The project was started to prevent the planned conversion of the forest area to industrial-scale acacia plantations. By establishing the conservation project, the KMP has prevented the release of greenhouse gas emissions that would have occurred had the project not intervened.

Alongside the goal of preventing deforestation caused GHG emissions, the project was founded on the related missions of safeguarding the forest’s biodiversity and improving the lives, well-being and economic opportunities of people living around the forest area.

The project is a triple gold rated forest carbon project, which means it has been third-party verified against the Verra Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and the Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB) Standard.

All forests possess an important capacity for drawing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and storing it in the growing vegetation and organic matter. The KMP has additional significance because it holds more than 90% of its carbon reserve underground, in its soil. 

The forest sits on top of a peat dome, a sponge-like area of saturated soil. Peat is created through the slow accumulation of leaves, dead trees, plants and other organic material, which can only partially decomposed thanks to the water it contains. The Katingan Mentaya peat dome has been formed over tens of thousands of years – in places it is as old as 26,000 years and can reach 13 meters in depth.

Peatland conditions are found across the globe, but they are particularly prevalent in Indonesia and are crucially important natural environments, not only given the volume of carbon they contain, but also due to the intricate life systems they support. 

Protecting the forest from conversion to industrial acacia plantations (See project additionality and baseline scenario for more details) has prevented the release of greenhouse gases (GHG) equivalent to almost half a gigaton of carbon dioxide over 60 years, making it the largest forest-based avoided emissions project in the world.