Peatland Management Controversy
1:59 AM
Indonesia is one of the country that has peatland. Since it is a hot issues now (or maybe till later), let us talk about it. I will divide this into three section. Why I made this writing clustered, I want to make a general distinction between fact, experience, and opinion.
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| (doc: mnhnanifiyani, peatland) |
#The Fact/ Introduction
Peatland or according to oxford dictionary means land consisting largely of peat or peat bogs. According to the new regulation peatland in Indonesia is grouped into Peat Hydrology Unit (KHG/ Kesatuan Hidrologis Gambut). The total area of KHG in Indonesia is approximately 25.389.647 Ha with the biggest area located in Sumatera with the total area 9.759.834 Ha or 38% from the total peat area. And the second place is Kalimantan with the total area 8.628.377 Ha or 33.98%.
In 2015, the big fire accident happened in peat forest. Because of its peat soil the forest fire became massive. The smog even spreading to the neighbor country, such as Malaysia and Singapore. People believed that the fire is done intentionally in order to convert the forest into a field that will be converted into palm field. This accident turning the attention of the world/ environmentalist into Indonesia. They were asking to do the law enforcement especially for those who has proven to ignite the forest intentionally. Some company was arrested and get penalty because of forest fire cases.
To protect the forest, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry has launched the new regulation regarding peatland. It is some sort of an enforcement of Peraturan
Pemerintah Nomor 57 Tahun 2016 about revision of Peraturan Pemerintah Nomor 71 Tahun 2014. This new regulation changing almost all of the mechanism/ area that already exist. The plantation forest or palm maybe the one who is really impacted.
PP 17 year 2017 peat function divided into cultivation function and protection function. In this new regulation article 8 stated that the plantation only can be done in the cultivation function area. If there was a plantation that is already planted in the cultivation function area in the next rotation, that area/ compartment can't be planted again. This area categorization changing the whole work area of the concession holder in peat area.This changing lead to the decreasing of the work area, and off course decreasing production of the wood production.
These issues even becoming a hot issues between two minister. A mass media, Tempo once making a headline news about the "fight" between two stakeholders regarding peatland. Ministry of Industry oppose the regulation because he said it will harm pulp and paper industry, and also palm industry. While Ministry of Environment and Forestry still unwavering. They strongly believe this must to be done to protect peat area. Some other information I heard even said that the Ministry of Economic Coordinator is tasked to solve this problem, because the regulation is feared will disturb the investment.
Somehow. this "protecting peat" issues become "investment vs environment" issues. The old issues that always happen in these days.
#Personal Experience
The paragraph above is a fact. Now let me tell you my personal experience and my perspective regarding the issue. I absolutely believe there is no absolute solution regarding which is the best management pattern for environment and forestry sectors. Everyone hold their own perspective and their own data. While as for me environment is a mysterious being, with complex structure that sometimes hard to understand even to be simplified. Well here is my story,
I had worked in a plantation forest in 2017. Before I always thought that the forest fire is caused by the "bad" company in order to open the concession area. I always said no to work in HTI or HPH because of this reason besides their sustainability. However, i would like to give a chance to try for personal experience. I mean, I feel it doesn't right to judge something if you've never be the part of it or at least you should have the data before decided something is wrong or right.
I work as a personal assistant for Japanese speakers, since he barely speak Indonesian language. The major difference in the forest management they execute than ours is they work based on data. So they strongly believe that we should do well to collect the data. For this reason they don't care about how much investment on technology they should use to get the best data.
Speaking about the forest fire issues, my manager once said only the stupid people ignite the fire in their own concession, because it just the same as they ignite their own money. *well my lecture once said the same thing also*. My old company believe that it doesn't matter to work in peat area as long as we know the watershed condition. The fire is caused by the high mobilization of water to the lower area. The higher area then will be dry and this will caused fire accident. While the lower area will be sink. The knowledge about watershed is strongly needed in peat management.
In an open Seminar held by the company, they firmly stated that the topographic survey is one of the important thing to do before starting to divide the concession area to the work compartment. This topographic data is gained by direct survey, with close interval. The closer the interval the data will be better.
As like the other company in peatland the change in peat function make the concession area decrease. I mean the area that can be cultivated. The company is asked to revised their RKU although the RKU is still applicable.
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| (doc: mnhanifiyani, peat soil) |
#Opinion
I strongly support the government initiative to protect forest especially forest in peatland. However, the next question is from what basis they made that Peat Hydrology Unit. Is the data source already validated or is the data source is strong? I mean already know that Indonesia has some shortage of detailed data. So my first question is, in what scale the KHG map is made? 1:100.000? 1:200.000? is that scale is enough to make a decision?Even my old company use interval 5 meter to make topographic map. And is the map already surveyed directly. How much is the error percentage?
In my opinion, the wrong data can lead to another miss management of peatland. So before deciding what step we should take, I suggest we take time to update our basis data, such as land usage map, soil type map, and even the soil characteristic data. I even feel confused when I was conducting my bachelor degree research because the availability data about soil type characteristic reference. When I search for a reference I read a book (forget the name of the book) the book said that mostly map in Indonesia especially soil map scale is in 1:200.000.
The regulation implementation I think is too sudden. I mean they already sign the "contract" for 100 years for the example. But in the middle the regulation change and I think it is not good for the business stability. As for me rather than changing all of it it is better to validate the data, then increase the law enforcement of the company. The thing is the company won't report another company although they know they are something wrong with the other company because of course they avoid conflict of interest.
Once again, I do support, but if we decide something with the wrong data, I don't thing it is a good idea. Rather than using the wrong data to make regulation I prefer to find a way to manage Industrial Plantation in peatland in a sustainable way. I mean the technology is more advanced now, I believe we could find a technology or a way to make a sustainable management in Industrial Plantation. I think we should broke the idea that the development will disturb environment. We need to find a solution so the development and environment could balance.
So what's your opinion about that?
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