1 CAPACITY BUILDING FOR SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF PEATLANDS IN THE HUMID TROPICS: FROM RESEARCH TO APPLICATION

About one quarter of the world’s tropical peatlands (11 million hectares) occur in Borneo. These peatlands have global ecological significance, being some of the largest remaining areas of lowland rainforest in SE Asia that provide the habitat of many endangered species. In addition, they are large stores of carbon and water and have an important regional economic role, providing forest products and land for settlement and agricultural development. Owing to a lack of awareness and understanding about sustainable land management practices, however, many peatland development projects fail, resulting in serious environmental degradation and impoverishment of local communities. A number of Southeast Asian and European universities have established a multilateral collaborative research network to address the sustainable management of tropical peatlands through a number of research, education and advisory projects. The research projects aim to improve the understanding of the unique features of the tropical peatlands. In the education projects, the newly acquired knowledge is used to develop university curricula. With the use of innovative educational tools, course materials an