Comparative Study of Methods to Estimate Historical Peat Burnt Area in Gaung – Batang Tuaka River of Peat Hydrological Unit (KHG)

Abstract

As a country with 14.9 ha of peatland, Indonesia is a major contributor of GHG emissions, especially from peat ecosystems. These emissions were caused by peat decomposition and peat fires. However, accurate estimation of peat burnt area was still a barrier that prevented the inclusion of peat fire emission in the document of Forest Reference Emission Level (FREL) as a followup document to REDD+ activities. This research has the objective to analyse two different approaches to estimate peat burnt area used in the FREL document and the most recent semi-automatic approach suggested by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF). The study focused on the Gaung – Batang Tuaka River Peat Hydrological Unit (KHG), as one of the KHG priorities in Indonesia. The results showed that the average total annual burnt area from the FREL approach was 58% higher than that of the semi-automatic approach, which could lead to an overestimate of peat fire emissions from this approach. The burnt area identified in this study was found to occur within the production forest area. As stepwise approach is allowed for FREL submission, improvements to a higher precision method are necessary to increase the accuracy of burnt area estimation.

Assessing the monetary value of ecosystem services provided by Gaung – Batang Tuaka Peat Hydrological Unit (KHG), Riau Province

“…In our study, the value of organic carbon content (C org) was assumed to depend on the peat maturity type. We estimated the annual burned area using a semi-automatic approach, analysis through the visual process, and identification of hotspot data, which could provide a more accurate peat burned area than the automatic approach as used in the Forest Reference Emission Level document (Rossita et al 2019). We suggest referring to the previous study for a detailed explanation of the method (Rossita et al 2019).…”