9 Mar 2017: LIDAR field mapping 

7 Feb 2017: Draft bill on palm oil pushes for legalisation 

23 Jan 2017: Foresthints News videos on 2017 fire risk in peat cultivation zones, question on "arbitrary" BRG claims and lack of interventions other than "simple data preparation"

18 Jan 2017: BRG indicative mapping update

16 Jan 2017: Helicopters bound for Riau, Kalimantan to control forest fires

Helicopters bound for Riau, Kalimantan to control forest fires: Report 15 Jan 2017 -- According to media reports, the request for assistance was made by the local administrations after hotspots were detected this week in some Riau regencies. "The firefighters there experienced difficulties reaching the hot spots in the hilly area. That is when a helicopter is needed," the Jakarta Post quoted the head of Riau's Environment and Forestry Agency, Yulwiriati Moesa, on Friday (Jan 14). "We will also increase monitoring of private companies in the forests. We have demanded they report their inventory of equipment and facilities to prevent and mitigate forest fires,” she added. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/helicopters-bound-for-riau-kalimantan-to-control-forest-fires/3440400.html

2016 in Review: Indonesia's Conservation Game, Strong By : Ratri M. Siniwi | January 02, 2017 http://jakartaglobe.id/news/2016-review-indonesias-conservation-game-strong/

Feeding nation while protecting environment by Fitrian Ardiansyah, Indonesia country director of IDH-Sustainable Trade Initiative January 5, 2017 http://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2017/01/05/feeding-nation-while-protecting-environment.html

13 Jan 2017: 400k ha target for 2017 restoration, oil palm mix with rubber and livestock suggested

6 Jan 2017: BRG says 1.4 million restoration by forest concessionaires, Indonesia state budget remains cash-strapped, NGO reactions to Indonesia's new regulations

The Peatland Restoration Agency (BRG) will require forest concessionaires to restore 1.4 million hectares of peatland starting in January 2017. The move is set to affect 650,389 hectares managed by 36 forest concessionaires in five provinces, namely South Sumatra, Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, Riau andJambi, BRG head Nazir Foead said. “The areas to be restored are equivalent to 26 percent of the total peatland restoration target,” he said on Friday as quoted by Antara.... 1 million ha is located in protected forests, conservation forests and community forests.... http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/12/31/forests-required-to-restore-peatland.html

According to the Directorate General of Taxation, Rp 141 trillion (US$10.46 billion)-worth of assets had been promised to be repatriated before Dec. 31. The committed amount itself is far lower than the Rp 1 quadrillion initially targeted. However, data from the Financial Services Authority (OJK) — which oversees the banking industry as the party that receives the repatriated funds — revealed that only 63.5 percent or Rp 89.6 trillion of the committed amount had entered the domestic financial system and most of the funds had been recorded as “cash and cash equivalents”....The government is not happy with the result, as it wishes to see massive fund repatriation and the money directed toward the financial markets and real sector to move the economy because the state budget remains cash-strapped. http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/01/05/hole-found-in-indonesia-tax-amnesty.html

16 Dec 2016: NGO reactions to Indonesia's new peatland regulations - 30% protection is not good enough, APRIL-RGE in spotlight; Malaysian state says no palm in swampy areas for fear of drying up land

21 Sep 2016: 70% of Sarawak Pan Borneo Highway on peat, Dr Param on soil mapping and proper management 

Ministry to find affordable solutions for road construction on peat soil BY SHARON LING 7 September 2016 -- KUCHING: The Works Ministry will look into finding affordable solutions for road construction on peat soil, including the Pan Borneo highway project in Sarawak. Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said the cost of building roads in peat areas in the state could well exceed RM20mil per kilometre due to the soil’s soft nature.  “If we want to build a good road in peat areas, it will be akin to constructing an elevated highway, which means we have to do piling. “The one that we did as a pilot project in Batu Kawa about 10 years ago cost about RM20mil per kilometre. Now (the cost) could be double,” ... Fadillah said the peat soil in Sarawak was quite deep, posing another challenge to the construction of roads and buildings. For instance, he said about 70% of the Pan-Borneo Highway project in the state was likely to be in peat areas.... http://www.thestar.com.my/metro/community/2016/09/07/a-challenging-task-ministry-to-find-affordable-solutions-for-road-construction-on-peat-soil/

