Dr. Alue Dohong, Vice Minister of Environment and Forestry of Indonesia, emphasized the importance of tropical peatland restoration during an online workshop, highlighting Indonesia's significant role in global carbon storage and ecosystem services. The workshop aimed to identify methodologies and indicators for effective restoration amidst threats from human activities, with the Indonesian government demonstrating strong commitment through regulations and community engagement. Achievements in emissions reductions and restoration activities were also noted, contributing significantly to Indonesia's climate change commitments.

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Keynote Speech
Dr. Alue Dohong, Vice Minister of Environment and Forestry,
the Republic of Indonesia
Online Workshop
EXPLORING THE CRITERIA AND INDICATORS FOR TROPICAL
PEATLAND RESTORATION
Wednesday, 2 September 2020
Opening Session || 13.30 – 16.00
• Your excellency the Head of Peatland Restoration Agency,
• Honorable Representatives from the UN Environment Programme
(UNEP), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Centre for
International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Global Peatlands Initiative
(GPI),
• Honorable Representatives from the Ministries and Government
Agencies,
• Distinguished Speakers, Moderators, Participants, Ladies and
Gentlemen.
Good afternoon and welcome you all in joining this webinar.
First of all, I would like to extend my gratitude and appreciation to CIFOR
and ITPC in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Forestry
WAKIL MENTERI LINGKUNGAN HIDUP DAN KEHUTANAN
REPUBLIK INDONESIA

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and the Peatland Restoration Agency for organizing this Online Workshop
with the title: Exploring the Criteria and Indicators for Tropical
Peatland Restoration. Indeed, it is an honor and pleasure for me to be
part of this important workshop.
Distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have been reported by the organizer that today webinar is an initial
workshop which will be followed by subsequent consultative workshops.
The objective of this online workshop is to identify key contributors and
suitable methodology for selecting appropriate criteria and associated
indicators based on characteristics such as relevance, ease of application,
responsiveness, representativeness, consistency and sensitivity to local
conditions. This allows restoration targets to be adequately quantified,
and success measured.
Distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Peatlands are critical ecosystem that play an important role at global,
regional, and national levels in controlling climate change, protecting
biodiversity and environment, and contributing to the social economic
welfare of people who are dependent on peatlands. Indonesian peatlands
are the fourth largest in the world after Canada, Rusia, and the USA.
Indonesian peatlands, including peat swamp forests, comprise 36% of the
world’s tropical peatlands. They hold a large pool of carbon storing about
30 to 40 percent of global soil carbon deposits, making them one of the
world’s largest carbon storage, and contributing to global climate change
mitigation and adaptation.
As one of the largest tropical peatlands, Indonesian peatlands provide
numerous ecosystem services. In their natural condition, peatlands
support a large range of habitats and provide a home for biodiversity.
They also play an important role in retention, purification and release of
water, and providing vital ecosystem functions and services reducing the
scale and mitigating the impact of droughts, floods and intrusion of salt
water into productive peatland area.

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Despite their importance for environmental services and economic
sources, tropical peatlands are among the most vulnerable ecosystems
that could be threatened by anthropogenic activities. A major threat to
peatlands degradation in Indonesia is clearing and peat drainage. Clearing
and draining of peatlands over recent decades has resulted in an
unprecedented increase in peat fires, which not only produces haze and
pollution, but also endangers critical ecological services and affect
ecosystem quality including biodiversity loss and increase the greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions. Indonesian peatlands have faced deforestation and
drainage since the 1980s, mainly for timber plantations and agriculture
purposes.
Distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Government of Indonesia has demonstrated a strong commitment on
protection and sustainable management of peatland ecosystem. President
of Republic of Indonesia, Bapak. Joko Widodo, gives very clear direction
to protect and sustainable manage the peatland ecosystem as well as
prevent from potential forest – peatland – fire. The enactment of
Government Regulation Number 71 of 2014 juncto Government
Regulation Number 57 of 2016 gives the power of Government of
Indonesia to protect and manage Indonesian peatland ecosystem with
Hydrological Peatland Units approach and establish the peatland function
into conservation and cultivation functions. The Government Regulations
give obligation for fulfilment of 0,4 meters water table height to maintain
peatland area wet.
Regarding to those government regulation and direction, currently 280
concession holders in 224 Peatland Hydrological Unit (PHU) implement
the Government Regulation requirements, with impact of peatland
restoration area at about 3.474 million hectares. The restoration activities
are conducted by development of rewetting infrastructures, including
development of 10,690 units of Water Table Compliance Point, 1.121 data
loggers for real time water table monitoring, 792 units of Rainfall
Monitoring Station, and constructs 27.889 units of Canal Blocking (with or
without spillway).

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In implementing the peatland protection management in community
areas, Government of Indonesia has also developed some community
based programs to empower community to actively participate and
improve community livelihood in line with the implementation of
sustainable peatland management. The Ministry of Environment and
Forestry of the Government of Indonesia has worked together with 7
universities and 9 provinces established 121 facilitators to assist the
communities in implementing restoration and sustainable peatland
management in their area. The impact of this programs implementation
is restoring peatland at about 9,950 hectares.
Regarding to the achievement above, the restoration activities has also
successfully reduced the GHG emissions from water management
improvement at about 285.020.556,73 ton CO2eq, which were monitored
through the SiMATAG-0.4m (water level monitoring database). This
achievement will contribute to Indonesia NDC 2019.
The success of Indonesia in reducing emissions for its REDD+
performance by around 17 million tonnes of CO2eq in 2016-2017 has been
approved by Norway through result-based payment (RBP) mechanism
based on a Letter of Intent (LoI) between the Governments of Norway
and Indonesia. Further, Indonesia’s success in reducing emissions has
gained approval for a funding proposal from the Green Climate Fund
(GCF), which outlined the results of Indonesia's REDD+ performance for
the 2014-2016 period with a reduction of around 20.3 million tonnes of
CO2eq. These achievements will raise public confidence about the
seriousness of the government in implementing its commitments to
protecting forests.
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I hope, we can formulate reliable and practical set of criteria and
indicators to monitor and assess peatlands restoration success and the
way forward to achieve the goal in protecting our tropical peatlands as
well as gaining global beneficiaries on climate change.

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Before I conclude my speech, I wish this webinar will provide better
knowledge on peatland restoration monitoring, and strengthen
cooperation and coordination among stakeholders involved in tropical
peatlands restoration efforts.
As one of the leading tropical peatland countries and also founding the
International Tropical Peatlands Center (ITPC), we are also happy to share
what we have achieved so far and experiences learned from the webinars
to our colleagues in the ITPC member countries.
Thank you for your time and kind attention.
Jakarta, 2 September 2020
Vice Minister of Environment and Forestry
The Republic Indonesia
Dr. Alue Dohong