Understanding the Impacts of Recurrent Peat Fires in Padang Island – Riau Province, Indonesia

Abstract

Padang Island in Riau Province of Indonesia has been severely impacted by recurrent fires in 2014 and 2015, leading to severe peat ecosystem degradation and people´s livelihood. Therefore, analyzing the peat fires should not be isolated from socio-economic and local political context. Much has been written about peat fires especially the magnitude of the fires, however the linkages between ecological and livelihood system of peatland ecosystem gained only scant attention. This paper analyzes how the drivers of peat fires are causing a steady decline in Padang Island and aims to provide more holistic understanding on how the drivers interplay and continue to feed the process of peatland degradation with its associated impacts on local economic development and people’s livelihood. Multidisciplinary approach was applied in this study. This includes remote sensing data analysis, analysis on related documents such as historical documents and regulations. Intensive fieldwork was conducted in the island in which series of FGDs and interviews were executed. We found that the global demands for agricultural commodities have led to massive peat drainage for monoculture farming on peat lands. The high dependency on global commodity market and monoculture farming has created livelihood vulnerability, especially because of the price fluctuation of agricultural products at global market. Moreover, the monoculture farming on peat lands tends to be unsustainable since it demands peat drainage, provides less options for sources of income and tends to marginalize indigenous knowledge about farming on peatland (paludiculture) which have been practiced for centuries in the island. Memahami Dampak Kebakaran Lahan Gambut yang Berulang di Pulau Padang-Provinsi Riau, IndonesiaIntisariPulau Padang yang terletak di Provinsi Riau, Indonesia mengalami kebakaran lahan gambut cukup parah dan berulang pada tahun 2014 dan 2015 yang mengakibatkan degradasi ekosistem gambut dan kehidupan masyarakat. Oleh karena itu, seharusnya analisis kebakaran lahan gambut tidak dapat dapat dipisahkan dari konteks sosial ekonomi dan politik lokal. Sudah banyak tulisan yang menganalisis tentang kebakaran lahan gambut terutama terkait dengan besarnya kebakaran, tetapi sangat sedikit yang menganalisis hubungan antara sistem ekologi dan sistem kehidupan masyarakat. Artikel ini menganalisis bagaimana faktor-faktor penyebab kebakaran lahan gambut juga mengakibatkan degradasi yang terusmenerus di Pulau Padang dan bertujuan untuk berkontribusi pada pemahaman yang lebih menyeluruh mengenai bagaimana faktor-faktor tersebut bekerja, saling terkait, dan secara terus-menerus mempengaruhi proses degradasi lahan gambut serta dampaknya terhadap pembangunan ekonomi lokal dan kehidupan masyarakat. Penelitian ini menerapkan pendekatan multi-disiplin yang meliputi analisis data penginderaan jauh, dokumen sejarah dan peraturan terkait. Penelitian lapangan dilakukan secara intensif di Pulau Padang, meliputi serial diskusi kelompok terfokus dan wawancara. Kami menemukan bahwa permintaan pasar global akan komoditas pertanian berkontribusi terhadap drainase lahan gambut skala besar untuk pertanian monokultur pada lahan gambut. Tingginya ketergantungan terhadap pasar global komoditas dan pertanian monokultur telah menciptakan kehidupan masyarakat yang rentan. Hal ini terutama karena besarnya fluktuasi harga komoditas pertanian di pasar global. Di samping itu, pertanian monokultur pada lahan gambut cenderung tidak berkelanjutan karena mensyaratkan pengeringan lahan gambut dengan drainase, menawarkan pilihan sumber penghasilan masyarakat yang lebih sedikit dan meminggirkan pengetahuan lokal tentang paludikultur yang sudah dipraktekkan selama berabad-abad di Pulau Padang.

Water table variations on different land use units in a drained tropical peatland island of Indonesia

“…Padang Island is drained along much of its coast (Figure 1(a)). It has a massive intensive open drainage network that occupies at least one-third of the island's area, which was created in late 2011 to establish pulpwood plantations on the western side, and a less intensive drainage network that occupies roughly another one-third of the island's area enabling smallscale agriculture in the rest of the coastal zone (Susanti et al 2018). The plantation drainages vary in width from 1 m (tertiary drainage) to 10 m (primary drainage), and in depth to as much as 5 m with drain spacing of only 130 m. The smaller drainage systems serve local settlements, consist of drainage less than 1 m in width, usually surrounding agricultural land (mainly rubber and sago farms) and running along both sides of the road network.…”

Geogame on the Peat: Designing Effective Gameplay in Geogames App for Haze Mitigation

“…The haze in 2014 and 2015 was recorded as the worst and longest case of the wildfire in South East Asia. Peat forest conversion to forest and agriculture industry by utilizing drainage canals is identified as one of the main drivers of these wildfires (Susanti et al 2017). The drained peatland for agriculture and forestry industry has created massive opportunities for fast profit investments but at the same time it caused worsened environmental degradation as it made the peat dried and flammable.…”

“…Such case is occurred in Padang Island, situated in Riau, Indonesia, which is one of the largest peat islands in Indonesia. Susanti et al (2017) identifies that the main driver for the severe environmental deterioration of peatland area in Padang Island is the introduction of plant species such as rubber and acacia. Fulfilling the forest industry demand, massive peatland area were converted into acacia and rubber plantation.…”

“…Padang Island in Riau, Indonesia is selected as the study area for its relatively contained peatland area with various problems related to peatland management and livelihood of the residents. Previously, geospatial data acquisition has been conducted in the area in order to analyze the peatland hydrological problems and to support livelihood revitalization (Susanti et al 2017). Among the data are high-resolution LiDAR data and aerial photo used to model hydrological state of the peatland and obtain detailed land cover map in Padang Island (see Figure 1).…”

Social Vulnerability of Land Fires in Banjarbaru

“…The pressure on peatlands due to increased illegal logging, plantation development and agriculture-based settlements increases peatland fires [12]. Global demand for agricultural commodities has led to massive peat draining for monoculture farming on peatlands [13]. Tropical forested peatlands are rapidly being converted into profitable agribusiness, such as oil palm plantations [14], [15].…”