Indonesia: President highlights four actions for peat land restoration

Antara 12 Jan 17;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has highlighted four actions to restore the peat land in the regions outlined as cultivation areas in forests, one of the action being providing education and dissemination of information.

"The indicative map clearly shows that peat land restoration should be carried out in cultivation areas, including production forests that are managed under license or non-license," the president said here, Wednesday.

The second action is to convince the private sectors and state-owned companies who manage land concessionaires to engage in peat land restoration program in the cultivation areas.

The third action is evaluating the concession licenses that have been issued for land-burning or the land conversion perpetrators that have been designated as protected areas of peat land.

In 2017, the government expects to restore 400 thousand hectares of peat lands in seven provinces, namely Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, and Papua.

The government is still maintaining a balance between nature conservation and local economic activities.

"The fourth action is ensuring all policies and permissions issued by the ministries, especially the Ministry of Environment and Forestry and the Ministry of Agriculture regarding the utilization of areas in peat land ecosystems areas is followed and rigorously maintaining the hydrological functions of peat land, while considering the welfare of people who live in the vicinity areas," the President said.

The President has specifically asked for maximum protection of the 6.1 million hectares of peat land that is still intact.

The government will not issue new licenses for the use of peat land.

As for the existing land concession permits, the government requires the lands to be a corporate protected area. (*)