Peat is organic material,  consisting largely of residues of the incomplete decomposition of plants under conditions of waterlogging. Peatlands ar distributed in all climatic zones from boreal, temperate and humid tropical zones, in both the northern and the southern hemisphere where vr suitable climatic and edaphic condition prevail.

Over 12% of the global peatland occur in humid tropical zones and 10% of these are found in the South East Asian region, covering about 32.94 million hectares.

Unlike that of boral and temperate region, where peat is mainly derived from remains of low growing plants such as Sphanagum and Gramineae, tropical peat is formd from forest trees. Consequently its physical and chemical properties and the vegetation it supports are different from the temperate counterpart. As such, tropical peatlands' ecosystems ar unique because they are both rainforests and peatlands. Not only does their existnce depend upon precise environmental condition, but they also influence the environment itself.

Apart from performing many of the usual functions of wetlands, they have special important attributes to carbon fixing, sequestering and storing which is vital of the world's climate system. They are also performing important role in maintaining global biodiversity and serve as irreplaceable palaeo-environmental archives.