One of the major land types in Southeast Asia is peatlands. In a natural state these occur as peat swamp forests. These wetland forests have developed primarily in the coastal lowland plains in-between major rivers. They cover approximately 24 million ha in the region with the majority in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Thailand and Viet Nam and smaller areas in Myanmar, Lao PDR and the Philippines. In Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam they form more than 10% of the land area of the country. Peat swamp forests play a critical role in the economy and ecology of the region - providing timber and non-timber forest products, water supply, flood control and many other benefits. They also play a very significant role of global significance in storing an estimated 120 billion tonnes of carbon or approximately 5% of all global terrestrial carbon as well as being repositories for unique and important biodiversity.
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