Jakarta, Aug 24 (Antara) - Indonesia is host to a large forest and peatland area which holds billions of tons of carbon sinks, which, if released, could cause danger to the environment and contribute to the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
The Center for International Forest Research (CIFOR) revealed that as per data last year, Indonesia hosts 34 billion tons of peat carbon sinks. In Kalimantan, the world's third largest island, there are 5,769,246 hectares of peat forests with 10.183 billion tons of carbon sinks.
As forest and peatland fires have been taking place every year, extensive peatland areas have undergone degradation and need to be restored.
Therefore, the government has set up a Peatland Restoration Agency (BRG) assigned to manage efforts to restore the country's damaged peatland.
The agency is expected this year to restore the function of some 600 thousand hectares of peatland. In order to make its efforts a success, the agency has been advised to adopt the result of a research by Malaysia in restoring degraded peatland, involving a system used to harden peat soil.
According to Suwardi, the deputy dean of the Agriculture Faculty of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), the research on hardening peatland is very important in peatland restoration in Indonesia.
"Indonesia should adopt the findings that involve making the peat soil hard and compact," Suwardi told a press conference in Kuching, the Malaysian State of Serawak, on Thursday (Aug. 18).
However, set up this year, the BRG has not yet evinced any serious interest in the research on peatland solidification. The system is considered as having the ability to solve many problems in the management of peatland in the country. This included the problem of depth of water level in peat soil.
Suwardi is convinced the BRG will in time respond to the study. In the past, it was feared that water level (in the soil) could not rise so that it is arranged in such a way as to increase the humidity of the soil.
With the peat solidification technology, the water level need not be raised too high. The narrowing capillaries could lift the water surface although the water level underground is relatively deep, according to Suwardi.
Besides, nutrients contained therein will support the growth of plants in the same volume. In the future, research is needed to know the extent of the soil solidification required and the types of plantations that could be grown, such as oil palm, acacia or horticultural crops.
"Soil solidification technology is the appropriate technology for peat soil and this has been publicly known. I think the people in Europe already understand it. It is an innovation to solve various problems with peat soil," said Suwardi.
The peat soil hardening technology needs the use of heavy equipment. Before the oil palm seedlings are planted, the peat soil should be made compact using excavators. The soil solidification narrows soil cavities so that it hampers fires to raze through the peatland surface during a land fire.
With small pores, the soil will remain humid as water would be absorbed and rise to the upper level. On the other hand, during the drought, it is not easy for the water to go down. Therefore, the peat soil does not catch the fire easily.
The government has set up the Peatland Restoration Agency (BRG) to restore some two million hectares of degraded peatland in the country. Now the agency is mapping peatland areas which will be restored immediately. In 2016, the effort will be focused on land brought into the restoration phase.
The temporary results of the mapping showed that four districts could possibly be covered under a pilot project in the peatland restoration program. These are Pulang Pisau in Central Kalimantan; Meranti in Riau Province; Ogan Komering Ilir (OKI) and Musi Banyuasin in South Sumara Province.
The BRG agency is expected to restore two million hectares of peatland. In 2016, it plans to focus on 600 thousand hectares of area.
In the meantime, besides the efforts made by the BRGI, the government is also planning to invite investors to invest in the restoration of peatland areas in order to help create new business opportunities.
"For the last six months, we have held discussions with investors, especially foreign investors. I must say that the foreign investors expressed high interest to help in the restoration of peatland areas. They will not only offer grants but will also be involved in the restoration work," Head of the Peatland Restoration Agency (BRG) Nazir Foead stated on Wednesday.
Nazir and BRG Secretary Hartono Prawiratmadja met Vice President Jusuf Kalla (JK) to report on the peatland restoration activities with regard to investment and business aspects.
"JK provided directives on how to market the peatland restoration program to international investors. Later, we will give a presentation in New York in order to quickly get support from investors," he remarked, adding that by the end of September, the vice president will be in New York to attend the UN General Assembly.
On that occasion, the relevant investors will be invited to discuss the relevant peatland restoration program and will be invited to make an investment, Nazir noted.
He explained that the investment opportunities to be offered include, the cultivation of plantation crops, such as pineapples, corn, and sorghum, which can be grown on peatlands and also farms.
Besides this, the government will prepare a policy package for easy and fast issuance of permits.
The calculations have revealed that an investment of Rp20 million is needed for one hectare of land area. Currently, there are six million hectares of degraded peatlands, while it is estimated that the government can only restore one million hectares. The remaining areas are expected to be developed by companies or investors and with grants.
"If the peatland canal bulkheads are also taken into account, an additional investment of Rp6 million per hectare will be needed," the BRG secretary noted, adding that the canal bulkheads cover an area of 50 hectares, depending on the size and range density.
If the land is steeper, more bulkheads will be required in the canal to provide water to the peatland area.
He said this year, investment will be offered to restore the degraded peatland areas. The BRG will offer it regardless of whether the land already has a permit.***3***
(A014/INE)EDITED BY INE(T.A014/A/BESSR/A. Abdussalam) 24-08-2016 20:48:5 |
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