VM0036 Rewetting Drained Temperate Peatlands and Tropical Peat Lessons

Updated 2026-11-02 · 3 min read · By the akar.earth specialist team

VM0036 is Verra's peatland rewetting methodology for temperate peat. Learn how it works and which lessons carry over to rewetting tropical peat in Indonesia.

VM0036 is Verra’s methodology for rewetting drained peatlands in temperate regions. It credits the emissions avoided when drainage is blocked and water tables rise, slowing the oxidation of peat. It is not designed for tropical peat, so Indonesian peat projects need a different methodology, but its accounting logic is a useful guide to what any peat rewetting project must prove.

Indonesia holds one of the largest tropical peat areas in the world, concentrated in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Papua. Drained peat emits CO2 continuously and burns in dry years. Rewetting is one of the highest-impact land interventions in the country, and one of the hardest to credit well.

What VM0036 does

Drained peat loses carbon because oxygen reaches organic matter that was once waterlogged. Raising the water table cuts that oxidation. It can increase methane, because waterlogged soils produce it. A credible peat methodology must therefore net out CO2 reductions against any methane increase.

VM0036 handles this with greenhouse gas emission site types (GESTs). Vegetation communities act as a proxy for water level and emissions. Each vegetation type maps to an emission value derived from research on temperate peat. The project monitors vegetation change after rewetting and assigns emission values accordingly.

That approach works where vegetation-emission relationships are well studied, as in parts of Europe. It does not transfer to tropical peat swamp forest, degraded peat shrubland or peat under oil palm and acacia.

How a peat rewetting methodology works step by step

The steps below follow VM0036’s structure and apply to any peat rewetting accounting.

1. Map peat extent and depth. Use coring transects and remote sensing to map peat boundaries, depth and drainage canals.
2. Define the baseline. Describe ongoing drainage, land use and fire risk. The baseline water table and land cover drive baseline emissions.
3. Set a peat depletion limit. Peat is finite. Baseline emissions cannot continue beyond the point where the drained peat would be exhausted. Projects must estimate when that would happen.
4. Design the intervention. Canal blocking, dam construction and revegetation raise and stabilise water levels.
5. Choose an emission proxy. VM0036 uses vegetation types. Tropical approaches generally use water table depth, with emission factors from peer-reviewed studies or IPCC wetlands guidance.
6. Account for methane and fire. Include methane changes and fire emissions in both baseline and project scenarios where relevant.
7. Monitor. Track water tables with dipwells or loggers, subsidence with poles or surveys, vegetation, and fire.
8. Deduct uncertainty and assess permanence. Fire and drainage reversals are major risks. See the AFOLU non-permanence risk tool.

Tropical peat lessons for Indonesia

Indonesian peat projects historically combined peat accounting with avoided deforestation, often through VM0007 modules. With Verra’s REDD methodologies consolidated into VM0048, projects need to confirm which methodology now covers tropical peat rewetting and peat conservation components. Check the Verra website for the current methodology list.

Practical lessons:

• Water table data is the evidence. A dense, maintained dipwell network over several years is worth more than a modelled water table.
• Canal blocks fail. Dams erode and get dismantled. Maintenance budgets and community agreements matter.
• Fire dominates risk. One El Niño year can reverse years of gains. Fire monitoring and response capacity reduce buffer risk.
• Regulatory surplus must be shown. Indonesia’s peat protection rules require restoration on some land. Read peat restoration rules. Activities required by law are not additional.
• Land use on peat is contested. Concessions, smallholders and customary users overlap. Read peatland REDD+.

Pitfalls verifiers flag

• Applying temperate emission factors or proxies to tropical peat.
• Baseline emissions that run beyond the peat’s realistic depletion.
• Too few water table monitoring points, or gaps in records.
• Ignoring methane after rewetting.
• No credible fire management plan.
• No evidence that rewetting goes beyond legal obligations.

Monitoring design for tropical peat

A practical tropical peat monitoring network combines dipwells along transects from canals into the peat dome, automatic water level loggers at key points, subsidence poles, and regular satellite checks for fire and land cover change. Place monitoring in both rewetted and comparison areas. Record canal block condition after every wet season.

Remember that peat projects often overlap with other land uses. Map concessions, villages and protected areas across the whole hydrological unit, not only the project boundary.

Next steps

Peat projects live or die on their baseline. Read baseline setting and additionality, or browse the standards hub. Our carbon modelling service builds water table and emission models from field data.