JakartaPost-Sept 29
Environmental watchdogs have largely welcomed the planned agency but question whether it can succeed without stronger government efforts to halt the unchecked conversion of peatlands. P resident Prabowo Subianto’s plan to revive a national peatland agency has raised questions over whether it can protect the fragile ecosystem while government-backed land conversion continues in parts of the country. After a four-hour-long roundtable discussion with 22 experts from various research institutions and universities, Prabowo announced last week a plan to establish the National Peatland and Mangrove Management Agency (BPGMN). The agency is set to succeed the former Peatland and Mangrove Restoration Agency (BRGM), an ad hoc body tasked with restoring 1.2 million hectares of degraded peatlands and rehabilitating 600,000 ha of mangroves across priority provinces before its mandate ended in late 2024. Unlike its predecessor, the BPGMN will report directly to the president with an enhanced focus on proactive fire prevention. The move comes as toxic haze from peatland and forest fires continue to blanket parts of Kalimantan, Sumatra and Papua, with smoke from fires in Indonesia also contributing to episodes of transboundary pollution reaching as far as the Philippines. Indratmo Soekarno, a water resource engineering professor from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) who attended the roundtable, told The Jakarta Post on Monday that the agency would seek to formulate a science-based policy intervention to curb recurring peatland fires. “The main task would be keeping peatlands moist all year round,” he said. “The key is to establish effective water management, ensuring the soil remains wet and never dries out.” Indonesia has one of the world’s largest peatland ecosystems, with around 24 million ha spread across 865 peatland hydrological units (KHG) in Papua, Kalimantan, Sumatra and Sulawesi. But massive peatland conversion has long been documented across these regions, where water-rich soils are drained to make way for plantations and mining sites, turning them into highly flammable landscapes. Read more at:
