Source:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/10/24/your-letters-peatland-management-failures.html

The Jakarta Post | Readers Forum | Fri, October 24 2014, 12:00 PM

Your letters: Peatland
management failures

We are now just realizing the big economic, social and ecological costs that we have to bear as a consequence of our government’s inability to manage our peatland ecosystem in a sustainable and wise manner. Scientific communities have been telling policymakers for years that precautionary measures needed to be taken to better manage the peatland ecosystem. 

In spite of advice and warnings, however, the government has continued to give out licenses that permit the conversion of peatland for other use, notably for the large--scale activities of oil palm and industrial timber plantations. Has our government compared how much economic gain has been generated from peatland conversions as opposed to the economic, social and ecological costs incurred as a result of peat fires and peat degradation? I am pretty sure that our government has never considered or recognized the socioeconomic- ecological value of peatland to our country and communities. 

I reckon that the current peat fires disaster is what it will take for all stakeholders, particularly the government, to review existing national and local regulations on peatland management so as to avoid recurrent issues from happening again in the coming years. Therefore, the following suggestions need to be considered with respect to improving the country’s peatland management. 

It is necessary to review and strengthen existing regulatory and policy regulations on peatland conservation, protection and utilization by revising criteria not only on the basis of peat depth criteria (currently a 3-meter regulatory threshold), but should be on the basis of economic, social and ecological values and services that peatland provides our country, communities and ecosystem. 

Stakeholders should prioritize the restoration of existing degraded peatland areas so as to improve the socioeconomic and ecological functions and value of those degraded peatland areas. Restorative measures and strategies such as water management (peat rewetting through canal-and ditch-blocking activities), vegetation management (maintaining natural regeneration, tree planting, seedling transplanting),  fire management (preventive and suppressive methods) and socioeconomic intervention (sustainable livelihood development) need to be simultaneously and integrally carried out.

National and local land-use policies need to be adjusted and strengthened by promoting and allowing land swaps to shift cultivation and production activities from peatland to non-peatland areas, including land swaps between other non-forestland for other purposes. 

Awareness raising and education programs for stakeholders need to be planned and implemented so as to raise common understanding and awareness about the importance of implementing sustainable and wise-use principles when managing the peatland ecosystem. Those stakeholders are government policymakers, politicians, the private sector and communities.

The central and local governments need to allocate adequate resources to improve and update its existing peatland database. It is a pity to learn that as the largest contributor in terms of total area and peat carbon biomass in the tropics (over 40 percent and 65 percent of total global tropical peatland area and peat carbon biomass respectively), Indonesia has failed to use its peatland resources potency as a means to gain a better bargaining position at global UNFCCC negotiation battles due to, among other things, the lack of an reliable peatland database.

Alue Dohong
Central Kalimantan

My letter to the Jakarta Post: Recurrent peat and forest fires

Source: The Jakarta Post, Friday, October 17, 2014

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/10/17/your-letters-recurrent-peat-and-forest-fires.html

Your letters: Recurrent
peat and forest fires 

| Readers Forum | Fri, October 17 2014, 9:41 AM

The many years of recurrent peat fires in this country have not provided a lesson to stakeholders, most notably the government. 

The government seems very keen to employ reactive and inappropriate suppressive measures when dealing with peat fires in many areas in Indonesia. Many of these suppressive measures have proven costly and waste time, with disappointing results on the ground. 

The procurement and mobilization of firefighting equipment is useless and will not effectively suppress fires on peatland areas that are well known for their remoteness and inaccessibility. 

Such equipment will yield no results when fires occur in the interior peat forest areas where road access and water sources are not sufficiently available. 

Mobile suppressive measures will only put out peat fires if certain conditions are met, for instance, adequate road access for heavy equipment, sufficient surface water sources for suppression on the ground, as well as ready and skillful fire brigades. 

Unless those conditions are met, the procured equipment will not work effectively on the field.

Therefore, rather than focusing too much on suppression strategies, it would be worthwhile for the government to think of ways to prevent fires, for instance by promoting peat rewetting programs throughout the country by blocking open canals within degraded peats so as to maintain and elevate groundwater and surface water tables during the dry period.

The government needs to implement a land swap policy by moving out all fire-based economic activities in peatland areas to other type of lands (mineral soil); enforcing existing law firmly on those who start fires and raising awareness among all stakeholders on the importance of protecting the peat swamp ecosystem and its likely negative impacts if managed improperly (haze-related problems, economic, health and other social 
costs that we should bear if we neglect sustainable peatland management principles).

