Indonesia: BRG Says Progress on Peatland Restoration Behind Target

Dames Alexander Sinaga Jakarta Globe 2 Nov 17;

Jakarta. Indonesia's Peatland Restoration Agency, or BRG, is still far behind their target of restoring 2.4 million hectares of peatland in seven provinces — Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan and Papua — by 2020 due to the limited rights it has to restore peatlands within concession areas, an official at the agency said.

Budi S. Wardhana, deputy of planning and cooperation at BRG, said the agency has restored at least 200,000 hectares of degraded peatland in those provinces since it was founded in January 2016.

The agency has set a target of 1 million hectares of restored peatland by this year.

"We're still far away from our target. Because we can’t directly restore peatland in areas controlled by industrial forest concession holders," Budi said in Jakarta on Tuesday (31/10).

Budi said only licensors have the right to demand concession holders to restore degraded peatlands.

The agency will launch legal proceedings against concession holders in a bid to restore the degraded peatlands, he said.

"We can base the legal proceedings on our environmental law and forestry law, especially for those who hold permits to use peatland areas for production," Budi said.

"Concession holders carry land use permits, so they must be responsible to restore degraded peatlands in their concession areas," Budi said.

BRG — led by Nazir Foead, a former conservationist with the World Wide Fund (WWF) — was established by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo in January last year to protect Indonesia's peatland ecosystems that are being threatened by yearly peatland fires.


Preventing Land Fire, Gov’t Sets IDR152 Billion Budget on Peatlands Restoration
Peatland Restoration Agency (BRG) utilizes IDR152 billion for various preventive actions on land fire and economic revitalization.
NetralNews 2 Nov 17;

JAKARTA, NETRALNEWS.COM - Peatland Restoration Agency (BRG) utilizes IDR152 billion or 36 percent of the total 2017 budget to finance various preventive actions on land fire and economic revitalization.

"Of that amount, IDR117 billion is used for wetting infrastructure and economic revitalization activities and IDR35 billion is used for institutional strengthening, capacity and empowerment," said Deputy for Education, Socialization, Partnership and Partnership of BRG Myrna Safitri in Jakarta, Wednesday (11/1/2017).

BRG has been working with communities, civil society groups, and local governments to restore peatlands in seven targeted restoration provinces: Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan and Papua.

Myrna said together with community groups, BRG has built wetting infrastructure such as canal channels and boreholes in dozens of villages.

In addition, BRG also conducts non-fuel land management trials, development of local commodities, fishery business development, livestock breeding and honey bee cultivation.

Through the Villages for Peatlands Program, BRG supports efforts to improve the welfare of communities and raise participation in peatlands restoration in 75 villages and sub-districts in Sumatra, Papua and Kalimantan.

There are 13 types of activities in Villages for Peatlands Program, such as social mapping and community managed peatland mapping, peatland rural formations, facilitating Village Owned Enterprises (BUMDes) development, legal empowerment through mediators and paralegals of peatland villages, facilitating access to social forestry and agrarian reform.