Jakarta, Oct 24 (Antara) - Having been plagued by annual peatland fire-triggered haze that has caused tens of thousands of people to suffer from respiratory infections over the past few months, Indonesia is considering stopping the exploitation of its peatlands.
As a preliminary step, the government will impose a moratorium on the issuance of exploitation permits to companies willing to cultivate peat forest areas. It will also revitalize the peatland that has been exploited and burnt.
The policy was raised in a limited cabinet meeting Friday which was chaired by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi). The limited cabinet meeting with relevant ministers was held to discuss the haze problem and its impacts plaguing the country over the past three months.
During the meeting the President issued instructions on efforts to tackle the on-going haze and its impacts, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, chief public relations officer of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said.
"The president stated that the haze disaster arising from forest and land fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan is at a dangerous level," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said Friday.
The president's instructions included an order to the environment and forestry minister to stop issuing licenses for the exploitation of peatland areas and start conducting land revitalization.
The land areas for which permits have been granted should soon be reviewed.
"Besides this, the president also ordered maintaining peatland areas, which have not yet been cultivated. The ecosystem in peatland areas should be restored and put in order again," he remarked.
President Jokowi had decided to intensify efforts to control land and forest fires under the coordination of Chief Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung stated.
Panjaitan's earlier plan to join President Jokowi during his state visit to the United States was cancelled as he was tasked with the responsibility of handling the forest and land fire extinguishing operations in the field.
"The coordinating minister should be flying tomorrow along with the education minister, health minister, social affairs minister, and other officials to Kalimantan," Pramono noted.
During the meeting, the president outlined several concrete measures to tackle land and forest fires.
The first concrete measure is the joint implementation of the "one-map policy" by the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs and the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas).
The second measure is a moratorium on the issuance of new licenses for the exploitation of peatland areas, and to those who have obtained licenses but are not yet operating.
"With regard to peatland areas, I need to notify the environmental affairs minister to not issue any new licenses, and the restoration of these areas must be carried out soon," the head of state noted.
The fires caused by the current drought have burned 1.8 million hectares of land and forest areas, most of which are peatland forests, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan said.
The difficulties encountered in containing peatland fires are the depth of the peat and the amount of water needed to extinguish them. The deeper the peat, greater the difficulty faced in putting out the fires.
It is believed that 70 percent of the peatland fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan have reached a depth of three meters.
To minimize the occurrence of forest and land fires in the islands, irrigation expert from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) Prof. Budi Indra Setiawan has suggested that the government should classify areas as peatlands.
The Geospatial Information Agency (BIG) will map areas around the peatland, with good water infiltration in an effort to facilitate fire prevention in the future.
"In an effort to prevent fires, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, will define peat hydrological zones. We are going to map areas around the peatland, with the good catchment area to be protected," said the Deputy for Thematic Geospatial Information, Nur Wadjedi, Friday (Oct 9).
The areas to be mapped are dynamic, covering moratorium areas, and natural forests, apart from conservation areas, and national peat land.
Indonesia's peatland is spread over 15 million hectares, most of which has been exploited.
"The land that has been on fire should be protected from being burnt again, while the unburnt portion must be protected from being burnt," he said.
Official measures to combat forest and land fires at the same time have mitigated climate change, and can actually be done by moratorium. BIG has made various thematic maps to support climate change mitigation, according to him.
At an Asian Forestry Partnership (AFP) meeting in Bali in May 2009, Indonesia hosted billions of tons of carbon sinks, according to Daniel Murdiyarso of the Center for International Forest Research (CIFOR).
Indonesia is host to 34 billion tons of peat carbon sinks, most of which are to be found in Riau province and Kalimantan, he said. In Kalimantan, which is the world's third largest island, there are 5,769,246 hectares of peat forests with 10.183 billion tons of carbon sinks,
Daniel said that greenhouse gases from forest destruction and functional change contribute 20 percent to global warming which over the last 20 years had reached three degrees Celsius.
"One can imagine the greater role the Indonesian peat forests can play. Suppose that the Indonesian forest degradation release 2.4 billion tons of carbon per annum, how much would it contribute to greenhouse gases emission?" he asked. ***4***(T.A014/INE)EDITED BY INE
(T.A014/A/BESSR/A. Abdussalam) 24-10-2015 11:48:1 |
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