Alue Dohong
Central Kalimantan

Handling Peat Fires: New Strategy and Approach Needed

We are now realizing how big the economic, social and ecological costs that we have to bear as a consequence of our government's incapability to manage our peatland ecosystem in sustainable and wise manners. it has been many years the scientific communities advise and sending warnings to policy makers at all governmental levels that precautionary principles need to be put in place when dealing with and managing peatland ecosystem. Despite these advice and warning, however, governmental decision makers keep continuously giving out licenses for allowing peatland to be converted to other land uses notably for large scale activities of oil palm and industrial timber plantations aim at of making economic profits. Has our government been calculated how much economic profit that we have generated from those converting peatland activities compared to economic, social and ecological costs that we have paid due to peat fires and peat degradation? I am pretty sure say that our government has never considered and recognised the socio-economic-ecological values that peatland serves to our country and communities prior the peat conversion decision is made.

I reckon current peat fires disaster is the right momentum for whole stakeholders particularly government to review its all existing national and local regulatory and practices measures on peatland management so as to avoid recurrent issues happened again and again in many years to come. Therefore, the following suggestions need to be considered with respect to improving the country's peatland management in the future.

1. There is a necessary to review and strengthen existing regulatory and policy measures on peatland conservation, protection and utilisation by revising criteria not only on the basis of peat depth criteria (currently 3 meters regulatory threshold), but should be on the basis of economic, social and ecological values and services that peatland provides to our country, communities and ecosystem;
2. Massive restoration efforts need to be prioritised by whole stakeholders to restore existing degraded peatland areas so as to improve the socio-economic and ecological functions and values of those degraded peatland areas. Restorative measures and strategies such as water management (peat rewetting through canal & ditch blocking activities), vegetation management (maintaining natural regeneration, tree planting, seedling transplanting),  fires management (preventive and suppressive methods) and socio-economic interventions (sustainable livelihoods development) need to be simultaneously and integrally implemented.
3. National and local land use policies need to be adjusted and strengthen by promoting and allowing land swaps mechanisms for shifting out cultivation and production activities from peatland to non-peatland areas including land swaps between other non-forestland for other purpose (APL) with tree covers and forestland category with no tree covers in the national and local spatial policy (national and local spatial plans);
4. Massive awareness raising and education programs for stakeholders need to be planned and implemented so as to raise common understanding and awareness about the importance of implementing sustainable and wise use principles when managing peatland ecosystem. Those stakeholders include government policy makers, politicians, private sector and communities
5. Both National and local governments need to allocate adequate resources to improve and update its existing peatland database. It is pity to learn that as the largest contributor in terms of total area and peat carbon biomass in the tropics (over 40% and 65% of the total global tropical peatland area and peat carbon biomass respectively), Indonesia is failed to use its peatland resources potency as means to gain better bargaining position at global UNFCCC negotiation battles due to among others lack of and unreliable peatland database.

That's all my thoughts and hopefully we can move towards a better management approach in managing our peatland resources in the future with the presence of our new national government.

Note: This is article is taken from my comment to an article entitled: "Prolonged Haze Disrupts Flights, Schools', at the Jakarta Post (Monday, October 13, 2014)

Stop­ping Fires with canal block­ing

• The Jakarta Post, Indonesia
 
• 8 Sep 2014
 
• 6

I re­fer to an ar­ti­cle ti­tled “Canal block­ing: One so­lu­tion to stop peat fires, ( The Jakarta Post, Sept. 1) by Warief Dja­janto Ba­sorie.

We did this canal block­ing ex­per­i­ment to re-wet de­graded peat­lands in a ex-mega rice project in Cen­tral Kal­i­man­tan in 20042007. It was con­sid­ered the first ever canal block­ing ex­per­i­ment in the trop­i­cal peat­lands.

We con­structed a num­ber of wooden-based struc­ture dams filled with min­eral soil bags be­tween the cham­bers of the dams. This had two ma­jor func­tions.

First, min­eral soil bags would strengthen dam tim­ber struc­ture to min­i­mize dam­age to dam struc­ture in re­sponse to strong wa­ter pres­sure and a high wa­ter debit. Se­cond, the min­eral soil bags were plant­ing me­dia for aquatic plants to cre­ate a nat­u­ral dam mea­sure once the wooden struc­tures eroded or de­com­posed with age.

