land which needs to be protected against flooding. Developments in South-East Asia, where vast areas of tropical peatlands are being converted into oil palm plantations, are of great concern in this respect. Although more flood-tolerant cultivars of commercial crop species are being developed, these are certainly not suitable for cultivation in wetlands with prolonged flooding periods, but rather will survive relatively short periods of waterlogging in normally improved agricultural soils. From a sustainability perspective, reclamation of peatlands for agriculture should be strongly discouraged. The opportunities for agriculture in naturally functioning floodplains should be further investigated. The development and use of crop cultivars with an even stronger flood tolerance could form part of the sustainable use of such floodplain systems. Extensive use of wetlands without drastic reclamation measures and without fertilizer and pesticides might result in combinations of food production with other wetland services, with biodiversity remaining more or less intact. There is a need for research by agronomists and environmental scientists to optimize such solutions.

Effect of Environmental Disturbances on Odonata Assemblages along a Tropical Polluted River

“…Oil palm industry is one of the major incomes for economic development in Malaysia since its first commercial planting in 1917. The expansion of oil palm plantation causes forest degradation and loss of biodiversity (Abdullah, Nakagoshi, 2008;Iwata et al, 2003;Che Salmah et al, 2013) especially in wetland areas (Wantzen et al, 2008;Verhoeven, Setter, 2010). According to Hershey, Lamberti (1998), increased sedimentation and runoff as a consequence of land clearing decreased detritus input, which resulted in low insect diversity in rivers passing through human-modified riparian land use type.…”

Observing and understanding the Southeast Asian aerosol system by remote sensing: An initial review and analysis for the Seven Southeast Asian Studies (7SEAS) program

“…Regardless, emissions dynamics in SEA may change as more land is permanently converted to agriculture and less forest regrowth is observed. A notable example of this is the very rapid destruction of peatlands in favor of oil palm plantations in Malaysia and oil palm and rice in Indonesia (e.g., Yule, 2010;Verhoeven and Setter, 2010). Because land cover conversion in Indonesia is often associated with fire activity and subsequently haze in the popular press and Indonesia is the largest country in the region, Indonesia is often highlighted in regard to peatland destruction in Sumatra and the Kalimantan provinces of Borneo.…”

WETwin: A structured approach to evaluating wetland management options in data-poor contexts

“…The reasons behind this are complex, related not only to land and water use within the wetland, but also to management of upstream catchments, external pressures such as climate change and population growth, and institutional factors affecting management such as unclear or overlapping spheres of authorities and lack of effective power to enforce laws and regulations (Finlayson et al, 2005;IPCC 2007). The multiple benefits provided by wetlands often mean that there are competing priorities for wetland 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 use (Verhoeven and Setter, 2010;McCartney et al, 2010). Management must thus balance the competing needs of different uses and users, as well as the threat of degradation from external pressures.…”