The high potential of peatland fires management for greenhouse gas emissions reduction in Indonesia

The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) reported that increasing of GHG emissions from Indonesia in 2019 was mainly due to carbon-rich peatlands burning. About1.65 million ha were burnt and a half million ha of peat were burned in devastating fire events in 2019, yet GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions released was almost nearly compared to the 2015 fires where 2.6 million ha areas were burnt. Thousands of acres of ecologically significant land were burned, resulting in toxic haze which threatening human health as well as disrupting natural forests and wildlife habitat. Peatlands consists of decomposed organic matter, and peat degradation will produce significant amount of GHG emissions, especially when the areas are burnt. The lowering ground water level (GWL) on peatlands will increase the sensitivity to the fires because of the drier condition of peat surface. The restoration efforts implemented in degraded peat ecosystem (i.e: rewetting and revegetation) seem like the best solution, if and if the fire prevention management activities are reallywell implemented. Fire suppression has high potential to reduce GHG emissions resulted from peat fires into the atmosphere. The success of peatland fire suppression will depend on the skill of fire brigades, strategy, and the availability of equipment, direct and indirectly in the ground. Lack of knowledge and experience to combat peat fires will spread more fires and potentially out of control fire break outs. Finally, this condition will produce significant amount of GHG emissions as dry peat burnt is difficult to control.