Tropical forests and peatlands provide important ecological, climate and socio‐economic benefits from the local to the global scale. However, these ecosystems and their associated benefits are ...threatened by anthropogenic activities, including agricultural conversion, timber harvesting, peatland drainage and associated fire. Here, we identify key challenges, and provide potential solutions and future directions to meet forest and peatland conservation and restoration goals in Indonesia, with a particular focus on Kalimantan.
Through a round‐table, dual‐language workshop discussion and literature evaluation, we recognized 59 political, economic, legal, social, logistical and research challenges, for which five key underlying factors were identified. These challenges relate to the 3Rs adopted by the Indonesian Peatland Restoration Agency (Rewetting, Revegetation and Revitalization), plus a fourth R that we suggest is essential to incorporate into (peatland) conservation planning: Reducing Fires.
Our analysis suggests that (a) all challenges have potential for impact on activities under all 4Rs, and many are inter‐dependent and mutually reinforcing, implying that narrowly focused solutions are likely to carry a higher risk of failure; (b) addressing challenges relating to Rewetting and Reducing Fire is critical for achieving goals in all 4Rs, as is considering the local socio‐political situation and acquiring local government and community support; and (c) the suite of challenges faced, and thus conservation interventions required to address these, will be unique to each project, depending on its goals and prevailing local environmental, social and political conditions.
With this in mind, we propose an eight‐step adaptive management framework, which could support projects in both Indonesia and other tropical areas to identify and overcome their specific conservation and restoration challenges.
A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
Hutan dan lahan gambut tropis memberikan manfaat ekosistem, iklim dan sosial‐ekonomi penting untuk skala lokal sampai global. Akan tetapi, ekosistem hutan dan lahan gambut beserta manfaatnya terancam oleh tindakan‐tindakan antropogenik, diantaranya konversi ke pertanian, pemanenan hutan, drainase gambut dan kebakaran. Disini, kami mengidentifikasi tantangan‐tantangan kunci, dan memberikan solusi‐solusi potensial serta arahan‐arahan di masa depan guna mencapai tujuan‐tujuan restorasi dan konservasi gambut di Indonesia dengan fokus khusus di Kalimantan.
Melalui lokakarya dwi‐bahasa dan diskusi meja bundar serta evaluasi literatur, kami mengenali 59 tantangan‐tantangan politik, ekonomi, legal, sosial, logistik dan penelitian, yang mana lima faktor kunci mendasar berhasil teridentifikasi. Tantangan‐tantangan terkait dengan adopsi 3Rs oleh Badan Restorasi Gambut (Rewetting, Revegetation dan Revitalization) dan ditambah R yang ke‐empat yang kami sarankan penting untuk dimasukkan ke dalam perencanaan konservasi (gambut): pengurangan kebakaran (Reducing Fire).
Analisis kami menyarankan bahwa (a) seluruh tantangan semuanya memiliki dampak potensial terhadap keseluruhan kegiatan 4Rs, dan kebanyakan saling ketergantungan dan saling memperkuat, yang secara implisit bahwa fokus solusi yang bersifat sempit akan beresiko tinggi mengalami kegagalan; (b) penanganan tantangan terkait pembasahan gambut dan pengurangan kebakaran merupakan hal pokok guna pencapaian tujuan 4Rs secara keseluruhan, dengan mempertimbangkan situasi sosial‐politik lokal dan memproleh dukungan pemerintah daerah dan masyarakat setempat; dan (c) dengan kesesuaian dari tantangan‐tantangan yang dihadapi sehingga intervensi‐intervensi konservasi diperlukan guna mengatasinya sehingga akan menjadi hal yang unik untuk setiap proyek tergantung dengan tujuan dan kondisi‐kondisi politik, sosial dan lingkungan yang berlaku.
Dengan pemikiran ini, kami mengajukan suatu kerangka kerja pengelolaan ‘delapan langkah adaptif’ yang mana dapat mendukung proyek‐proyek baik di Indonesia atau wilayah‐wilayah tropis lainnya guna mengidentfikiasi dan mengatasi tantangan‐tantangan khusus restorasi dan konservasi.
