Indonesia is home to the world’s second largest area of tropical peatland, but expansion of oil palm and acacia plantations, as well as intensive logging has degraded or destroyed much of this land.
Millions of hectares of peat have been drained, a highly dangerous practice because not only is the material highly flammable, but it will also release huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere when it burns or as it erodes – fuelling climate change. Raging fires during the annual dry season can burn for months and lead to the infamous Indonesian ‘haze’, one of the main environmental problems faced by South East Asia. Millions of people are plagued with debilitating respiratory problems, and the closure of airports and ports during the fires is hugely damaging to economies across the region.
Even without burning, a 4-5cm depth of peat erodes away each year, reducing water absorption and increasing flood risk, causing land to lose economic value altogether.
After the devastating forest fires during the 2015 El Niño event – when more than 2Mha of peat burned for months, causing up to 100,000 premature deaths and a further 500,000 people to require hospital treatment – the government created the National Peatland Restoration Agency (BRG), with a mandate to restore the areas affected.
Our project, the Berbak Green Prosperity Partnership, began that year in the buffer zone designated to shield the Berbak National Park. It prioritised the rehabilitation of degraded peatland. As part of the carbon emissions and fire reduction plan for the area, we led work to build 135 canals in the park’s Tahura buffer zone and replant 53ha with plant species adapted to cope with the re-wetting of peat soils.
Empowering sustainable livelihoods
To ensure long-term sustainability, preventing further deforestation was key. The Berbak National Park is in Jambi province, one of Indonesia’s main palm oil production regions. The province is home to many smallholder farmers who depend on small plantations of between 2ha and 5ha for their livelihoods.
We helped to train around 10,000 oil palm farmers in how to maximise harvests through better use of fertiliser and pesticides, and adopt new techniques, to remove the need for them to expand into natural peat lands to increase their turnover. Over two and a half years, average net profits increased by 25% just by applying these simple new practices, while 2000 farmers were certified to the ISCC palm oil standard.
Our role also involved helping the BRG with donor co-ordination, including identifying potential funding for further peatland restoration activities and carrying out an extensive training programme among local BRG staff.
We played a crucial role in supporting Indonesia to protect this special but vulnerable ecological area, and have been approached to support similar programmes throughout the region.
Up to 3Mha of degraded peatland in Indonesia are in urgent need of restoration. Our hands-on experience in reversing the damage done to these biologically diverse wetlands could help Indonesia to curb its carbon emissions, protect its natural environment and eventually put an end to its devastating forest fires.