Corporate Mode Burns Peat Repeatedly

JAKARTA The non-governmental organization Pantau Peat, which focuses on the protection and sustainability of peatlands in Indonesia, has uncovered cases of peat fires that occurred repeatedly at the same location to neutralize the acidity of the land.

"Arang is one of the natural functions to neutralize peat acidity," said Campaign Manager and Advocacy for Monitoring Gambit Wahyu Perdana as reported by ANTARA, Thursday, October 12.

Wahyu explained that peatlands have a high level of acidity, so they cannot be directly planted by various commodity plants that are not an endemic type of peat plant such as sago.

In agricultural theory, he added, lowering soil acidity levels can be done with dolomite lime. However, this method requires a large cost and more power because the plantation land reaches thousands of hectares with a maximum cultivation peat depth of three meters.

Wahyu said the depth of peat in Indonesia could reach dozens of meters. He said that he had met several peat experts who were diligent in making measurements, the deepest peat that had ever been found reached a depth of 30 meters.

"With a high level of acidity, if you use expensive dolomites, you can no longer transport using transportation to bring it into (plants). In Central Kalimantan there is an incoming heavy equipment (drowned) that cannot be removed because it is caught in peat," he said.

"(burning many times theoretically) is cheaper than using dolomite lime or agricultural lime," said Wahyu.

In 2015, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) had revoked the company's license because forest and land fires occurred repeatedly in the corporate concession area.

The sanctions are also used to stop the activities of companies that destroy forests and peatlands by burning them.

Director General of Environmental and Forestry Law Enforcement of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Rasio Ridho Sani, said that his party would apply the same sanction in the form of revocation of permits for every company or corporation that was proven to have burned land repeatedly.

"If the incident recurs with a fairly large burned area, then we are considering revoking the permit. In 2015, we carried out (sanctions) and at this time we will take steps to revoke the permit," said Rasio.