A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
Uncontrolled fires place considerable burdens on forest ecosystems, compromising our ability to meet conservation and restoration goals. A poor understanding of the impacts of fire on ecosystems and ...their biodiversity exacerbates this challenge, particularly in tropical regions where few studies have applied consistent analytical techniques to examine a broad range of ecological impacts over multiyear time frames. We compiled 16 y of data on ecosystem properties (17 variables) and biodiversity (21 variables) from a tropical peatland in Indonesia to assess fire impacts and infer the potential for recovery. Burned forest experienced altered structural and microclimatic conditions, resulting in a proliferation of nonforest vegetation and erosion of forest ecosystem properties and biodiversity. Compared to unburned forest, habitat structure, tree density, and canopy cover deteriorated by 58 to 98%, while declines in species diversity and abundance were most pronounced for trees, damselflies, and butterflies, particularly for forest specialist species. Tracking ecosystem property and biodiversity datasets over time revealed most to be sensitive to recurrent high-intensity fires within the wider landscape. These megafires immediately compromised water quality and tree reproductive phenology, crashing commercially valuable fish populations within 3 mo and driving a gradual decline in threatened vertebrates over 9 mo. Burned forest remained structurally compromised long after a burn event, but vegetation showed some signs of recovery over a 12-y period. Our findings demonstrate that, if left uncontrolled, fire may be a pervasive threat to the ecological functioning of tropical forests, underscoring the importance of fire prevention and long-term restoration efforts, as exemplified in Indonesia.
The Sunda Clouded Leopard Neofelis diardi is the apex predator on the island of Borneo, yet little is known of its ecology. We document the length of residency of male Sunda Clouded Leopards in ...Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. Over 10 years, camera trap data have been obtained in the Sebangau peat swamp forest in a study area of ~ 105km2. We identified 11 individuals (eight males, one female, and two with unknown sex), from 152 notionally independent photographs. On average, males remained in the study area for 39.3 months (SE 8.3), or 3.3 years (SE 0.7), ranging from less than a month of residency up to 71 months. Females were infrequently recorded, possibly as a result of human disturbance and/or high male densities. Our results reveal that even a 10-year dataset is inadequate to answer some basic ecological questions, emphasising the importance of long-term monitoring of this species.
The Dayak people in Central Kalimantan, traditionally consumed local vegetable, either collected from the wild or traditionally cultivated. Unfortunately, many of the traditional vegetables are ...approaching extinction, even in their local market. This research is intended to conserve the traditional vegetable by collecting nutritional data and cultural information about the vegetable. Nineteen traditional Dayak vegetables were observed in local markets and in wild areas. Taxonomic identification revealed that the vegetables were Passiflora foetida L. (kemot), Diplazium esculentum (Retz). SW. (bajey fern), Spondias pinnata (L.f.) Kurtz (kedondong leaves), Neptunia oleracea Lour (malu-malu leaves), Manihot esculenta Crantz (cassava leaves). Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp. (talak leaves), Etlingera elatiar (Jack) R.M. Smith (potok shoots, red and green cultivar), Calamus sp. (rotan shoots), Nauclea sp. (Taya leaves), Momordica charantia L. (paria leaves), Gymnopetalum cochinense Kurz (kanjat), Solanum torvum Swartz. (segau fruit), Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott (sulur keladi shoots), Stenochlaena palutris (Burm.)Bedd. (kalakai leaves; red and white cultivar), lotus shoots (pucuk teratai), and Cnesmone javanica Blume (lampinak leaves). Nutrient analysis revealed that red kalakai (wild fern) has the potential nutrient value. It has a high amount of Fe (41.53 ppm), Cu (4.52 ppm), vitamin C (15.41 mg ⁄ 100g), protein (2.36%), β-carotene (66.99 ppm), and folic acid (11.30 ppm). Other iron-rich vegetables were sulur keladi (49.25 ppm) and bajey (44.6 ppm). While other vitamin C-rich vegetables were paria leaves (18.34 mg ⁄ 100 g wb), and bajaj fern (22.05 mg ⁄ 100g w.b). Sulur keladi and bajey were also rich in folic acid. They had 16 and 6.3 ppm of folic acid respectively. The β-carotene content in bajey was 74.04 ppm while taya was 77.41 ppm.