This man feels our peat lands are not threatened by agriculture June 17, 2016 By N. RAMA LOHAN -- “Do not get me wrong … I am not suggesting we clear all our peat lands and plant oil palm. Some tropical peats, especially those with little or no wood, can give good economic yields and profit. But some tropical peats with ‘hardwood’ logs in them, should not be cleared for cultivation. The only way to differentiate these varying types of peat lands is through soil mapping. Unfortunately, this is costly and often not done before the land is alienated for agricultural and other development,” he said. In a nutshell, he sees little detriment to peat lands being used for agriculture, as long as the soil’s needs are observed and managed accordingly.
.... http://www.star2.com/living/2016/06/17/dr-paramananthan-feels-our-peat-lands-are-not-threatened-by-agriculture/#Vhsbd0PY7LwBveTL.99

International Peat Congress, Kuching, August 2016

Presentations by LMC International Ltd
  

source: LMC International

Source: Khor Yu Leng - on peat restoration panel

7 July 2016: Indonesia BRG and company news

Company news

Inilah Klaim PT RAPP di Lahan Konsesi HTI Mereka Penulis : izdor | Editor : Fakhrurrodzi | Jumat, 24 Juni 2016 

http://www.riauonline.co.id/2016/06/24/inilah-klaim-pt-rapp-di-lahan-konsesi-hti-mereka
Note: PT RAPP - Tanoto will conserve 400 thousand hectares of industrial timber estates (HTI) in Riau to prevent environmental damage, The company will disburse Rp 1.4 trillion (US$106 million) for the period of 10 years (US$10.6 million per year on average). "The program is already running. Land conservation area of ​​150 thousand hectares in the past year.. RAPP target the conserved land 1: 1 land planted with acacia. Today, the company is headquartered in Palalawan has planted 480 thousand hectares of land... 

"A Lost Opportunity for Indonesia" RAN Responds to Dissolution of the Indonesian Palm Oil Pledge. San Francisco. Today, Rainforest Action Network responded to the announcement made by six of the world’s largest palm oil companies to dissolve the Indonesian Palm Oil Pledge (IPOP) group, an innovative platform designed to advance the environmental and human rights reforms needed to address the international controversy surrounding the rainforest destruction and labor exploitation associated with Indonesia’s palm oil industry. Gemma Tillack, Agribusiness Campaign Director for Rainforest Action Network issued the following statement. “IPOP was an important mechanism for Indonesian companies to differentiate themselves from their competitors by taking real steps to halt the rampant destruction of forests and peatlands, to end the widespread abuse of workers and address the long-standing conflicts resulting from the displacement of local communities from their lands for industrial scale plantations. IPOP’s dissolution is a disappointing step backward in the urgent fight to achieve truly responsible palm oil and is a major lost opportunity for Indonesia’s palm oil industry to maintain its stake in the global market. “IPOP’s former members, Wilmar, Golden Agri-Resources, Musim Mas, Astra Agro Lestari, Asian Agri and Cargill, must now meet their responsible palm oil promises independently and demonstrate that they intend to follow through on the commitments made to smallholders, local communities, workers and customers across the globe that are demanding fundamental changes in the way the palm oil is produced.... http://www.ran.org/a_lost_opportunity_for_indonesia_ran_responds_to_dissolution_of_the_indonesian_palm_oil_pledge

Badan Restorasi Gambut / BRG news

BRG finalkan peta indikatif restorasi skala 1:250.000 1 Juli 2016 http://www.antaranews.com/berita/571094/brg-finalkan-peta-indikatif-restorasi-skala-1250000

Indonesia plans peat monitoring system to curb haze By Sam Reeves, AFP 30 June 2016  -- JAKARTA--Indonesia is planning a hi-tech monitoring network to protect peatland at the center of last year's raging fires that cloaked Southeast Asia in toxic haze, a senior official said.... Jakarta in January set up an agency to oversee the restoration of 2.6 million hectares (6.4 million acres) — roughly the size of Rwanda — of peat in the next five years to try to prevent future fires. It is part of a broader push to stop a repeat of the devastating blazes. President Joko Widodo has introduced other measures to protect peatland and banned the use of new land for palm oil operations. Restoration of peat involves damming enormous canals built to drain the peat, replanting vegetation and replacing lost water. Monitoring devices will be installed in the peat to ensure restoration is being properly carried out, said Peatland Restoration Agency head Nazir Foead. "We are going to install monitoring tools, sensors, that will send us the data real time through the internet so companies are fully aware that their restoration action is being monitored," he told AFP in an interview on Tuesday.... Roughly half the peat earmarked for restoration is on companies' concession land and they are responsible for carrying out the improvement work, with guidance from the agency. The agency will restore peat on government- and community-owned land. The monitoring stations will include an underground sensor and rain gauge to check if peat is retaining water after rainfall, allowing authorities to work out whether drainage canals have been properly closed off....http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/indonesia/2016/06/30/470718/Indonesia-plans.htm

