RORY PADFIELD¹ ∗, SUSAN WALDRON² , SIMON DREW² , EFFIE PAPARGYROPOULOU¹, SHASHI KUMARAN³ , SUSAN PAGE⁴ , DAVE GILVEAR⁵ , ALONA ARMSTRONG² , STEPHANIE EVERS⁶ , PAUL WILLIAMS⁷ , ZURIATI ZAKARIA¹ , SING YUN CHIN⁸ , SUNE BALLE HANSEN⁹ , AHIMSA CAMPOS-ARCEIZ¹⁰ , MOHD TALIB LATIF¹¹ , ALEX SAYOK¹² AND MUN HOU THAM<sup>1

1</sup>Malaysia Japan International Institute of Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 54100, Malaysia, ²School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK, ³Research Institute for Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Darwin NT 0909, Australia, ⁴Department of Geography, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK, ⁵Faculty of Science and Environment, Portland Square Building, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK, ⁶School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, Semenyih, Selangor Darul Ehsan 43500, Malaysia, ⁷Institute for Global Food Security, Queen’s University Belfast, David Keir Building, Malone Road, Belfast BT9 5BN, Northern Ireland, UK, ⁸Global Environment Centre, Petaling Jaya, Selangor 47300, Malaysia, ⁹UTM Palm Oil Research Center, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 54100, Malaysia, ¹⁰School of Geography, University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, Semenyih, Selangor Darul Ehsan 43500, Malaysia, ¹¹School of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia, and ¹²Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia

Date submitted: 5 August 2013; Date accepted: 7 January 2014

SUMMARY
There is a need for coordinated research for the sustainable management of tropical peatland. Malaysia has 6% of global tropical peat by area and peatlands there are subject to land use change at an unprecedented rate. This paper describes a stakeholder
engagement exercise that identified 95priority research questions for peatland inMalaysia, organized into nine themes. Analysis revealed the need for fundamental scientific research, with strong representation across the themes of environmental change, ecosystem services, and conversion, disturbance and degradation.

Considerable uncertainty remains about Malaysia’s baseline conditions for peatland, including questions over total remaining area of peatland, water table depths, soil characteristics, hydrological function, biogeochemical processes and ecology. More applied and multidisciplinary studies involving researchers from the social sciences are required. The future sustainability of Malaysian peatland relies on coordinating research agendas via a ‘knowledge hub’ of researchers, strengthening the role of peatlands in land-use planning and development processes, stricter policy enforcement, and bridging the divide between
national and provincial governance. Integration of the economic value of peatlands into existing planning regimes is also a stakeholder priority. Finally, current research needs to be better communicated for the benefit of the research community, for improved societal understanding and to inform policy processes.

∗Correspondence: Dr Rory Padfield Tel: +60 1366 32037 e-mail: rorypadfield@gmail.com

Keywords: Malaysia, research agendas, sustainable management, stakeholder engagement, tropical peatland

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