Can We Simultaneously Restore Peatlands and Improve Livelihoods? Exploring Community Home Yard Innovations in Utilizing Degraded Peatland

Peatlands support the daily needs of people in many villages in Indonesia, including in Central Kalimantan Province. They provide the natural resources to enable fisheries, agriculture, plantations, and forestry. However, peatland utilization comes with various challenges, including fire, soil acidity, inundation, low fertility, and limited choice of suitable species. Many of the current uses of peatland can result in its degradation, oxidation, and increased risk of peat fire. Avoiding further environmental degradation will require the development of new technology that allows the community to both earn a livelihood and protect the peatland. In this study we assessed a range of technologies applied by 14 farmers at Tumbang Nusa village, Central Kalimantan province, in managing degraded peatlands in their home yard for agricultural business. The study shows that for endemic peatland species, good success can be achieved if they are planted directly. However, for species endemic to mineral land, there are four technologies applied by farmers in managing degraded peatland. The choice of technologies is influenced by their economic capacity/cash flow flexibility and their understanding of peatlands. Technologies intended to adapt to land inundation include the use of polybags, development of raised beds, and making peat mounds with mineral soil in the centre. Technologies to address the acidity and soil fertility include amelioration with dolomite lime and fertilizer. The use of polybags filled with peat soil is the easiest technology to adopt and can be conducted by all family members. However, a farmer’s choice of technology needs to always consider the potential environmental impacts in addition to increasing soil fertility so that peat conservation is maintained

Can We Simultaneously Restore Peatlands and Improve Livelihoods? Exploring Community Home Yard Innovations in Utilizing Degraded Peatland

Peatlands support the daily needs of people in many villages in Indonesia, including in Central Kalimantan Province. They provide the natural resources to enable fisheries, agriculture, plantations, and forestry. However, peatland utilization comes with various challenges, including fire, soil acidity, inundation, low fertility, and limited choice of suitable species. Many of the current uses of peatland can result in its degradation, oxidation, and increased risk of peat fire. Avoiding further environmental degradation will require the development of new technology that allows the community to both earn a livelihood and protect the peatland. In this study we assessed a range of technologies applied by 14 farmers at Tumbang Nusa village, Central Kalimantan province, in managing degraded peatlands in their home yard for agricultural business. The study shows that for endemic peatland species, good success can be achieved if they are planted directly. However, for species endemic to mineral land, there are four technologies applied by farmers in managing degraded peatland. The choice of technologies is influenced by their economic capacity/cash flow flexibility and their understanding of peatlands. Technologies intended to adapt to land inundation include the use of polybags, development of raised beds, and making peat mounds with mineral soil in the centre. Technologies to address the acidity and soil fertility include amelioration with dolomite lime and fertilizer. The use of polybags filled with peat soil is the easiest technology to adopt and can be conducted by all family members. However, a farmer’s choice of technology needs to always consider the potential environmental impacts in addition to increasing soil fertility so that peat conservation is maintained

Enabling Factors of NTFP Business Development for Ecosystem Restoration: The Case of Tamanu Oil in Indonesian Degraded Peatland

Indonesia’s tropical peatlands are one of the world’s largest carbon sinks, and they are facing the threat of extensive degradation and conversion. The Indonesian government is committed to peat restoration. However, restoration is still a costly, top-down approach lacking community participation, and is focused on the 3R scheme (rewetting, revegetation, and revitalization). Peatland restoration businesses are part of the innovative effort to finance this endeavor. Unfortunately, there is not much information available about the pre-conditions required to create a restoration business. This study seeks to understand the enabling conditions for the development of peatland restoration, with a focus on the tamanu oil business, and to assess whether the same situation might apply in the context of the restoration of degraded peatland. PEST analysis is used to describe the macro-environmental factors of the tamanu oil business and its development opportunities in degraded peatlands. Tamanu oil-based peat ecosystem restoration businesses offer good prospects because of the growing it has grown the bioenergy and biomedical markets, and they can cover a larger area of degraded peatland landscape. For tamanu oil businesses to succeed in peat ecosystem restoration, we recommend that policy documents at various levels include tamanu as a priority commodity for peatland restoration and alternative community businesses, followed by planting programs by all stakeholders. The government and social organizations must take positions as initiators and catalysts, establish a significant number and extent of pilot tamanu plantations, and create a mutually supportive business climate between entrepreneurs and peatland managers

Enabling Factors of NTFP Business Development for Ecosystem Restoration: The Case of Tamanu Oil in Indonesian Degraded Peatland

Indonesia’s tropical peatlands are one of the world’s largest carbon sinks, and they are facing the threat of extensive degradation and conversion. The Indonesian government is committed to peat restoration. However, restoration is still a costly, top-down approach lacking community participation, and is focused on the 3R scheme (rewetting, revegetation, and revitalization). Peatland restoration businesses are part of the innovative effort to finance this endeavor. Unfortunately, there is not much information available about the pre-conditions required to create a restoration business. This study seeks to understand the enabling conditions for the development of peatland restoration, with a focus on the tamanu oil business, and to assess whether the same situation might apply in the context of the restoration of degraded peatland. PEST analysis is used to describe the macro-environmental factors of the tamanu oil business and its development opportunities in degraded peatlands. Tamanu oil-based peat ecosystem restoration businesses offer good prospects because of the growing it has grown the bioenergy and biomedical markets, and they can cover a larger area of degraded peatland landscape. For tamanu oil businesses to succeed in peat ecosystem restoration, we recommend that policy documents at various levels include tamanu as a priority commodity for peatland restoration and alternative community businesses, followed by planting programs by all stakeholders. The government and social organizations must take positions as initiators and catalysts, establish a significant number and extent of pilot tamanu plantations, and create a mutually supportive business climate between entrepreneurs and peatland managers

A Chronicle of Indonesia’s Forest Management: A Long Step towards Environmental Sustainability and Community Welfare

Indonesia is the largest archipelagic country in the world, with 17,000 islands of varying sizes and elevations, from lowlands to very high mountains, stretching more than 5000 km eastward from Sabang in Aceh to Merauke in Papua. Although occupying only 1.3% of the world’s land area, Indonesia possesses the third-largest rainforest and the second-highest level of biodiversity, with very high species diversity and endemism. However, during the last two decades, Indonesia has been known as a country with a high level of deforestation, a producer of smoke from burning forests and land, and a producer of carbon emissions. The aim of this paper is to review the environmental history and the long process of Indonesian forest management towards achieving environmental sustainability and community welfare. To do this, we analyze the milestones of Indonesian forest management history, present and future challenges, and provide strategic recommendations toward a viable Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) system. Our review showed that the history of forestry management in Indonesia has evolved through a long process, especially related to contestation over the control of natural resources and supporting policies and regulations. During the process, many efforts have been applied to reduce the deforestation rate, such as a moratorium on permitting primary natural forest and peat land, land rehabilitation and soil conservation, environmental protection, and other significant regulations. Therefore, these efforts should be maintained and improved continuously in the future due to their significant positive impacts on a variety of forest areas toward the achievement of viable SFM. Finally, we conclude that the Indonesian government has struggled to formulate sustainable forest management policies that balance economic, ecological, and social needs, among others, through developing and implementing social forestry instruments, developing and implementing human resource capacity, increasing community literacy, strengthening forest governance by eliminating ambiguity and overlapping regulations, simplification of bureaucracy, revitalization of traditional wisdom, and fair law enforcement