Indonesian Peatlands Research Articles

Towards better use of Indonesian peatlands with paludiculture and low-drainage food crops

The current drainage-based peatland management systems in Indonesia result in high fire risks, soil subsidence and CO2 emissions. This study aims to assess different alternatives of peatland crops in order to help prevent further degradation of peatlands in Indonesia. We focus on tropical peatland crops that provide food and that are of particular interest to smallholders. We compare various peatland food crops that are commonly grown with no drainage (paludiculture) or drainage below 50 cm in our study area, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia in terms of sustainability, profitability, scalability of the market and acceptability to farmers. Our results show that sago (Metroxylon sagu), banana (Musa paradisiaca) and pineapple (Ananas comosus) followed by water spinach/kangkong (Ipomoea aquatica), kelakai/edible fern (Stenochlaena palustris), illipe nut/tengkawang (Shorea spp.), dragon fruit (Hylocereus undatus), mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana) and sweet melon/melon (Cucumis melo) are the best options based on the aggregated scores for these criteria (but precaution should be taken when planting crops that require low drainage). Sago palm and illipe nut have the highest scores for both sustainability and scalability of market, whereas banana, pineapple and sweet melon have the highest scores in term of the scalability of market and acceptability to farmers. We also address key opportunities and bottlenecks for the development of paludiculture food crops and present recommendations for the implementation of paludiculture in Indonesian peatlands.

A New Method for Rapid Measurement of Canal Water Table Depth Using Airborne LiDAR, with Application to Drained Peatlands in Indonesia

Water management in lowland areas usually aims to keep water tables within a narrow range to avoid flooding and drought conditions. A common water management target parameter is the depth of the canal water table below the surrounding soil surface. We demonstrated a method that rapidly determines canal water table depth (CWD) from airborne LiDAR data. The water table elevation was measured as the minimum value determined in a grid of 100 m × 100 m applied to a 1 m × 1 m digital terrain model (DTM), and the soil surface was calculated as the median value of values in each grid cell. Results for areas in eastern Sumatra and West Kalimantan, Indonesia, were validated against 145 field measurements at the time of LiDAR data collection. LiDAR-derived CWD was found to be accurate within 0.25 m and 0.5 m for 86% and 99% of field measurements, respectively, with an R2 value of 0.74. We demonstrated the method for CWD conditions in a drained peatland area in Central Kalimantan, where we found CWD in the dry season of 2011 to be generally below −1.5 and often below −2.5 m indicating severely overdrained conditions. We concluded that airborne LiDAR can provide an efficient and rapid mapping tool of CWD at the time of LiDAR data collection, which can be cost-effective especially where LiDAR data or derived DTMs are already available. The method can be applied to any LiDAR-based DTM that represents a flat landscape that has open water bodies.

Peat Physical and Hydraulic Properties Due to Peatland Fires

Fires on tropical peatlands in Indonesia are unexpected events that happened sporadically, especially during dry seasons. It is not easy to judge why a fire presents in a certain spot, and how it spreads. There are indications, and originally, a fire is ignited intentionally to clear bushes and wood remnants on the land surface for land clearing. Its most negative impacts are on human health due to dispersing smokes locally, and occasionally, reached neighboring countries. It is not unusual, the fire spread beyond the initial spot, and burned a vast area of commercial plantations, and protected forests in the vicinity. Fires caused significant economic losses. This investigation aimed at making clearer how peat properties changed before and sometime after the fires burned the areas. We observed how fires in peatlands occurred, and to what extent the physical properties of peats altered due to fires. Observations were carried out in 4 locations within Riau province, South Sumatra province, and South Kalimantan province that have vast areas of peatlands in the country, and peatland fires there are more frequent. The observations focused on peatland morphological appearances, and physical properties of non-burned and after fires in protected forests, plantations, and smallholder lands. The physical and hydraulic properties that were analyzed, among others, are bulk density, particle density, porosity, available water capacity, and water permeability. Positive changes were experienced successively by the air-entry head (21.3%) followed by permeability (19.6%), particle density (15.9%), bulk density (10.7%), available water (7.4%), fast-drain pore (3.9%) and n-parameter (0.1%). While, negative changes were experienced successively by slow-drain pore (-72.2%), residual water content (-22.5%), porosity (-7.3%), saturated water content (-6.3%) and m-parameter (-2.6%). The increase of air-entry head and the available water indicated more capable of retaining more water. Meanwhile, the increase of permeability and fast pore drain mean the burnt peats would be easier to drain under the same suction gradient. However, based on the F-test with a probability value of 5%, those all changes were not so significant or considerably small compared to the associated critical values.

Beyond slash‐and‐burn: The roles of human activities, altered hydrology and fuels in peat fires in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

Near‐annual landscape‐scale fires in Indonesia's peatlands have caused severe air pollution, economic losses, and health impacts for millions of Southeast Asia residents. While the extent of fires across the peatland surface has been widely attributed to widespread peatland drainage for plantation agriculture, fires that transition from surface into sub‐surface soil‐based fires are the source of the most dangerous air pollution. Yet the mechanisms by which this transition occurs have rarely been considered, particularly in diversely managed landscapes. Integrating physical geography methods, including active fire scene evaluations and hydrological monitoring, with qualitative methods such as retrospective fire scene evaluations and semi‐structured interviews, this article discusses how and why sub‐surface peat fire transition occurs in an intensively altered peatland ecosystem in Indonesia's Central Kalimantan province. We demonstrate that variable water table levels and flammable surface vegetation (fire fuels) are co‐produced socio‐political and biophysical phenomena that enable the conditions in which surface fire is likely to transition into peat fire and increase landscape vulnerability to ongoing, uncontrollable annual fires. This localized understanding of peat fire transition counters normative causal narratives of tropical fire such as ‘slash‐and‐burn’, with implications for the management of new fire regimes in inhabited landscapes.

