Forest fires burned 1.64 million hectares across seven provinces of Indonesia this year, with peatlands accounting for 41 percent of the area lost to flames, said the Center for International Forestry Research on Monday. The figures, based on satellite data, show that only a portion of the the fires could be attributed to direct land-clearing work for palm oil plantations.
Three-fourths of the fire damage was on idle land that was forested years ago but converted into unproductive scrublands by repeated cycles of burning. “Uncontrolled fires easily propagate well beyond the intended area of burning (for plantations) because of large areas of flammable idle and degraded peatlands,” said the center. “Our findings strengthen the case for mass restoration of degraded idle peatlands back into fire-resistant ecosystems.”
Indonesia created a peatland restoration agency in 2016 with a goal of restoring 2.67 million hectares to prevent the recurrence of fires. The center described peatland fires as “the source of most land-based greenhouse gas and toxic smoke emissions.” The area that burned this year is equal to 6,300 square miles, larger than Connecticut.
The center’s report on 2019 fires is available here.