TROPEAT 
Leicester Tropical Peatlands Research Group 

WELCOME to the TROPEAT home page

Many people still find it hard to believe that there are extensive peatlands in the Tropical zone: after all, peat bogs are usually associated with the cool, wet, midge-infested regions of the world!

There are, however, approximately 40 million ha of peatlands in the tropics, mainly located in the Southeast Asian countries of Indonesia and Malaysia.

In a natural condition, these peatlands support peat swamp forest, which provides a habitat for a number of rare and endangered species, including the orang-utan. Underground, the thick peat layers, accumulated over thousands of years and often exceeding a depth of 10 m, store enormous amounts of carbon.

The plant and animal communities of peat swamp forests have not been studied in the same detail as those of other types of tropical rain forest. Their remoteness, almost constant flooding and inaccessibility have deterred most scientists from venturing far into these vast swampy landscapes.

But through research by the Leicester TROPEAT team and other collaborators in Europe and Southeast Asia, we now have a much clearer understanding of the important environmental services that tropical peatlands can provide:

• Maintenance of biodiversity
• Carbon storage
• Water management
• Supply of timber & non-timber forest products
• Fish spawning & breeding grounds
• Palaeo-archive