{"id":49023,"date":"2023-08-09T03:30:24","date_gmt":"2023-08-09T02:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatechangenews.com\/?p=49023"},"modified":"2023-08-09T12:38:05","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T11:38:05","slug":"forest-carbon-indonesia-peatland-nature-restoration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/2023\/08\/09\/forest-carbon-indonesia-peatland-nature-restoration\/","title":{"rendered":"Indonesia falls short on peatland restoration, risking destructive fire season"},"content":{"rendered":"

After devastating wildfires ravaged through Indonesia\u2019s tropical peatlands in 2015 and left more than $16 billion<\/a> in damages, the country launched an ambitious plan to restore this key ecosystem. This would be central<\/a> to the government\u2019s climate strategy. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Eight years after, the Indonesian government <\/span>claims<\/span><\/a> to have made huge progress, with as much as 3.66 million hectares of peatland declared \u201crestored\u201d in areas managed by plantation companies. But these claims are not supported by data the government has made public, an analysis by The Gecko Project has found.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The government’s statements appear to hinge on a narrow definition of \u201crestoration\u201d that deems peatlands restored when groundwater levels have been raised to 40 centimetres below the surface.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The analysis of government data indicates that even by this measure, the areas \u201crestored\u201d have never reached the figures cited in official documentation and may in fact be far lower. Many of these peats sit on land licensed to timber companies.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200b<\/span>\u200b<\/span>The data also shows that the area of peatland that meets this 40cm threshold also fluctuates wildly as water levels rise and fall, sometimes dropping as low as half a million hectares \u2013 a fraction of the area claimed as \u201crestored\u201d by the government. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n