Abstract
This study analyses the implementation of good governance principles for the economic revitalization program under Riau Province’s Badan Restorasi Gambut (Peatland Restoration Agency) supervision. One of the aims of this program is to support the haze-free ASEAN 2020 roadmap. Riau province is an area prone to forest fire disasters. Its peatland area, which is twice as large as Malaysia’s peatland, have a very high potential for damage due to forest fires. To mitigate the damages, BRG initiated the 3R program: Rewetting, Revegetation, and Revitalization. What makes this topic interesting is BRG emphasizes the aspects of economic empowerment of local communities to prevent further forest and peatland damages. To assess the implementation of BRG’s program, our research team conducted several interviews with representatives from Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry, NGOs, academics, farmers, and villages’ facilitators who assisted local communities that received the BRG’s assistance packages. Our study shows that BRG’s economic revitalization program had succeeded in creating small scale economic activities such as honey industry, pineapple farming, and catfish farming. However, the ineffective coordination and communication between BRG and the local communities had prevented them from constructing an effective method to prevent future forest fires.
Highlights
In response to severe haze pollution emitted from land and forest fires in 1997-98, member countries of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) pledged to cooperate to “prevent, monitor, and mitigate land and forest fires” under the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP) (ASEAN, 2018)
Peatland Restoration Agency and the Evaluation of Economic Revitalization Program Minogue, Polidano, and Hulme (1998) suggest that good governance incorporate the aspects of accountability, control, responsiveness, transparency, public participation, economics, and efficiency
Several parties are directly involved in the implementation of the economic revitalization program (RE) managed by the Peat Restoration Agency: the BRG itself, community groups, village facilitators, farmers
Summary
In response to severe haze pollution emitted from land and forest fires in 1997-98, member countries of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) pledged to cooperate to “prevent, monitor, and mitigate land and forest fires” under the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP) (ASEAN, 2018). While haze problems had plagued the region before the 1997-98 crisis, it was only after a public backlash that ASEAN member countries agreed to produce their first legally binding agreement on environmental issue. The epicenter of forest fire in the region, ratified AATHP in 2014, 12 years after its adoption. Since the 1997-98 crisis, forest fire has been a constant problem and a source of embarrassment for Indonesia. The haze produced from Indonesian forest fire has become a lifethreatening issue as the pollution reaches a hazardous level. In the 2013 forest fire, for example, Singapore recorded the highest read of 401 PSI coming from the haze that engulfed the country (BBC, 2013).
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