The Rehabilitation and Sustainable Use of Peatland Forests in Southeast Asia is a four-year project which aims to demonstrate, implement and scale up sustainable management and rehabilitation of peatland forests in Southeast Asia. The Project focuses on the following areas:

(i) strengthening capacity and institutional framework for sustainable peatland management;

(ii) reduction of peatland degradation;

(iii) integrated management and rehabilitation of selected peatlands; and

(iv) local community and private sector involvement in sustainable peatland management.

The Project (abbreviated as the ASEAN Peatland Forests Project, APFP) was developed by the ASEAN Secretariat (ASEC) and the Global Environment Centre (GEC) for funding by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The participating countries are the ASEAN Member States (AMS), in particular Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Viet Nam, with support from Brunei Darussalam and Singapore.

The Grant Agreement (GA) for the Project was signed between ASEC and IFAD on 24 February 2009. The GA formalizes the approval and administration of the Grant from the GEF and supervision of the project implementation over the period of four years (2009-2013). The Project consists of five components: the Regional Component and four country components i.e. Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Viet Nam.

The ASEAN Peatland Management Strategy (APMS) was used as the key guide to develop and design this Project. Formed under the framework of the ASEAN Peatland Management Initiative (APMI), the APMS was endorsed at the 22nd Meeting of the ASOEN-HTTF (15-16th November 2005, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam) and the 10th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on the Environment (AMME) (10th November 2006, Cebu, Philippines). The Project design has adopted six key approaches of the APMS as follows:

(i) a coordinated multi-country approach;

(ii) on-the-ground implementation;

(iii) creating linkages to other interventions and cooperation frameworks;

(iv) creating linkages to the private sector;

(v) addressing poverty and community livelihood issues; and

(vi) the establishment of innovative financial mechanisms for sustainable peatland management.

The prime purpose of this Project is to enhance a regional effort to rehabilitate and manage peatlands in a sustainable manner in response to problems created by peatland degradation in the ASEAN region through efforts supporting the implementation of the APMS as a collective approach by these countries.