Peat agency indicative map adjudged to be misleading  2016-06-30 A spatial analysis performed by Greenomics Indonesia with respect to the Peatland Restoration Indicative Map, which was created by the Indonesian Peat Restoration Agency (BRG), has found that the map has no substantial basis consistent with the applicable regulations and is therefore misleading to all parties concerned. This was announced by executive director of Greenomics Indonesia, Vanda Mutia Dewi, in Jakarta on Wednesday (Jun 29). In light of this, Vanda appealed for the map to be withdrawn from the public consultation process without delay. She went on to describe how President Joko Widodo had been urged by the peat agency, an entity created by the president himself in January of this year, to incorporate the majority of peatland into the moratorium zone. She deplored this move as misleading from both a substantive and legal perspective.“Most of the peatland areas proposed by the peat agency to be incorporated into the moratorium zone have in fact already been designated as moratorium areas by means of the Indicative Map for the Suspension of New License Issuance (PIPPIB) in primary forest and peatland areas. This just goes to show that the PIPPIB map was not used as a reference by the peat agency when drawing up its indicative map.”  Vanda didn’t hold back in her criticism of the peat agency, labeling the recommendations it made to the President embarrassing and calling for it to make a public apology to him. The peat agency may now be feeling a measure of trepidation, having been made aware of the legal and substantive shortcomings in its indicative map which has been shown to have neglected the PIPPIB in its preparation.....Meanwhile, in his reaction to the public statements made by Greenomics Indonesia, especially those alleging that the peat agency’s indicative map is misleading to stakeholders, the Peat Agency Chief Nazir Foead said that his team was reviewing all the input included in the public consultation process which was due to close on June 30, 2016, including the publicinput submitted by Greenomics.... http://foresthints.news/peat-agency-indicative-map-adjudged-to-be-misleading. Link to Greenomics statement: http://www.greenomics.org/press-release/144-indicative-map-of-peatland-restoration-project-is-misleading 


Support to Peat Restoration Agency/ Dukungan terhadap Badan Restorasi Gambut - Supporting the government’s efforts to significantly reduce carbon emissions by strengthening the capacity of the newly-established Peat Restoration Agency (BRG) to achieve its targets. According to the Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Indonesia emitted approximately 800 million-1,1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2eq) emissions due to huge forests and land fires in 2015. These fires are largely caused by extensive peat soil drainage and excessive peat conversion to other land uses, mainly to palm oil plantations. As a preventive measure of fires and haze, President Joko Widodo mentioned in his official speech at the Conference of Parties (COP) 21 Paris the establishment of the Peat Restoration Agency (Badan Restorasi Gambut/BRG), an agency that is mandated to restore 2 million hectares of peat by 2020, 30 percent of which has to be achieved in less than a year. http://www.wri-indonesia.org/en/our-work/project/support-peat-restoration-agency-badan-restorasi-gambutbrg

Indonesia taking steps to prevent cross-border haze this year Source: Bernama -- JAKARTA, 27 June 2016:  This year, the air pollution crisis caused by the haze may not recur. This is based on Indonesia’s confidence that forest and oil palm plantation fires will be controlled, beginning this year, while it tackles at the same time the spectre of the haze haunting neighbouring countries annually. Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (GAPKI) chairman Joko Supriyono said the confidence was based on preparations being made by all parties – including the government, plantation companies and villagers in the oil palm plantation areas. “As fire is our common problem, GAPKI members have been asked to proactively assist the government to overcome the problem and villagers, advised to refrain from large-scale open burning.” In addition, he said Gapki would cooperate with the Indonesian government to monitor all hotspots, adding that GAPKI members were reminded not to resort to open burning..... He said, as an organisation representing palm oil entrepreneurs, GAPKI welcomed the directive of Indonesian president Joko Widodo (Jokowi) for the authorities to take stern action against any company carrying out open burning. Joko said GAPKI had also urged the authorities to take action against perpetrators of forest fires. “The forest and peat fires have been taking place for many years and recur every year, even before the growth of the palm oil industry. There are also laws that allow open burning to clear fields, all this has to be reviewed.” Recently, Jokowi ordered all authorities to carry out works to prevent the burning of forests and farms in the country, adding that they (the authorities) should be prepared to face the catastrophic forest fires in advance and make prevention a priority. The republic has set up a Peat Restoration Agency to carry out activities to preserve forests and ensure forest and farm fires do not recur this year. In addition, the Indonesian president has instructed all district-level authorities, including the army and police to monitor the fields.....http://www.therakyatpost.com/world/2016/06/27/indonesia-taking-steps-to-prevent-cross-border-haze-this-year/

