 What is the importance of peatlands? We're having a whole day of activities dedicated to it. How do they figure in terms of climate change, adaptation mitigation strategy and development goals? Peatlands are a fascinating ecosystem. They are found in at least 180 countries. So there's probably one near you wherever you are, but they're one of the least understood ecosystems. We've only recently seen that they have enormous carbon storage. Basically for thousands of years organic matter has accumulated, so it's almost like oil and gas, but it's plant matter that is collected in these large peatlands. So for the climate it's an enormous potential to keep that carbon in the ground and continue to sequester or be a carbon sink in those peatlands. It's only about 3% of the world's surface area, but probably responsible for 5% of all greenhouse gas emissions. If we can plug that leak it would probably give us enough leverage to reach the target of the Paris Agreement to stay within 2 degrees of global warming. If we don't reach to plug about a leak of the peatland fires and peatland degradation, it might be very difficult to stay within safe limits and reach the Paris Agreement target. And for countries who do have red plus plans in place now, are they looking at peat? Is it being fully considered or is the potential still to be leveraged? Not yet. For example, Indonesia has a forest reference emission level under the Climate Convention to measure how much emissions they have and how they want to reduce them, but it does not take into account the peat store or the fires that are burning on peatlands. The same situation is in many other countries where peat is not yet included in those efforts, but we're seeing a change and countries are more alert now to the possibilities and the challenges. That's why we formed the Global Peatlands Initiative bringing together more than 20 international organizations and countries like the Congo, the Congo Basin countries, Peru and Indonesia to look at how peatlands can be better integrated into their sustainable development goal aspirations and into the climate efforts that are undertaken. Tell me a bit more about the initiative you've just mentioned. I understand it was actually launched at another global landscapes forum. That's right, in Marrakesh, yes. So we launched it only in November last year, 2016, and now we have over 20 partners. We aim to better harmonize all the data and the support that the international community can give to countries like Indonesia, like the Republic of Congo. And through that we hope to also sensitize policymakers, ministers of environment, ministers of finance, of planning to the fact that peatlands are really probably the most important terrestrial ecosystem for the fight against climate change. What are some of the challenges or obstacles for countries to fully leverage the power of peatlands in terms of climate adaptation and mitigation threats? First of all, many countries don't know where they are. In the climate convention many years ago, about 10 years ago in 2006 in Kenya, climate negotiations were trying to bring peatlands into the discussions, but some countries said, well, we don't have peatlands, including the host country of those talks, Kenya. And not even five kilometers outside of the convention venue, there are lots of peatlands. So there was no knowledge where these peatlands are, how deep the carbon is, the peat is in those peatlands. We're only now starting to have that knowledge, and we will put out later this year a global rapid response assessment on peatlands. Where are they? What are the main threats? Followed next year by a more in-depth scientific assessment, a global assessment on peatlands that will hopefully help all the countries to at least know. Do we have peatlands? Where are they? How big are they? How much carbon is there? What can be done? So the first point is they don't know that there are peatlands. The second point is that in many cases, and Indonesia is really the country that is the most important country for this topic right now, many of these areas are under agricultural production. So there used to be peatlands, now they're often drained, there are plantations on them, there are agricultural fields on them, and the fire problematic that we see in Indonesia is largely due to that drainage of peatlands. What do you hope to achieve with this global landscapes forum here in Jakarta? What are some of your hopes or takeaways you'd like at the end of the day? Well, I think the motto of this event, peatlands matter, which is I think also the hashtag that's now all over Twitter, is the core of the message we want to bring to policymakers. Peatlands do matter for the climate, but also for development. These are millions and millions of hectares of land in many tropical countries. There are millions of people who depend on them for their livelihoods. In some cases, they are overused, over exploited, managed badly, drained too deep so the water tables fall too low. That means we have to turn that tide around and make sure they're sustainably managed. We're here at the global landscapes forum here, a lot of successful examples of how that can be done. And again, we would like to bring those also to the other countries that are some of them are here today, but many are not. We would like to use global landscapes forum to really elevate the topic to the international policy agenda.