History of the Development of Tropical Peatland in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

Abstract

Dayak people have always taken the carrying capacity of the land into full consideration when opening the forest for growing rice (“ladang”). The Dayak use natural signs to decide the location of rice fields and they manage them with local knowledge. Upstream, the Dayak people use only shallow peat (“petak luwau”) near the riverbanks. In coastal areas, they use the “handel” system, which depends upon the hydrological behavior of twice daily tidal movement. The recent decrease in rice production by the over intensive canalization system resulted from the government's ignorance of the success of local people in implementing their local knowledge. The giant canals constructed as part of the Indonesian Central Government's Mega Rice Project to utilize peatland for agriculture were failures when compared with traditional canals in Central Kalimantan, namely, the “handel” and “anjir”. Presidential Decree 32/1990 declared that peatland with peat thickness less than 3 meters could be used for agriculture, while that with more than 3 meters should be conserved. Then, in 1996, the Mega Rice Project (MRP) in Central Kalimantan was established. However, rather than only considering the thickness of the peat layer to determine peatland utilization, land users should also consider information on the chemical properties of the bottom peat layer, hydrological status, local knowledge, culture of communities and marketability of proposed crops. Unfortunately, neglecting these factors when cultivating tropical peatland, especially deep peat in inland areas and also coastal peat, gives rise to unproductive land (“lahan tidur”). Peatland degraded by unsuitable agriculture must be restored using native tree species to achieve ecosystem stabilization. Thus, Presidential Decree 32/1990, which was formulated without first carrying out research, was a major factor leading to the failure of peatland utilization in Indonesia; it must be reformulated using knowledge of peatland's carrying capacity.