Tropical Peatland Restoration in Indonesia by Replanting with Useful Indigenous Peat Swamp Species: Paludiculture

This chapter identifies the key paludiculture (swamp cultivation) plant species from various commodity categories, including food (fruit, nuts, vegetables, beverages, spices, oils, and fats), medicines, other non-timber forest products (utensils, dyes, weaving, latex, resins, and so on), as well as a range of wood products such as species producing timber and pulp. 512 useful peat swamp plant species are recognized, including 81 species with a major economic use and 379 non-timber forest product species, representing a cornucopia of paludiculture options. However, although 380,000 ha of degraded peatland has been rewetted by mid-2018, less than 2000 ha has been converted for true paludiculture, i.e. with full rewetting and using peat swamp adapted species for economic benefit. While a range of technical challenges exist, the main reasons for not carrying out true paludiculture are a lack of examples to follow and a lack of information about paludiculture species (their performance, markets, growth, and so on).