The use of peatlands for extractive industrial plants has been done for a long time. Of the total area of 13.4 million peatlands in Indonesia, 5.2 million hectares are areas that have been granted permits to business actors (concessions). However, many of these concessions are still using the land in an unsustainable way, so the impact of poor management has resulted in fires that still occur frequently in the concession area to this day.
In fact, there are many regulations governing the protection of peat ecosystems that must be carried out by permit holders/land owners. For instance, the Government of Indonesia issued various technical regulations related to the protection and management of peat ecosystems such as Presidential Regulation No. 71 of 2014 which was later revised into Presidential Regulation No. 57 of 2016. The regulation describes guidelines for sustainable peat management to law enforcement for perpetrators of peatland destruction.
Pantau Gambut conducts research with the community to see how far the company has implemented existing regulations related to peatland protection. From the results of observations and research conducted, Pantau Gambut noted two important things:
First, most companies have not implemented the regulation to restore the peat ecosystem.
Second, land clearing and the use of protected Peat Ecosystem Functions (FEG) for extractive plants remain active.
Read the complete Peat Monitoring Report on “Piecing Together the Puzzle Pieces of Peat Ecosystem Protection in Concession Areas”.