Our canal block­ing in the ex-mega rice project was not a sim­plejob, but it used sim­ple tech­nol­ogy.We adopted lo­cal Dayak dam tech­nol­ogy called “tabat” and we con­structed a few big dams man­u­allywith lo­cal com­mu­ni­ties to block

the main canals (32 me­ters inwidth) and pri­mary canals (10-15m in width).

We planted se­lected aquatic plants such pe­rupuk, Shorea Be­lan­gi­ran and pan­danus on top of the min­eral soil bags, af­ter the dam struc­ture and soil bags sta­bi­lized (8-12 months af­ter the dam was com­pleted).

Apart from plant­ing aquatic plants on top of the con­structed dams, we also planted 10,000s of in­dige­nous peat swamp trees along the blocked canals. They are grow­ing very well up to the present.

Our con­structed dams are func­tion­ing well, main­tain­ing sur­face and ground wa­ter ta­bles along the blocked canals and also pre­vent­ing fires with the blocked ar­eas.

In Jan­uary this year, I vis­ited our canal block­ing site and wasproud to see that our dams were still func­tion­ing and had already become nat­u­ral dams, as the aquatic plants we planted had grown well and were now act­ingas nat­u­ral dams. Some trees planted along the canal bankshave di­am­e­ters of be­tween 20-30cen­time­ters and oth­ers are taller

Our canal block­ing ac­tiv­i­ties have been very suc­cess­ful and I have tried for many years to con­vince re­lated stake­hold­ers (gov­ern­ments, donors, and so on) to adopt and repli­cate our canal block­ing ex­per­i­ment to ad­dress peat prob­lems in In­done­sia. How­ever, I al­ways re­ceive a lack of se­ri­ous re­sponses from these par­ties and my dis­ap­point­ment with this con­tin­ues.

Alue Do­hong Palangka Raya

than seven me­ters.

Our canal block­ing ac­tiv­i­ties have been very suc­cess­ful and I have tried for many years to con­vince re­lated stake­hold­ers (gov­ern­ments, donors, and so on) to adopt and repli­cate our canal block­ing ex­per­i­ment to ad­dress peat prob­lems in In­done­sia. How­ever, I al­ways re­ceive a lack of se­ri­ous re­sponses from these par­ties and my dis­ap­point­ment with this con­tin­ues.

Alue Do­hong Palangka Raya

Kontribusi dan Partisipasi Kecil Dalam Mitigasi Peribahan Iklim (Small Participation and Contribution in Mitigating Climate Change)

Sebagai kontribusi kecil dalam ikut berpartisipasi dan berkontribusi terhadap kegiatan mitigasi perubahan iklim, maka saya memulainya dari diri sendiri dengan tindakan yang sangat kecil dan sederhana sekalipun berupa kegiatan revegetasi di sekitar halaman rumah dengan menanam berbagai jenis tumbuhan kayu (woody species) maupun jenis non-kayu (non-woody species) seperti tanaman bunga (floristic), palem-palem (palms), Anggrek (Orchid) dan lain-lain.

Tanaman spesies kayu dan non-kayu tersebut diharapkan berkontribusi dalam mensekuestrasi (sequestrate) karbon dioksida (CO2) dari atmosfer yang disimpan dalam bentuk biomassa karbon diatas permukaan (above ground biomass) dan biomasa dibawah permukaan (Below-ground biomass). Dengan tindakan sederhana dan kecil ini, paling tidak saya sudah berkontribusi di dalam melakukan offset atas pengeluaran emisi saya dari berbagai aktivitas yang telah saya ikuti selama ini. Jadi paling tidak jejak hutang karbon saya (carbon debt footprint) sudah bisa saya cicil sedikit demi sedikit. Tindakan kecil dan sederhana ini juga sebagai respon positip saya bahwa apabila kita ingin melakukan kegiatan mitigasi perubahan iklim alangkah baiknya dimulai dari diri masing-masing untuk melakukan tindakan dari pada sekedar menyuruh pihak lain untuk melakukannya. Kalau semua orang melakukan tindakan yang sama, maka saya yakin tindakan kolektif seperti ini akan berdampak besar dan signifikan dalam berpartisipasi mereduksi emisi gas karbon dioksida (CO2) di atmosfer bumi kita. Small is beautiful kata E.F Schumacher tahun 1973, saya maknai sebaga: 'PERBUATAN/TINDAKAN BESAR MERUPAKAN BUAH DARI PERBUATAN/TINDAKAN KECIL'.    

