Indonesian villages see virtually zero progress in program to manage peatlands
▻https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/indonesian-villages-see-virtually-zero-progress-in-program-to-manage-
Of the nearly 3,000 villages located within peatlands throughout Indonesia, only one is permitted to manage the forest — a glaring omission that the government has been slow to address through its “social forestry” program.
The program, one of the key policies of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration, is based on the understanding that indigenous communities and others who have for generations lived sustainably off the land are the best stewards of these important, carbon-rich ecosystems.
Indonesia’s Peatland Restoration Agency (BRG) last year identified some 5,600 square kilometers (2,160 square miles) of peat areas that could potentially be reallocated as village forests. To date, though, only one permit has been issued: to the village of Pematang Rahum in Sumatra’s Jambi province, to manage 10 square kilometers, or less than 4 square miles.
That’s one village out of 2,945 located in peat areas across seven provinces in the country, according to the BRG’s own data.
The failure by the government to grant more social forestry permits is underscored by the urgency of protecting the country’s peatlands, much of which are at risk of being drained and cleared to make way for monoculture plantations and mines.
