Peatland Project to Focus on Conservation: Kalimantan
As a child I was raised in the cold mountainous areas of England far from the warmth of Indonesia. I can remember taking long walks across bog and peat-soaked moors and often wondered what the farmers were doing as they sliced large clods of this black material. However, peatlands are also an important player in the ecosystem of the land.
Not only is it a source of fuel, but also a building material. I was reading an interesting article in the Jakarta Post written by M. Taufiqurrahman regarding the peatlands in Kalimantan. The Indonesian government (forever environmentally aware – ha, ha,) has decided to reclaim hundreds of thousands of hectares of these precious lands for agricultural purposes. Here’s the article:
The government has announced that a large part of its peatland reclamation project in Central Kalimantan will be set aside for conservation projects.
“Eighty percent of the peatland, or around 1.1 million hectares must be conserved,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in a press conference after a cabinet meeting to discuss the peatland project and accelerating development in Papua.
The president said the remaining 20 percent of the converted peatland, 300,000 hectares, would be used for agricultural land, to be worked by locals and transmigrants.
He said that all agricultural work in the area would take the conservation effort into account.
Yudhoyono was accompanied by Vice President Jusuf Kalla, Central Kalimantan Governor Agustin Teras Narang, Papua Governor Barnabas Suebu and West Irian Jaya Governor Abraham Atururi.
The President is expected to issue a decree next week on the peatland project.
The government had earlier said that it would reclaim up to 500,000 hectares of peatland in Central Kalimantan for agricultural use and plantations as part of an effort to revitalize the agricultural sector. Another 600,000 hectares of the peatland was to be conserved to reduce damage to the ecosystem.
The new project is part of an effort to salvage the plan of former president Soeharto to turn 1.4 million hectares of peatland in the province into agricultural land, although the project was later abandoned.
The aborted project, kicked off in 1995, toward the end of the Soeharto administration, caused massive environmental destruction.
Forests in the vicinity of the converted peatland have also been destroyed by illegal logging. Between 1996 and 1997, only 70,000 hectares of peatland was converted into agricultural land.
Then president B.J. Habibie issued instructions to halt the conversion of the peatland in 1998.
Governor Narang said that the agricultural land converted from peatland — which traverses Barito Selatan, Kapuas, Pulang Pisau regencies — will be planted with rice and other field crops. Some of the land will also be used for cattle raising and aquaculture.
The central government is yet to disclose how much it will spend on the new peatland project, but a great deal of it will be covered by the Central Kalimantan provincial budget.
On Papua, the government reiterated its commitment to expedite infrastructure development in both Papua and West Irian Jaya provinces to support the implementation of the special autonomy granted to both provinces.
The infrastructure is to be financed by provincial budgets, autonomy allowances and revenue-sharing.
M. Taufiqurrahman