Over the past 30 years, peat swamp forests have been increasingly cleared, drained and degraded as a result of unsustainable forestry and agricultural practices. An estimated 13 million ha have been impacted and often degraded by legal and illegal logging activity which often involves drainage of the peat during the extraction process, and over exploitation of forest resources. Although most peatland soil (especially those deeper than 2 m) is marginal to poor for agriculture, 5-7 million ha have been cleared and drained in the region for agriculture and plantation projects - mainly oil palm, pulpwood, rice and various small-scale crops. Many of these agricultural programmes in peat have ended in failure with the most notable example being the so-called Mega-Rice Project in Kalimantan, Indonesia where 1 million ha was cleared and drained for rice cultivation although less than 5% was suitable for this purpose. This scheme and many others were abandoned before they were complete.