5 hours ago
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March 13, 2025 | 06:27 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Pantau Gambut, a non-governmental organization networked across 9 provinces, which focuses on research as well as advocacy and campaigns for the protection and sustainability of peatlands in Indonesia, stated that forest and land fires (karhutla) are not the only singular disaster caused by the damage to the peat ecosystem. Disturbances to the peat ecosystem also trigger floods.
Advocacy Manager, Campaigns, and Communications of Pantau Gambut, Wahyu Perdana, said that floods are not a common natural cycle that occurs in peat ecosystems. Instead, they are caused by the degradation of peatlands. "Those living in this ecosystem are affected," Wahyu said in a written statement on Wednesday, March 12, 2025.
As part of the wetland ecosystem, according to Wahyu, peat fundamentally needs to be inundated with water. However, degradation erodes the ability of peat to absorb water. This phenomenon of irreversible drying causes waterlogging to become uncontrolled overflow, which in turn damages the environment.
Through a study entitled 'The Submergence of Wetlands', Pantau Gambut presents the threat of flooding in the Hydrological Peat Units (KHG) in Indonesia. The flood risk spreads across three regions, namely Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Papua.
Analyst of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Juma, said that provinces prone to forest and land fires are also on the list of flood-prone areas. "Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, and South Sumatra are the top three regions with the widest flood vulnerability," he said.
If totaled as a whole, at least 25 percent of KHG in Indonesia have a high vulnerability to flooding. There are 18 percent of KHG with moderate vulnerability, and 57 percent with low vulnerability.
"There are 6 million hectares of vulnerable land out of 25 million hectares of peatlands in Indonesia," said Juma.
Kalimantan occupies the highest position in terms of flood vulnerability, followed by Sumatra and Papua. According to Juma, the affected areas are not only the inland peat regions. The degradation of peat also causes a significant subsidence of coastal areas.
Peatlands, which used to function as a natural barrier to seawater intrusion, now exacerbate the problem of tidal flooding. Freshwater reserves also decrease due to the infiltration of seawater into the groundwater,
There are three crucial points that Pantau Gambut advocates for. The institution includes technical variables related to flood indicators in the degradation of the peat ecosystem as an improvement to Government Regulation Number 57 of 2016 concerning the Protection and Management of Peat Ecosystems. The indicator of peat hydrological governance in regulations related to the financial services sector is also included in the proposed revision.
There is also a target to strengthen specific institutions and cross-sectoral authority in the protection of peat ecosystem. "The damage to peat ecosystems is often only measured based on forest fire incidents," said Juma.
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