JAKARTA – The myth that degraded peatlands in oil palm plantations could not be rehabilitated has been finally refuted, after 10 years being considered as an indisputable fact.

Sigit Reliantoro, Director General of Pollution and Environmental Damage Control at the ministry of environment and forestry (KLHK), said that they had managed to rehabilitate 5.5 million hectares of peatlands.

“We’ve managed to debunk the myth that degraded peatlands cannot be restored,” Sigit said during a public discussion on “Peatland Governance and Restoration” in Jakarta on Friday (21/06/2024).

According to Sigit, until 2023 the  KLHK had taken inventory in 300 units of hydrologic peatlands (KHG) with a total area of 15.42 million hectares from the total of 24.67 million hectares, or 63% of total KHG.

“We’ve also restored the ecosystems of peatlands, especially their hydrologic systems in concession areas, reaching 3.9 million hectares in 73 industrial forest areas and 259 oil palm plantations,” said Sigit.

The government has also conducted restoring programs outside of the concession areas, through the village program of self-sufficiency and peatland care under collaborations with 272 villages and peatland watering area up to 51,000 hectares as of 2023.

Sigit mentioned that the peatland and mangrove restoration board (BRGM) had also restored 1.6 million hectares of peatland areas as of 2023.

“With the addition of 1.6 million hectares, the total peatland ecosystems that had been restored has reached 5.5 million hectares. So, we’ve managed to debunk the myth of unrestorable condition of peatland ecosystems,” said Sigit.

Karhutla

Sigit also stated that in the past Indonesia had seen a number of cases of severe forest and land fires (Karhutla), in 1991, 1994, 1997, 2006, and in 2015. (*)

Source: sawitku.id