Bambang Setiadi Head of National Research Council
Education is the Key

THE government will soon issue a moratorium on peatland farming to put a stop on all uses of peatlands and restore degraded peatlands damaged by forest fires. President Joko Widodo said he will engage indigenous people to care for the forests. In his statement during the opening of COP21 (United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties21), the President stated that Indonesia was committed to unconditionally reduce 29 percent of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and 41 percent with international assistance.

The government said peatlands are currently in critical condition and will stop issuing new licenses on peatlands. According to Minister for the Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya Bakar, as of late 2014, licenses had been issued to operate on 6.3 million hectares out of a total 31 million hectares of peatlands. The largest licenses, covering 4.5 million hectares, were issued to process timber products and natural forests, while other licenses were issued to cover 1.8 million hectares of industrial forests. She added that the area of peatlands needing to be restored cover no less than 2 million hectares, most of it damaged by the 2015 forest and land fires across the country.

December 15, 2015