Let peatland dry and burned or keep it wet ?

PROF.DR.BAMBANG HERO SAHARJO

* FACULTY OF FORESTRY AND ENVIRONMENT

IPB UNIVERSITY
* PEAT AND MANGROVE RESTORATION
EXPERT MEMBER
Mongabay.com
• Tropical forests have a vital role in buffering the brunt of global
environmental change. The forests act as a giant carbon sink, and
well-preserved tropical forests can reduce global emission by at least
30% (Busch & Seymour, 2016; Turetsky et al., 2015).
• Unfortunately, tropical forest conservation efforts have faced a
significant challenge from the occurrence of fires (Carmenta, Coudel,
& Steward, 2018).
• Extensive fires have become more frequent and pervasive in tropical
forests worldwide (Fernandes et al., 2017; Jolly et al., 2015).
• Indonesia has been identified as a hotspot of fires activities, a
considerable proportion of which has come from within its peat
landscape (Ordway, Asner, & Lambin, 2017; Luca Tacconi, 2016;
Wijedasa et al., 2017).
• Fire is a significant source of gases and particulate to the
atmosphere: environmentally important gases produce by
fire includes carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane,
non-methane hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen.
• Fire also produces large amounts of small, solid particles or
“particulate matter”, which absorb and scatter incoming solar
radiation, and hence the impact of our planet as well as
provoking a variety of human health problems (Levine 1996).
• The problem of forest fires cannot be observed merely from
a single viewpoint. It must be seen expansively in various
contexts.
Indralaya,Palembang, South Sumatra, 3 August 2021
Fires in pulp and paper area
Fires in the Sago plantation
 (Monitoring smoke plume)
Citra Worldview: https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/

3 March 2020
1 March 2020 2 March 2020
 (Monitoring PM 2.5)

1 March 2020 2 March 2020 3 March 2020

 City Palembang Musi River (South Sumatra)

elalawan (RIAU GREEN, JANUARI 2015)

Palangkaraya 26 September 2015, 04.00 PM
Palangkaraya, 27 September 2015, 04.34 AM
Daily total estimated CO2 equivalent emissions, comparing 2019 (in red) with 2015 (in
yellow) and the 2003-2018 mean (in grey), showing the comparability of recent emissions
to the same days in 2015. Credit: CAMS/ECMWF
Total estimated CO2 equivalent emissions calculated for Indonesia between 1 August
and 18 September for all years between 2003 and 2019. Credit: CAMS/ECMWF
Press release: The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service tracks
extent and pollution from fires across Indonesia
• Indonesian Wildfires
• Raging wildfires in Indonesia were one of the most intense incidents in nearly two
decades. It is estimated that the Indonesian fires which started in August, pumped
out at least 708 megatons of CO2 until the end of November 2019.
• The fires were mainly caused by the burning of carbon-rich peatlands and drier
than average conditions.
• What also stood out was hat the daily total fire intensity was higher than the
average of the last 16 years.
• Thousands of acres of ecologically significant land were burned, causing a toxic haze,
threatening the health of the local population as well as the natural forests and
wildlife.
• Fortunately, the fire intensity and the volume of emissions started to decline in
October and was down to 48 megatons of estimated CO2 in the first two weeks of
November.
• The reason for this was rain in southern Kalimantan through October although some
fires continued in southern Sumatra.
Province 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2015-2019
South. Sum. 646,298.80 8,784.91 3,625.66 16,226.60 336,798 1,011,733.97
Cent.Kal. 583,833.44 6,148.42 1,743.82 47,432.57 317,749 956,907.25
West Kal. 93,515.80 9,174.19 7,467.33 68,422.03 151,419 329,998.35
South Kal. 196,516.77 2,331.96 8,290.34 98,637.99 137,878 443,655.03
Riau 183,808.59 85,219.51 6,866.09 37,236.27 90,550 250,369.76
Jambi 115,634.34 8,281.25 109.17 1,577.75 56,593 182,195.51
Papua 350,005.30 185,571.60 28,767.38 88,626.84 108,110 761,081.12
7 Prov. 2,169,613.04 305,511.84 56,869.79 358,160.05 1,199,097 4,089,251.72
Restorations
Total areal 2,611.411.44 438,363.19 165,483.92 529,266.64 1,649,258 5.393783.19
burnt (IND)
% 83.08 69.70 34.36 67.70 72.70 75.81
 Burnt area in the peatland area in the period 2018-2019

Province 2018 2019 %

South Sumatra 2,071 136,875 6609
Central Kalimantan 27,516 183,836 668
West Kalimantan 39,573 60,487 153
South Kalimantan 9,902 11,950 121
Riau 33,867 63,282 187
Jambi 622 24,045 3866
Papua 2,372 2,199 -7.3
Burnt peatland 115,923 482,674 416
restoration target area
All peat burnt area 125,340 494,450 394
(Indonesia)
 FIRE IN PEATLANDS

Crown fire

Brands

Surface fire Spotting

Peat fire

Peatland

( Usuf, 2011) Crown fire Surface fire Peat

fire
Peat
 Is this the solution ?

