News

Overview

Name of Meeting: COP26 Official Side-event "Technology and Data Collection for Peatlands Management"
Date: 9th November, 2021
Organizer: JICA
Co-organizers: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Peatlands Initiative (GPI)
Location: COP26 Peatland Pavilion, Glasgow, UK, and online

Moderators and panelists

Welcome speach
Mr. Takashi Nishimura, Deputy Director General, Global Environment Department, Japan International Cooperation Agency

Panelists
Dr. Mitsuru Osaki, Emeritus Professor, Hokkaido University
Dr. Jean Jacques Bambuta, Ministère de l'Environnement et Développement Durable,Democratic Republic of the Congo
Dr. José Álvarez Alonso, Director General of Biological Diversity, Ministerio del Ambiente, Peru
Dr. Kazuyo Hirose, Director General, Japan Space Systems
Dr. Corneille E.N. Ewango, University of Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Mr. Tsuyoshi Kato & Ms. Niken Andika Putri, President Director and Remote Sensing Analyst, Sumitomo Forestry Group PT. Wana Subur Lestari, Indonesia
Ms. Maria Nuutinen, Forestry Officer, Peatlands and high-carbon ecosystems, FAO

Moderators
Ms. Sri Parwati Murwani Budi Susanti, Assistant deputy minister, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Indonesia
Ms. Misaki Takahashi, Engineer, Japan Forest Technology Association

Primary objectives and outcomes

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is discussing the importance of curbing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from forests and other sources, as well as mechanisms to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. In particular, it is estimated that at least twice as much carbon is stored in peatlands as in aboveground biomass stored in forests, and measures to reduce GHG emissions from peatlands are attracting attention as climate change measures.

JICA, together with UNEP and GPI, held a side event at the Peatland Pavilion at COP26 in Glasgow, UK, where government officials and reserchers gathered to introduce the importace for peatland conservation and its measurement methods for three countries with large areas of tropical peatlands: Indonesia, Congo Basin (the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Republic of Congo (RC)) and Peru.

Content of the discussions

Peatland fieldwork in DRC
COP26 Virtual Peatland Pavilion

At COP26, UNEP coordinated the Peatland Pavilion, where technology, best practices and experiences were shared. The Peatland Pavilion provided close to 50 sessions, with an average of 150 online participants per session, both on-site and online. The side event hosted by JICA attracted a lot of interest from peatland stakeholders, including Indonesia, Peru, DRC, and RC, and this was filled with audience onsite and had 253 online participants.

At this event, Professor Emeritus Osaki of Hokkaido University gave a keynote speech on the possibility of monitoring not only peatlands but also tropical forests by using a large amount of gigabyte data based on a case study in Indonesia. Mr. Bambuta from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mr. Jose from Peru introduced their efforts to conserve peatlands in their countries, and emphasize on the importance of data maintenance for conservation of peatlands. Dr. Hirose of the Japan Space Systems (JSS) explained the introduction of mapping methods to Congo Basin, which was applied in Peru, and Prof. Ewango of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) introduced the results of peatland fieldwork in the Congo Basin conducted jointly with JICA, with its video.