The Governance of Risk Management on Peatland: A Case Study of Restoration in South Sumatra, Indonesia

Abstract

This study assessed critical aspects in the governance of peatland restoration in South Sumatra and its possible impacts. This province has experienced dynamic land-use change and fires on its 1.2 million hectares (ha) of peatlands since 1997. Our study draws on qualitative, spatial, and quantitative data; interviews with key stakeholders; direct observation; academic literature; experimental modeling; open data platforms; and reviews of policy and project reports. These data were analyzed with the help of theoretical frameworks describing the vulnerabilities and risk governance strategies (Giesen and Sari 2018;Renn 2017;Simon and Dooling 2013).Vulnerabilities exist in political and material forms; thus, risk governance is needed. Political vulnerability is the inability of policymakers and stakeholders to deal with the complexity of governance that often results in poorly judged interventions and leads to unintended impacts, such as wildfires, on peatland. These impacts are known as material vulnerabilities. Governance reform, such as better data for planning, suitable institutional arrangements, and more coordination and enforcement in implementation, is needed to stop these vulnerabilities. These topics are included in the risk governance framework as a strategy to cope with the uncertainties inherent in complex socio-environmental actions such as peatland restoration. The risk governance framework covers aspects within the governance cycle-from planning to implementation and monitoring. It includes evaluating policy and governance practices that cause vulnerabilities, understanding stakeholders' perceptions of risk, creating robust institutional arrangements, assessing and evaluating risks, implementing risk management, monitoring, and communicating and coordinating all aspects.By using those frameworks, we evaluated the governance of peatland restoration and developed recommendations for improving risk governance strategies to prevent fires. We offer a new direction for peatland stakeholders-such as the government, plantation companies, and civil society groups-to improve the performance of policies and peatland governance in Indonesia, and perhaps in other tropical countries, to support sustainable peatland management to mitigate climate change.

State of Climate Action 2022

“…Effectively conserving high-carbon ecosystems will require countries to strengthen their policies by placing moratoria on conversion, establishing and expanding protected areas, 54 financially incentivizing conservation (e.g., through payment for ecosystem services schemes), encouraging community forest management, and legally recognizing Indigenous Peoples' land rights, among other measures (Chaturvedi et al 2019;NYDF Assessment Partners 2021;Wolf et al 2021;IPCC 2022b). Following devastating fires in 2015, Indonesia, for example, strengthened regulations to limit peatland drainage across commercial plantations in 2016, issued a moratorium on new palm oil concessions in 2018, and made another nationwide moratorium on new concessions in primary forests and peatlands permanent in 2019 (Budiman et al 2021;NYDF Assessment Partners 2021). The government also established an agency dedicated to restoring peatlands and mangroves, as well as passed social reforms to alleviate poverty and encourage sustainable land management (Budiman et al 2021;WRI 2022d;Mursyid et al 2021).…”

“…Following devastating fires in 2015, Indonesia, for example, strengthened regulations to limit peatland drainage across commercial plantations in 2016, issued a moratorium on new palm oil concessions in 2018, and made another nationwide moratorium on new concessions in primary forests and peatlands permanent in 2019 (Budiman et al 2021;NYDF Assessment Partners 2021). The government also established an agency dedicated to restoring peatlands and mangroves, as well as passed social reforms to alleviate poverty and encourage sustainable land management (Budiman et al 2021;WRI 2022d;Mursyid et al 2021). Together, these actions have contributed to declines in primary forest loss since 2017 (Figure 54), as well as the restoration of Many of these policy reversals were already well underway in Brazil, where political will to conserve forests has evaporated and deforestation is now rising (Seymour 2021;NYDF Assessment Partners 2021).…”

“…Conservation policies in both producer and consumer countries are often undercut by those that incentivize development, particularly agricultural expansion, across high-carbon ecosystems (Friess et al 2016;Evers et al 2017;Herr et al 2017;Bastos Lima et al 2017;Dohong et al 2018;Friess et al 2019;Ekawati et al 2019;Budiman et al 2021;Pham et al 2022) 2019), one process by which these wetlands adapt to sea level rise (Schuerch et al 2018). To conserve all high-carbon ecosystems, however, policies must go beyond reducing direct habitat conversion to addressing the underlying drivers of loss and degradation-for man-groves, for example, this includes sea level rise, pollution, shoreline hardening (e.g., building seawalls), and declining sediment due to dammed rivers (Friess et al 2019;Goldberg et al 2020;IPCC 2022a).…”

“…Policy incoherence is often accompanied by complex, fragmented governance, both of which impede implementation of land-based mitigation measures (Friess et al 2016;Rotich et al 2016;Evers et al 2017;Chaturvedi et al 2019;Budiman et al 2021;Khan and Giessen 2021;NYDF Assessment Partners 2021). Officials advancing different mandates across agencies and decision-making levels can create confusion, paralysis, or even conflict-all of which undermine policy implementation.…”

Sustainable development of carbon sinks? Lessons from three types of peatland partnerships in Indonesia

“…Overlapping regulatory regimes, ambiguous ownership structures and the uncontrolled issuing of peatland concession licences by state actors with vested business interests further complicate efforts to develop Riau's peatlands sustainably (Purnomo et al, 2019). The ecological scale of the peatland hydrological unit, which came into effect in 2016 (Government Regulation No.57/2016) holds promise as the basis for a more sustainable landscape approach towards coordinating the implementation of low-carbon programmes across these public and private property boundaries (Budiman et al, 2021). However, the configuration of state power in Indonesia is such that it structurally undermines a landscape approach to peatland governance.…”