Temperature > 1000 °C

Some of 90 gases detected during peat fires in Central Kalimantan
(Stockwell et al, 2016)
Compound (formula) Study avg (stdev) (g/kg)
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) 1564(77)
Carbon Monoxide (CO) 291(49)
Methane (CH4) 9.51(4.74)
Dihydrogen (H2) 1.22(1.01)
Acetylene (C2H2) 0.121(0.066)
Ethylene (C2H4) 0.961(0.528)
Propylene (C3H6) 1.07(0.53)
Formaldehyde (HCHO) 0.867(0.479)
Methanol (CH3OH) 2.14(1.22)
Formic Acid (HCOOH) 0.180(0.085)
Acetic Acid (CH3COOH) 3.89(1.65)
Glycolaldehyde (C2H4O2) 0.108(0.089)
Furan (C4H4O) 0.736(0.392)
Hydroxyacetone (C3H6O2) 0.860(0.433)
Phenol (C6H5OH) 0.419(0.226)
1,3-Butadiene (C4H6) 0.189(0.157)
Isoprene (C5H8) 5.28E-2(4.33E-2)
Ammonia (NH3) 2.86(1.00)
Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN) 5.75(1.60)
National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD), Division of Viral
Diseases US Department of Health and Human Services (2020)

Why do people need to consider COVID-19 along with wildfire smoke?

• The COVID-19 pandemic is overlapping with the occurrence of

wildfires.
• Wildfire smoke is a complex mixture of air pollutants that are
harmful to human health.
• Exposure to air pollutants in wildfire smoke can irritate the lungs,
cause inflammation, alter immune function, and increase
susceptibility to respiratory infections, likely including COVID-19.
• Recent scientific publications (Conticini et al., 2020external
icon & Travaglio et al., 2020external icon) suggest that air pollutant
exposure worsens COVID-19 symptoms and outcomes.
https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/covid-19/wildfire_smoke_covid-19.html
• Wildfire smoke can irritate lungs, cause inflammation,
affect immune system, and make more prone to lung
infections, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes
COVID-19.
• Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, preparing for
wildfires might be a little different.
• Know how wildfire smoke can affect you and your
loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic and what
you can do to protect yourselves.
• Rewetting of drained organic soils may reduce GHG emissions and waterborne
C losses. Given the development of global climate policy and the high emissions
associated with drained organic soils, it has been argued that rewetting and
restoration of these soils should be included in mitigation strategies (Joosten et
al. 2012, IPCC 2014a).
• Rewetting is the deliberate action of raising the water table in soils that have
previously been drained for forestry, agriculture (crop production and grazing),
water supply, peat extraction and other human-related activities, in order to re-
establish and maintain water saturated conditions, e.g. by blocking drainage
ditches, construction of bunds or disabling drainage pump facilities.
• Rewetting can have several objectives such as nature conservation, GHG
emission reductions and the promotion of leisure activities or paludiculture on
saturated organic soils (Wilson et al. 2016).
• GHG fluxes in rewetted organic soils are controlled by a wide range of external
and internal factors, which include the prevailing climate, nutrient status, water
table position, previous land use history, time since rewetting, absence or
presence of vegetation and vegetation composition(Wilson et al. 2016).
Peat

PP 4 THN 2001
PERMENLH 10 THN 2010
PP 71 THN.2014
PP 57 THN.2016
PERMENLHK 15 THN 2017
Canal Blocking at the pulp and paper plantation
Peat condition at the surface
 Peatland restoration begins with improving the hydrology (Cochrane, 2021)
Peatland Restoration Information Monitoring System
• Indonesia (2016) restoring 2.5 Mha Sentinel 1-based product
of peatlands
• Canal blocking

• Collaborating with FAO to cal/val

the SEPAL/PRIMS soil moisture
product

• Helping BRG assess effectiveness of

mitigation efforts
• Rewetting peat
• Reducing fire
 Mitigation Results (Cochrane,2021)
• Peatlands rewetted by BRG activities
• Water table depths (WTD) have improved
• Differences between WTDs near and far from
canals have been reduced
• Hydrologic differences have continued to
improve over time as well as space
• May reflect ongoing BRG activities
• Could indicate restoration of normal hydrology

• Aerosol emissions for similar fires in

peatlands have been shown to decrease
under wetter conditions
• Early indications are that BRG’s mitigation
efforts show promise for reducing carbon
emissions from rewetted peatland areas
(Lu et al. in press)
MEMPAWAH, WEST KALIMANTAN
SIAK, RIAU PROV.
Conclusion
• Peat fires is a serious fires that is very difficult to manage
and produce huge amount GHG emission and other
environmental destruction including flora and fauna. Do not
play the game
• As peatland is originality wet then it should be return back to
its originality and do not let it dry
• GHG emission reduction only could be reached if and if
every sectors and human individual working together with
clear target and the way to run without any exception as
policy only is not enough.
• Fire prevention should be realized as it should be applied