Climate and health benefits of restoring tropical peat swamp forests
Abstract
This project investigates the climate and health benefits of restoring tropical peat swamp forests of Indonesia. It addressed an important science gap in how to better assess the health and climate benefits of large-scale restoration. It will integrate novel field-based paleo-reconstruction of the historical conditions, satellite observations of temperature and rainfall, and high-resolution modelling of the regional climate processes under different restoration scenarios. It will use this information to determine: how restoration activities affect the regional climate; how changes in climate affect peatland fires and regional smoke haze; and how changes to regional climate and smoke haze affect human respiratory health and heat stress.
