Introduction

Fifty years later this nearly untouched world in northwest Borneo no longer exists. Of Sarawak's original 1.4 million hectares of peat swamp forest, 80% is already lost. Most of the peat swamp forest has been drained and cleared to make way for plantations of African oil palm Elaeis guineensis to boost the production of highly valued palm oil (Wetlands International 2010; Miettinen et al. 2012a). This situation exemplifies the overall trend of peat swamp destruction and conversion in South East Asia. Of the original 15.5 million hectares of South East Asian peat swamp forests, less than 5 million hectares (32%) remains today, mostly in some state of degradation. Commercial and illegal logging and fire have affected nearly all remaining peat forests in western Indonesia and Malaysia, including conservation areas. There are now no untouched peat swamp forests and not one hydrologically intact peat dome remaining in Malaysia, Kalimantan and Sumatra (e.g. Silvius and Giesen 1996; Miettinen and Liew 2010; Wetlands International 2010). If current rates of deforestation continue, this region will lose its last peat swamp forests by 2030 (Miettinen et al. 2012b). The possible exception is the small state of Brunei, where most peat swamps are well protected.

In Europe, the region with proportionally the greatest peatland losses worldwide, most peatland degradation took place over the past four centuries and halted in the 1980s (Joosten 2009b). In contrast, South East Asian peatland destruction is a very recent phenomenon that largely started in the 1970s and has dramatically accelerated over the last 20 years.