JAKARTA, Oct 14 — For weeks, parts of Indonesian Borneo have resembled an Armageddon landscape, with masked residents engulfed in a putrid, red-brown haze as wildfires devour peatlands near homes and farms.
Burning slowly, mostly underground and sometimes for months, peatland fires are responsible for much of the dry-season haze that this year has affected air quality as far away as Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.
What are peatlands?
Peatlands are made up of organic material that does not fully decompose in waterlogged conditions and has accumulated over thousands of years into layers of soil-like matter.
Healthy peatlands are home to diverse plants and trees such as nutmeg and durian, as well as animals including endangered orangutans, clouded leopards, Sumatran tigers, sun bears and tapirs.
They are porous and absorbent, making them important for flood control.
Although peatlands cover only about three per cent of the world’s land surface, they store about a third of global soil carbon — twice the amount held by forests.
Indonesia has the world’s largest share of tropical peatland, accounting for about a third of the global total.
Why are they burning?
Of Indonesia’s estimated 24.2 million hectares of peatland, 16.4 million hectares have been degraded and are vulnerable to fire, according to environmental group Pantau Gambut.
The main cause is the development of industrial-scale plantations for timber, pulp and paper, rice and palm oil, of which Indonesia is by far the world’s biggest producer.
To cultivate peatlands, they are drained using canal networks that stretch about 285,000 kilometres across Indonesia, according to Pantau Gambut research — about seven times the circumference of the Earth.
The water flows into rivers or the sea, leaving the dried peatlands vulnerable to fire, particularly during strong El Niño years that can bring severe drought to Indonesia.
Peatland fires are often difficult to detect apart from the foul smoke they produce and the heat generated beneath the ground.
Layers of carbon-rich peat can continue smouldering in so-called “zombie fires” for weeks, making them difficult to extinguish.
What are the impacts?
Although less than a third of Indonesia’s wildfires occur on peatlands, they produce most of the haze, according to Greenpeace research.
The toxic smog contains harmful substances including formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide and ammonia, as well as PM2.5 particles small enough to penetrate the lungs and bloodstream.
The World Health Organisation has linked exposure to PM2.5 pollution with increased illness and death.
Indonesia and Malaysia have closed hundreds of schools because of the haze, while more than 170,000 people in Indonesia required treatment for acute respiratory infections in August and September, according to the country’s Health Ministry.
Many more people have fallen ill in Malaysia and Singapore.
Peatland fires also destroy wildlife habitats, further threatening endangered species such as orangutans and Sumatran rhinos.
What about greenhouse gases?
By October 6, Indonesian wildfires had emitted 140.5 megatonnes of planet-warming carbon, accounting for around 13 per cent of the global total this year, according to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.
It was Indonesia’s highest level of fire emissions since 2019, another strong El Niño year.
Indonesia also produces significant greenhouse gas emissions from its coal-powered electricity grid and is seeking to reduce emissions partly by ensuring forests, peatlands and other ecosystems absorb more carbon than they release.
What is being done?
Activists and experts say concession licences for extractive activities on peatlands should be revoked, while degraded peatlands should be rewetted and replanted with native species.
They have also called for drainage canals to be blocked.
Indonesia has imposed a moratorium on new permits to clear 66 million hectares of land classified as primary forest and peatland.
In a statement last year, the government said it had rewetted 4.16 million hectares of peatland, built 45,000 canal barriers and replanted various native species.
However, questions remain over the effectiveness of some restoration efforts.
“Today, some of the peat hydrological units that have received major restoration efforts... have experienced fires and have some of the highest hotspot counts,” Greenpeace forest campaigner Belgis Habiba told AFP.
Last month, the government announced the creation of a new National Peatland and Mangrove Management Agency to replace a body whose mandate expired in 2024.
The agency’s responsibilities and resources are still being worked out, but activists have raised concerns that its name makes no reference to restoration or protection.
“Does managing in this context serve as a pretext for the state to grant new concessions on peatlands?” Belgis said.
Indonesia’s Forestry Ministry did not respond to AFP’s request for comment. — AFP
