On 23 December, President Joko Widodo officially extended the term of service of the Peat Restoration Agency (BRG) with an additional work area, mangrove restoration. The extension of the commitment is carried out to accelerate peat restoration and prevent forest and land fires permanently in peat areas. At that moment, the President also inaugurated Ir. Hartono, M.Sc who previously served as Secretary of the BRG to subsequently lead the Peat and Mangrove Restoration Agency (BRGM).
During the 2016-2020 period, BRG has carried out initial efforts to re-wet 835,288 hectares of peatland outside the concession areas (94% of the target) and provided technical supervision/assistance for 186 plantation companies with an area of 538,439 hectares (96.89% of the target) included in the restoration target. Then, mentoring and institutional development were carried out in 640 Peat Care Villages with 4.6 million hectares of peat area (1.4 million hectares included in the peat restoration target). Economic revitalization activities involved 2,295 community groups (Pokmas) with around 118,576 people involved in labor-intensive activities.
Efforts to accelerate peat restoration will be carried out on 1.2 million hectares of peat ecosystems and 600,000 hectares of mangrove ecosystems. In addition to the 7 provinces that have become targets for peat restoration (Jambi, Riau, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and Papua), BRGM will also work in 6 new provinces (North Sumatra, Riau Islands, Bangka Belitung, East Kalimantan, North Kalimantan, and West Papua), especially for mangrove restoration. In carrying out the tasks assigned for the next four years, BRGM will work more closely with the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, as well as other Ministries/Agencies and stakeholders.