Berikut adalah beberapa tanaman kayu (woody species) yang sudah saya tanam disekitar halaman rumah:

 

      

My Letter to the Jakarta Post

Source:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/01/30/your-letters-govt-has-stick-with-mining-law.html

Your Letter: Govt has to stick with mining law

The Jakarta Post | Readers Forum | Thu, January 30 2014, 9:59 AM

This refers to “Miners oppose duties, plan legal fights,” (The Jakarta Post, Jan. 24, p1).

I do hope that the Indonesian government will stick to the stipulations as outlined in the mining law and will dare to challenge these two multinational mining companies (Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. along with Newmont Mining Corp) on their threats of suing the government of Indonesia at the international arbitration body. 

Enough time for preparation had been given for them to construct their domestic processing factories prior to the mining law fully coming into force, but they just missed this golden opportunity by trying to play under-the-table negotiations with related government officers, hoping that this mining law would be amended or postponed in accordance with their self-interest. Thank God that the government officials keep their integrity and nationalism.

I reckon these multinational mining companies have been enjoying lucrative profits from their mining operations in Indonesia for many decades and they still want to keep this privilege, up until the natural resources are completely gone. 
Despite the huge profits that those multinational companies have gained from their operations so far, they have contributed insignificantly to the welfare of local communities in their respective operation sites. 

The community development and/or corporate social responsibility activities that have been carried out on the ground so far are merely lip service rather than genuine corporate strategic actions to improve the welfare of the locals. 

As a case in point, a multinational gold mining company has been operating for more than two decades in Murung Raya district, Central Kalimantan province. 
Millions of tons of gold and silver have been produced and sold by this company and million or billion dollar profits have been generated from its operations. But, what has happened to the socio-economic conditions of the few villages surrounding this company? Nothing much has changed, compared to the previous decades before this multinational mining firm started its operations in this location.

Thus, I encourage the government not to make even a single backward step. There is the right momentum for Indonesia now to reap the economic and social benefits from mining resources in this country for the sake of its people’s welfare and dignity. 
Huge profits from mining activities in Indonesia need to be shared equally and justly among the country’s stakeholders, not just to benefit people in northern countries.

Alue Dohong
Central Kalimantan

Deforestation debates: A little progress is in progress

by Silvia Irawan, Alue Dohong and Guntur Prabowo

Published at the Jakarta Post | Opinion | Wed, January 15 2014, 11:48 AM

A recent global analysis of forest loss published in Science magazine found that deforestation in Indonesia had doubled between the 2000-2003 period and the 2011-2012 period. 
This study contradicted official Indonesian data released by the Forestry Ministry, which said that the rate of deforestation had been cut in half during the same period. 

An article published in The Jakarta Post on Nov. 19, 2013 entitled “Google maps should be used to challenge official” accused the Forestry Ministry of not being transparent about its methods used to calculate deforestation. 
This article failed to report on the progress that the Forestry Ministry has achieved in making information on deforestation available to the public and sharing its methodology.

For the past three years, deforestation has received considerable national press coverage in Indonesia. According to Forestry Ministry data, the year 2013 began with encouraging news about the deforestation rate in Indonesia, which declined from over 1 million hectares per year between 2000 and 2003 to around 0.45 million hectares between 2011 and 2012. 

In early November, a paper published by Hansen et al. (2013) in Science included a global deforestation map. The paper stated that deforestation in Indonesia had doubled from around 1 million hectares per year between 2000 and 2003 to around 2 million hectares per year between 2011 and 2012. 

The methodology applied by the Forestry Ministry is available to the public. One can find it in most publications or statistic books published by the ministry. 

It conducts a deforestation assessment every three years in which the annual deforestation data is the average of the three-year changes. Deforestation maps are then released by the ministry based on the interpretation of medium spatial resolution (30-m pixel) Landsat 5 and 7 imagery. 

The deforestation maps are also published online and updated from time to time on webgis.dephut.go.id. When this article was being written, however, the website was inaccessible. But we previously accessed this website on numerous occasions. 

The Forestry Ministry can also release raw data on land cover changes upon request. This shows that the government has taken some very important steps to achieve greater transparency. Therefore, one should not dismiss these positive efforts initiated by the ministry. 

Regarding the difference between the rate of deforestation presented by Hansen et al. (2013) and the official data from the Forestry Ministry, it occurred mainly because the two studies adopted different definitions of forest and forest change. 

A quick visual comparison between the maps produced by the Forestry Ministry and Hansen et al. (2003) show a significant underestimation of forest cover extent in the Forestry Ministry’s map. 

