Why Standing Forest Is Not Enough: Demonstrating Additionality in Peatland Carbon Projects
- Faiz Fajri
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
A Peatland Forest Can Look Healthy While Quietly Releasing Carbon
If you fly over Pulang Pisau PRESERVE - Peatland Restoration and Fire Prevention in Central Kalimantan today, you will see what appears to be an intact peat swamp forest. The canopy stretches across the landscape, patches of biodiversity remain, and from satellite imagery, much of the forest still looks green. At first glance, it seems like a healthy ecosystem, while underneath, years of drainage have been causing the peat to release carbon, even though the canopy above still looks intact.
Much of this landscape still carries the legacy of Indonesia's Mega Rice Project (MRP), launched in the 1990s to convert peatland into rice fields. Canals were dug across the region to drain peatlands for agricultural development. While the project itself was eventually abandoned, the canals remained. Decades later, many continue to drain water away from the peat, fundamentally changing how the ecosystem functions.
This is where peatlands work differently from most forest ecosystems. Their largest carbon stock is not stored in trees, but in the peat itself. When groundwater levels fall, oxygen enters the peat soil and begins a slow process of decomposition. Carbon that has remained locked away for thousands of years is gradually released back into the atmosphere. At the same time, the dried peat becomes increasingly vulnerable to fire, particularly during prolonged dry seasons.
In other words, a forest can still look intact and still be a source of greenhouse gas emissions.
This is also why one of the most common assumptions in the voluntary carbon market is not entirely correct. Standing forest alone does not automatically generate carbon credits. Conserving existing forests matters, but high-integrity carbon credits are awarded only when a project can demonstrate that it creates measurable climate benefits beyond what would have happened without the project.
For CarbonEthics, this principle sits at the heart of the Pulang Pisau PRESERVE Project. The objective is not simply to protect the remaining forest, but to restore the ecological processes that keep peatlands functioning as long-term carbon sinks. That means restoring hydrology, reducing fire risk, working alongside local communities, and establishing robust monitoring systems capable of demonstrating measurable environmental outcomes. Together, these form the basis of additionality, one of the most important requirements of the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS).
Looking Beyond the Forest Canopy
Understanding peatland carbon requires looking beyond what is visible from above.
Unlike most tropical forests, peatlands store the majority of their carbon underground. Over thousands of years, waterlogged conditions slowed the decomposition of organic material, allowing thick layers of peat to accumulate. As long as the peat remains saturated, decomposition occurs very slowly and the carbon stays safely stored.
The challenge begins when the natural hydrology is disrupted.
Across the Pulang Pisau PRESERVE landscape, legacy canals from the MRP era continue to lower groundwater levels. Once peat is exposed to oxygen, naturally occurring microorganisms become far more active. They begin breaking down organic matter that had remained stable for centuries, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere through a process known as peat oxidation.
The degradation does not stop there.
As peat loses carbon, it also loses volume, and the land subsides. Subsided land holds less water, which makes the ecosystem more vulnerable to drought and, in turn, more vulnerable to fire. Peat fires do not behave like surface fires. They can burn underground for weeks, are difficult to put out, and release large volumes of carbon in the process.
This sequence is well established in scientific literature:
drainage canals lower the groundwater table, which drives peat oxidation and CO₂ emissions, which drives subsidence, which raises fire risk, which drives further emissions (IPCC Wetlands Supplement, 2013; Hooijer et al., 2010; Page et al., 2011).
This understanding fundamentally shapes how CarbonEthics approaches restoration in Pulang Pisau PRESERVE to start with hydrology rather than tree cover alone. Not only focusing solely on preventing tree loss, the project prioritises restoring hydrological function because healthy peat hydrology is the foundation of long-term carbon storage.
Additionality Starts With Changing the Future
Within the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), additionality is assessed through a simple but powerful question:
Would these emission reductions still happen if the project never existed?
Answering that question requires comparing two plausible futures.
The first is the baseline scenario, representing what is expected to happen under business-as-usual conditions. In Pulang Pisau PRESERVE, this would likely mean that legacy canals continue draining the peat, groundwater levels remain below their natural condition, meaning that peatland fires keep recurring and restoration efforts remain difficult to sustain at scale. Restoring hydrology across a landscape like this requires canal blocking across an extensive canal network, followed by decades of maintenance, repair, and continuous water table monitoring. Financing structures available outside carbon markets are typically project-cycle based, which makes it difficult to sustain that level of maintenance and monitoring over a multi-decade period. Under this scenario, peat oxidation and recurring fires continue releasing greenhouse gases over time.
The second is the project scenario, where coordinated interventions actively change those conditions. Within Pulang Pisau PRESERVE, CarbonEthics applies an integrated restoration strategy aligned with Verra methodologies. Canal blocking is designed to slow water loss and restore peat hydrology. Permanent groundwater monitoring wells provide continuous Water Table Depth (WTD) data to evaluate restoration effectiveness. Community patrols and fire prevention programmes reduce ignition risks during the dry season, while biodiversity and MRV monitoring systems generate evidence that restoration outcomes are measurable and verifiable.
The gap between these two futures is what additionality seeks to demonstrate. Proving a forest still exists is not enough on its own. The project has to show it changed the trajectory of the landscape in a way that would not have happened without carbon finance.
Additionality Is Demonstrated Through Implementation
A Project Design Document (PDD) lays out what a project sets out to do, and the real proof of additionality comes from what happens next, years of consistent, on-the-ground implementation that turns that plan into measurable results.
For Pulang Pisau PRESERVE, additionality becomes visible through everyday operational decisions. It starts with field teams surveying degraded canals before restoration begins. It continues through materials mobilisation, canal block construction, routine inspections, groundwater monitoring, community engagement, biodiversity surveys, and regular MRV reporting. These activities are planned, budgeted, monitored, and refined through adaptive management as new information becomes available.
Carbon finance is what makes this possible over time. Without sustained funding, maintaining hydrological monitoring networks, supporting community patrols, conducting biodiversity assessments, and operating a robust MRV system over decades would be extremely difficult. Carbon finance therefore enables not only restoration infrastructure, but also the long-term operational capacity needed to ensure those interventions continue delivering measurable climate benefits.
This is what additionality looks like on the ground. It is not defined by a paragraph in the Project Design Document (PDD) or by a single canal block constructed in the field. Instead, it is demonstrated through consistent, measurable actions that gradually restore peatland hydrology, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and shift the landscape away from its business-as-usual trajectory. At Pulang Pisau PRESERVE, these efforts are not carried out by CarbonEthics alone. They are implemented in close partnership with local communities, whose knowledge, participation, and long-term stewardship are fundamental to the project's success. More than a carbon project, Pulang Pisau PRESERVE represents a shared commitment to restoring the peatland landscape so that it continues to provide ecological, social, and climate benefits for future generations.
About CarbonEthics
CarbonEthics is a tech-enabled Ecosystem Restoration Company specializing in carbon project development and blue carbon ecosystems. We bridge ecosystem restoration, climate finance, and regulatory expertise to deliver high-integrity carbon solutions that create real impact for local communities while preserving biodiversity.
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