Peat ecosystems play an important role in climate change mitigation (as carbon sinks) and are biodiversity hotspots. Efforts to preserve and restore peat ecosystems must include well-designed measures to plan and manage the ecosystems and to control inevitable adverse impacts, ensuring their functions to generate ecological and societal benefits. Though peatlands cover only 3-4% of global area, over 25 million hectares of peatlands are in Southeast Asia. Sustainable peatland management in Southeast Asia can draw on and learn from the experiences of Indonesia, which is home to more than 80%¹ of peatlands in the region.

Protection and sustainable management of peatland in Indonesia occurs through structured actions covering aspects of planning, utilization, control, maintenance, and supervision The availability of guidance documents for monitoring and evaluating peat ecosystem protection and management plans can become a useful reference. The implementation of policies, plans, and programs for the protection, management, and restoration of peatlands to date offers learning materials that can be of interest to stakeholders in the region. For example, to protect and management peat ecosystems, the Government of Indonesia has national regulations² and implementing regulations from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF)³ represent Indonesia’s strong commitment to the protection of peatlands ecosystems.

In response to the request and needs from ASEAN Member States (AMS) during the 3rd Programme Steering Committee for knowledge exchange and peer learning between the countries on regulatory framework of peatland management, the Measurable Action for Haze-Free Southeast Asia (MAHFSA) program is supporting the promotion of haze-free agriculture and sustainable peatland management in Southeast Asia by collating, synthesizing and disseminating relevant knowledge products. In collaboration with the Directorate of Peat Destruction Control of the Directorate General of Pollution and Environmental Degradation Control of Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF), CIFOR will organize a knowledge-sharing event as way of strengthening AMS policymakers’ knowledge on peat protection planning and management.

Objectives

The objectives of the knowledge sharing event are:

1. to provide a forum for AMS to exchange knowledge and learn from other countries experience on regulatory and institutional framework for the protection and management of peat ecosystems,
2. to provide opportunity for AMS to equip relevant peatland management agencies and institutions on the design of peatland protection and management planning systems learning from the experience of Indonesia. 

Outputs

The expected outputs of the knowledge sharing event are:

1. participants learn about Indonesia’s peat ecosystem protection and management planning systems, including utilization, control, and monitoring aspects;
2. participants learn how Indonesia links peatland management to other national strategic plans; and
3. identification of any relevance of the Indonesia planning and administrative systems with the national administrative systems of other AMS.

Contact: Swetha Peteru (s.peteru@cifor-icraf.org)

Organizers