2.2 Indonesia’s Peatland Management Policy
After repeated forest and peat fires, as well as the massive fires in 2015, the
Indonesian government has begun to regulate land use by quantifying several
standards for peatland conservation. The following are typical regulations.
1. Groundwater level (GWL) less than 0.4 m (Indonesian Government Regulation
(2016) No. 57 of 2016; Article 23; Section 3).
2. 30% of peat dome is designated as a conservation area (Indonesian Government
Regulation (2016) No. 57 of 2016; Article 9; Section 3).
3. Conservation peatland should be protected (Indonesian Government Regulation
(2016) No. 57 of 2016; Article 9; Section 4).
However, most agricultural and forestry companies on which the regulations are
imposed were very confused, especially regarding the GWL standard, as they did not
know if it was possible to set the GWL to 0.4 m and did not know whether they could
cultivate plants at that level. Although there have been several valuable studies on
tropical peatland conservation and restoration (e.g., Dommain et al. 2010;
Houterman and Ritzema 2009; Ritzema et al. 2008; Ritzema and Wösten 2002;
Wösten and Ritzema 2001), most of them have not been effective in introducing the
GWL management.
Fig. 2.1 Conceptual model of “Eco-management in a large-scale ecosystem of tropical peatland”
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T. Kato et al.