BRG Rampungkan Peta Restorasi Gambut Rep: Sonia Fitri/ Red: Nidia Zuraya  09 June 2016, 18:22 WIB  http://www.republika.co.id/berita/ekonomi/makro/16/06/09/o8i4xb383-brg-rampungkan-peta-restorasi-gambut note: 
Note: priority area of ​​restoration during the year 2016-2020 is 2.6 million hectares 2.3 million ha or 87 percent of the area of ​​peatland restoration priority are in area of ​​cultivation, the rest or 13 percent is in protected area, A total of 46 percent peat, was with illegal immigrants, 41 percent have not been identified and 13 percent protected areas; unclear status for an area of 1.1 million ha with 200 thousand hectares in the peat dome. Use of peat for cultivation was mostly by concessionaires forestry and oil palm plantation (1.2 million ha of peat) with half a million hectares of concessions on peat dome. By province, per province: Riau area of ​​939 thousand hectares, 683 thousand hectares of Central Kalimantan, South Sumatra 446 thousand ha, 324 thousand ha in West Kalimantan, Jambi 137 thousand hectares, 82 thousand hectares Papua and Kalimantan 68 thousand ha. 


Tim Restorasi Gambu Sumatera Selatan - Sriwijaya Peat http://sriwijayapeat.org/category/oki/ 
Peta Indikatif Restorasi Gambut di Sumsel dari BRG admin 2016-06-11 
http://sriwijayapeat.org/2016/06/11/peta-indikatif-restorasi-gambut-di-sumsel-dari-brg/ (Terkelola baik - managed well, Rehabilitisi - rehabilitation, Moratorium - moratorium, Prioritas restorasi - restoration priority)

Mencengangkan! Peta BRG Perlihatkan Setengah Juta Hektar Konsesi di Kubah Gambut  June 10, 2016 Lusia Arumingtyas, Jakarta




http://www.mongabay.co.id/2016/06/10/mencengangkan-peta-brg-perlihatkan-setengah-juta-hektar-konsesi-di-kubah-gambut/

Tim Restorasi Gambut Sumsel Berharap Semua Pihak Fokus Cegah Kebakaran May 20, 2016 Taufik Wijaya, Palembang 
http://www.mongabay.co.id/2016/05/20/tim-restorasi-gambut-sumsel-berharap-semua-pihak-fokus-cegah-kebakaran/

1,9 Juta Hektar Restorasi Gambut di Kawasan Budidaya April 5, 2016 Indra Nugraha dan Tommy Apriando -- Badan Restorasi Gambut (BRG) sudah menyiapkan langkah-langkah merestorasi gambut. Pemetaan indikatif prioritas restorasi tujuh provinsi sedang proses dengan total 2,260 juta hektar gambut, dengan rincian 1,9 juta hektar kawasan budidaya, dan 360.000 hektar hutan lindung. “Angka ini menarik dikaji, 1,9 juta hektar kawasan budidaya. Berarti perkebunan sawit, HTI dan lain-lain. Saya bisa katakan paling tidak tanggungjawab negara 360.000 hektar, 1,9 juta hektar ada tanggungjawab negara, juga perusahaan,” kata Kepala BRG Nazir Foead di Jakarta, akhir Maret. 
http://www.mongabay.co.id/2016/04/05/19-juta-hektar-restorasi-gambut-di-kawasan-budidaya/  (kawasan lindung - protected area, kawasan budidaya - cultivated area; prioritas restorasi tujuh propinsi di kawasan budidaya - 1.9 jt hektar. Di Kawasan lindung (hutan lindung, TN, CA, SM dan Tahura) = 360 ribu hektar - seven provinces restoration priorities in the area of cultivation - 1.9 million hectares. In protected areas (forest, TN, CA, BC and Tahura) = 360 thousand hectares) 
Note: 2.26 million ha of peat with 1.9 million ha cultivation area with palm oil, timber and others under national and company responsibility and 360,000 ha protected forest under state responsibility - late March 2016

Badan Restorasi Gambut Identifikasi 100 Desa 31 March 2016 http://www.republika.co.id/berita/nasional/umum/16/03/31/o4wj0w326-badan-restorasi-gambut-identifikasi-100-desa