Indonesian giant farm plan sparks concern over ecological chaos – Energy & Oil

KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – An Indonesian government’s plan to develop a huge farm on the island of Borneo would likely increase carbon emissions linked to global warming and the risks of forest fires, while missing its goal of improving food security, environmentalists warned on Friday. .

To avoid anticipated food shortages caused by restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19, the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture announced plans last week for an area covering more than 164,000 hectares (405,000 acres) in the central Kalimantan province.

The farm will grow rice, fruits and vegetables and keep animals, a ministry spokesperson said.

The target area includes land already cleared as part of a high-profile attempt by former President Suharto to achieve rice self-sufficiency in the 1990s, according to local media.

The autocratic leader’s mega project decimated swathes of peat forests in Borneo and proved disastrous due to poorly adapted peat soil.

Arie Rompas, a forest activist at Greenpeace Indonesia, said that the new enlarged farm, if established, would cause further damage and drying out of peat, increasing emissions and the risk of fire.

“The government is simply repeating old mistakes and will start a new cycle of ecological chaos,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Home to the third largest rainforest in the world, Indonesia has more than 15 million hectares of peat bogs – twice the size of Ireland – mainly on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo and in its largest province. eastern Papua.

Old peat soils are particularly flammable when dry and are a major site of annual fires that send a toxic haze across Southeast Asia, causing respiratory and other health problems.

Peatlands contain huge amounts of carbon in the form of organic matter, which has accumulated over thousands of years, and provides nutrients for plant growth.

When it is drained or cleaned up by fire, carbon is released into the atmosphere where it traps heat, causing climate change.

“If the government continues to push this project forward, it is building a bleak future,” said Rompas.

Over the past two decades, the peat forest cleared for the abandoned mega rice project has been largely left fallow, turning into degraded scrubland, said climatologist David Gaveau.

Rice cultivation is not possible on peat bogs more than 2 meters deep – like most land cleared for the rice project – he said, while growing other food crops found largely unsuccessful.

“This region is the epicenter of almost all of the very large uncontrolled peat fires,” said Gaveau, adding that the land needed to be restored to prevent the fires.

CLIMATE CRISIS

After particularly intense peat fires in 2015 – which researchers say have caused up to 100,000 premature deaths – Indonesian President Joko Widodo created an agency in 2016 to restore approximately 2 million hectares of damaged peatlands.

To avoid further land degradation and fire, environmentalists this week urged the government to invest in restoring the agricultural project area in Borneo by replanting trees and crops to keep the bog moist – instead of trying to grow more rice.

“Planting unsuitable crops on carbon-rich peatlands that require drainage would exacerbate the already massive health and climate crisis,” said Tezza Napitupulu, environmental economist at the World Resources Institute Indonesia.

“Food security and access to nutritious food can be achieved without endangering the environment,” she added.

Sustainable agriculture could involve the growth of native species such as bitter melon, horse mango, sago and water spinach, which are suitable for wet peat conditions and do not require land drainage, said climatology researchers.

The Indonesian Ministry of the Environment and Forests did not respond to requests for comment. (Report by Michael Taylor @MickSTaylor; edited by Megan Rowling. Please mention the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, which covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. news.trust.org)