Many forest covers included in the map of Hansen et al. (2013) are not captured as forests in the Forestry Ministry’s map. 
Additionally, most areas where forest change (both gain and loss) occur are in areas classified as non-forests, therefore, they are not under the authority of the Forestry Ministry. 

Non-forest areas, known as areas for other use (APL) are currently under the authority of local governments and the Land Agency. 

These are some preliminary observations that can be enhanced when Hansen et al. develop their raw data available for further detailed spatial analysis. 

Certainly, the accuracy and robustness of the methodology adopted by the Forestry Ministry can be improved. It could provide an enormous service to Indonesia by making its deforestation monitoring annual, by providing data for all forest areas and making digital deforestation maps available online in a timely manner. 

We disagree with suggestion that Indonesia should rely on Google for its forest monitoring (the Hansen et al. data is available through Google Maps). 
Indonesia should not depend on a private sector tool to map its forest resources and customary land rights. These tasks are too important to be “outsourced” to a company. 

Instead, the Forestry Ministry should improve its forest monitoring as we have recommended. 
We should, however, recognize the important role of independent assessments to quality-check Indonesia’s official data. Robust and transparent official deforestation data is a powerful tool for good forest management. 

In Brazil, where deforestation in the Amazon region has declined 70 percent, deforestation data is made available to the public every year, a strong example of good governance of vast forest frontiers. 

Indonesia is on track to robust and transparent deforestation monitoring. Let’s hope that it continues to progress toward the goal of reduced deforestation.

The writers work for the Earth Innovation Institute.

Conversation between Apple and Samsung Lovers

While I was having my breakfast at once morning,  I was reading a ebook with my mini iPad when suddenly my housemate a Ghanaian girl shown up..What,'s that she asked..before I gave my answer she came with her another question...is that mini IPad? Yes, it is..I answered. Then she continued talking...Oh no..you know what? I start don't like Apple devices..I've just ordered my Samsung mini tab few days ago and can't patiently receive that, and like it very much she added. Why you don't like apple devices? I replied.. You know there are at least two reasons she replied..first, to me iPhone, iPad, iPod are the same...for example between iPhone 4, 5 and now iPhone 6 are remain the same in term of their functionalities just for telephoning, texting, emailing, picturing...nothing else she stressed. This is totally different from Samsung devices such as mobile phone and mini tab ..you can do everything from cropping, copying, texting, picturing and etc...she added...secondly, if you want to use new apps in the Apple devices you have to buy nothing is free she explained...

I think your opinion is not totally true I replied to her...you can do many things with your iPhone, iPad, iPhone, MacBook and iMac..I convinced her...with iPad you can do telephoning, texting, picturing, reading, writing, drawing...etc..while talking I shown her how I opening my ebook pages by flipping one page to another page easily...and while I was playing with my iBook apps, she curiously asking...how can you do that flipping with your iPad just like flipping a real book???...she added... That one reason I really like iPad I replied to her...I can't do a reading like this with my samsung mobile I added...but! we have to buy these books right? She said while positing to the list of tens books at my iBook library....Not at all, I replied..there are many free books at the Apple store, you can download everything you want range from novel, fiction and science books I convinced her...similarly with Apple Apps ..I continued..apart from some non-free apps, there are many free apps too where you can download easily without paying single penny...just click, open and run I assured here...
Apart from shown her how to read an ebook with my Mini iPad I also shown here how to organise easily thoughts and ideas with my MindNode apps in my Mini iPad.....oh that's really gorgeous way of summarising things..I really like that and I do need that kinds of apps for the next semester she excitedly said to me...

By the way, can you help me how to find free ebooks and download one of these to my iPhone she asked....ok let me show you how to do that, I replied and then I typed free books with her iPhone search engine and run it..hundred of free books appeared and I downloaded one of those...and I opened the ebook with her iBook app..and hand over her iPhone to her to play with this ebook by herself...Wow..look I really like this ...this is awesome she was laughing and so exciting...I will download as many as free books later on to my iPhone she added..

Anyway, ..I am having and using both Apple and Samsung devices I continued...to my understanding both Apple and Samsung devices have their own advantages and drawbacks..that all depend on us how to maximise the advantages and minimise the limitations so as to help us in our daily activities..I love both Apple and Samsung devices I finished the conversation...

This article does not intended to judge and exploit a certain company's technology limitations and also there is no intention to promote a company product either..I just want to draw a lesson learnt to us that sophisticated technology is meant nothing if we can't use them in proper and efficient ways.