08 Aug
2006 Jakarta, Indonesia – WWF and other NGOs are
calling on the Indonesian government to stop granting
concessions for forest conversion and land clearing
on peatlands.
Peat forests are found in parts
of Africa and South America, and in large areas
of Southeast Asia, especially Borneo and Sumatra.
These swamp forests appear in places where dead
vegetation becomes waterlogged and accumulates
as peat, which acts as a sort of sponge that withholds
moisture at times of little rainfall and absorbs
monsoon rains. When peat swamp forests are drained
for logging purposes or agricultural projects,
they become highly susceptible to combustion and
forest fires.
Eyes on the Forest, an NGO forest
coalition in Sumatra’s Riau Province — consisting
of WWF’s Indonesia's Tesso Nilo Programme, Jikalahari
(Forest Rescue Network Riau) and Walhi Riau (Friends
of the Earth Indonesia) — has cited data that
shows that the major factor responsible for this
year's forest fires in Indonesia is a result of
forest conversion, mainly on peat soil sites.
Monitoring conducted in July
by Eyes on the Forest found that 56% of fire hotspots
detected in Riau were located on peatlands. In
the same period, nearly 30% of the hotspots detected
in West Kalimantan were situated on peat soil.
“Peat soil is highly flammable,
producing much more smoke and carbon emissions
than fires on other soil types,” said Zulfahmi,
a coordinator with Jikalahari.
“Once lit, it is very difficult
to extinguish fires on peatlands. The best way
to prevent forest fires is to halt the granting
of licences for land clearing on peatlands, and
by conserving the areas."
Such a call is in line with
a recent declaration on Riau’s peatlands and climate
change made by representatives from 12 countries,
which recommended that conversion of peatlands
be stopped and immediate action taken to rehabilitate
and responsibly use tropical peatlands.
“It is time for the government
of Indonesia to implement a moratorium on conversion
of peatland forests into industrial timber and
palm oil plantations,” said Hapsoro, Greenpeace’s
Regional Forest Campaigner in Southeast Asia.
The environmental NGO are also
calling on the government to bring the perpetrators
of forest and land fires to court and impose effective
sanctions, particularly for those allegedly involved
in repeat incidents.
“To ensure a deterrent effect,
the government should revoke operational licences
of companies that proved to deliberately initiate
open burning in the forest,” said Johny Mundung,
Director Executive of WALHI Riau.
Inadequate legislation is also
believed to be a factor hampering the authorities
from properly prosecuting offenders.
“Forest and plantation-based
companies should operate by complying with the
law and respecting sustainable forest conservation
efforts,” said Mubariq Ahmad, Executive Director
of WWF-Indonesia. “We call on consumer countries
to ensure that their supply chain is not sourced
from companies that converted and burned peatlands.”
Besides halting new land clearing
on peatlands and sustainably managing the land,
companies are also urged to rehabilitate or restore
areas that had been cleared.
There is also a call for the
Indonesian government to immediately ratify the
ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution,
the first agreement of its kind that requires
countries at the regional level to jointly tackle
transboundary haze pollution caused by forest
and land fires.
• According to Eyes on
the Forest data, hotspots detected in Riau Province
in July 2006 reached 1,419. Out of that number,
786 hotspots (55.39%) were situated inside community
areas, 338 hotspots (23.82%) inside industrial
timber plantation concessions, and 295 hotspots
(20.79%) inside palm oil plantations. In the period
of July 1–25 in West Kalimantan, there were 684
hotspots detected, with 400 (58.48%) situated
inside community areas, 166 (24.27%) inside concession
of palm oil plantations, 60 (8.77 %) inside industrial
timber plantation concessions, and 58 (8.48%)
inside selective logging concessions.
Fitrian Ardiansyah
