Show Windows and Lessons Learned from Peatland Restoration in Indonesia

Tropical peatland in Indonesia is an important ecosystem that provides considerable benefits to the world. Peatlands have been occupied since the empire era or earlier; thus, the impacts of people’s activities on peatlands cannot be belittled. This paper aims to discuss the lessons learned from some plots of peatland restoration. From 2017 to 2019, Deputy of Research and Development of BRG RI (Peatland Restoration Agency of the Republic of Indonesia) facilitated 112 action research projects in six out of seven prioritized provinces in Indonesia. The provinces are Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, and South Kalimantan. Action research plots comprise strategies of peatland restoration (rewetting, revegetation, and revitalization, and the integration of the three measures). From the 112 action research projects, we selected and observed potential plots as well as local practices (the approaches that had existed before BRG RI intervened). It is elicited for peatland restoration to encourage economic development without sacrificing the priceless peat ecosystem and its services for human being and well-being, and this requires upscaling the economic benefits from the peatland restoration. To achieve that, peatland restoration requires stakeholders’ participation in the entire peatland hydrological unit without which a landscape approach toward peat hydrological unit would be hard to implement.