Besides providing economic benefits and increasing peatland biomass, the oil palm trees are the most realistic choice to plant in peatlands.
The green non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and a number of experts have a tendency to blame the use of peat lands for agricultural and plantation activities as the cause of forest and land fires.
The fires did occur in peat lands, both in the ones used for cultivation and those for forest conservation. Based on the fact, the fire accusations are not thoroughly true and also carelessly made.
The peat lands consist of peatlands for cultivation and peatlands for conservation. Based on the prevailing regulations, the peatlands for cultivation can be used for agricultural / plantation activities by smallholders and companies. That means, the use of peatlands for agriculture or plantations is not against the law.
Of the total forests in the world, only around 20 percent are peatlands. Most of the peatlands or around 80 percent are used for agricultural activities and other activities (Wet International, 2008; Strack, 2008). Around 39 percent of the world’s total peatlands are located in America, some 44 percent in Asia, 11 percent in Europe and the rest in other areas. Russia is the world’s largest country in terms of using peatlands for agriculture with the use of 130 million hectare, followed by Canada with 97 million hectares and the USA with 12 million hectares.
Based on the data of peatland use for agriculture, there is nothing wrong with the government policy to allow the use of peatlands for agriculture. And there is no need for the government to hesitate in licensing the use of peatlands for agriculture in the future.
Considering such condition, then what plants are the most realistic ones for growers to plant in peatlands? The empirical data until now has shown that the oil palm trees are the most realistic ones in peatlands. It has been empirically proven in eastern coastal areas of North Sumatra, where smallholders and companies have used hundreds of thousands of hectares of peat lands for oil palm plantations since 100 years ago until now. Such case can be also seen in Malaysia where millions of hectares of peatlands are used for oil palm plantations.
The oil palm plantations on the peatlands in North Sumatra’s eastern coastal areas and Malaysia have proven that there has been no case of peatland fires during the last 100 years as they applied relatively better governance. The smallholders in the peatland areas are also the second or third generation and manage to produce many university graduates due to their oil palm plantations. Therefore, it is hard to deny that the oil palm plantations on the peatlands are sustainable in all aspects of social, economy and environment.
Other peatland areas, such as in Riau, Jambi, South Sumatera and Kalimantan, are also being developed by smallholders and companies for oil palm plantations. Actually, based on the empirical data and experience in peatlands of North Sumatra and Malaysia, the use of the peatlands for oil palm plantations is the rational choice.
A number of researches (Subiham, 2013) show that the oil palm plantations in peatland areas have increased the peatland biomass. The problem was that the cultivation technology in peatlands was not thoroughly friendly to the environment. Besides, the water management in peatlands was also not implemented under an integrated system of hydrology. It was due to those two factors that had caused the use of peatlands for cultivation was not thoroughly based on sustainability.
Agricultural activities, including the oil palm plantations, in peatlands are also part of efforts to rehabilitate the peatlands. Besides providing the economic benefits, the oil palm plantations in peatland areas have also contributed to increase peatland biomass sustainably.
Source : Indonesiakita.or.id