From canals to the coast: dissolved organic matter and trace metal composition in rivers draining degraded tropical peatlands in Indonesia

Abstract. Worldwide, peatlands are important sources of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and trace metals (TMs) to surface waters, and these fluxes may increase with peatland degradation. In Southeast Asia, tropical peatlands are being rapidly deforested and drained. The blackwater rivers draining these peatland areas have high concentrations of DOM and the potential to be hotspots for CO2 release. However, the fate of this fluvial carbon export is uncertain, and its role as a trace metal carrier has never been investigated. This work aims to address these gaps in our understanding of tropical peatland DOM and associated elements in the context of degraded tropical peatlands in Indonesian Borneo. We quantified dissolved organic carbon and trace metal concentrations in the dissolved and fine colloidal (<0.22 µm) and coarse colloidal (0.22–2.7 µm) fractions and determined the characteristics (δ13C, absorbance, fluorescence: excitation-emission matrix and parallel factor – PARAFAC – analysis) of the peatland-derived DOM as it drains from peatland canals, flows along the Ambawang River (blackwater river) and eventually mixes with the Kapuas Kecil River (whitewater river) before meeting the ocean near the city of Pontianak in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. We observe downstream shifts in indicators of in-stream processing. An increase in the δ13C of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), along with an increase in the C1∕C2 ratio of PARAFAC fluorophores, and a decrease in SUVA (specific UV absorbance) along the continuum suggest the predominance of photo-oxidation. However, very low dissolved oxygen concentrations also suggest that oxygen is quickly consumed by microbial degradation of DOM in the shallow layers of water. Blackwater rivers draining degraded peatlands show significantly higher concentrations of Al, Fe, Pb, As, Ni and Cd compared to the whitewater river. A strong association is observed between DOM, Fe, As, Cd and Zn in the dissolved and fine colloid fraction, while Al is associated with Pb and Ni and present in a higher proportion in the coarse colloidal fraction. We additionally measured the isotopic composition of lead released from degraded tropical peatlands for the first time and show that Pb originates from anthropogenic atmospheric deposition. Degraded tropical peatlands are important sources of DOM and trace metals to rivers and a secondary source of atmospherically deposited contaminants.

Impact of trainings on knowledge, skill, behaviour and income of farmers living around peatlands: case study in Riau Province

Peatlands in Indonesia have been objected to draining, burning and converting into agriculture lands causing huge greenhouse gas emissions and triggering climate change. To reduce emissions on peatland but still keep maintaining community livelihoods, farmers need to be trained with best practices on peatland uses and management. Under the Haze Free Sustainable Livelihoods Project, three trainings have been conducted, namely training on nursery and land preparation without burning, training on post harvests processing of fish and corn, and training on honeybee cultivation. The training participants are community who live in and around the Peatland Hydrological Unit of Kampar-Indragiri Rivers, Riau. An impact assessment of the completed trainings has been conducted which employe four-level evaluation model as proposed by Kirkpatrick (1994). The results indicatesthat all of the trainings improve participants’ knowledge and skill. Moreover, the honeybee cultivation training has also transformed participants’ behaviour to be more preserve and maintain nectarpollen and resin producing trees, pollen and sap. The trainings, however, are yet to affect household income although an increase of profit has been recorded on some champion participants.

Community Based Peat Conservation

Manalu A. 2020. Community based peat conservation. Jurnal Lahan Suboptimal: Journal of Suboptimal Lands 9(1): 11-22.Peat forms naturally in swamp areas when dead plants rot and accumulate, which then decompresses and accumulates within hundreds to thousands of years. Peat can store 20 times more carbon than mineral soil. Indonesia's peatlands store about 46 Gt of carbon or around 8-14% of world peat carbon (Maltby and Immirizi, 1993). Peat has an important ecosystem that acts as a protector of the Earth's atmosphere from the greenhouse effect, ecological buffer, saves biodiversity and a place to live for various flora and fauna. Peat have the ability to resemble sponges which make them suitable as water catchment areas. The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the importance of protecting and maintaining peatlands as protectors of the Earth's atmosphere, controlling global climate by involving the community. This research was conducted with qualitative descriptive methods taken from various literature and national media. The results showed that land degradation has occurred due to the extensive conversion of peatlands into plantations which in the process of causing environmental damage and peat ecosystems in various regions of Indonesia. For this reason, community-based peat conservation needs to be done so that sustainability is maintained and the community gets economic benefits from peatlands.

Water management for agriculture development in peatlands

Peatlands are very vulnerable, and their existence must be maintained as stores of water and carbon stocks. Moreover, due to improper management, peatlands in Indonesia have degraded, resulting in various environmental problems such as fire, flooding, and subsidence. Drainage on peatlands that is not carried out properly causes the peat to dry out and even become vulnerable or flammable. The peat becoming dry on a large scale has the potential to increase subsidence and greenhouse gas emissions (such as CO2), which can contribute to local and global climate change. The management of peatlands in the cultivation area must pay attention to the unity of the peat area (landscape), including the existence of peat domes. The main parameters that need to be taken into account in land and water management in peat land are (1) Drainability Limits, (2) Subsidence, (3) Land Useful Life, (4) Adjacent Ecosystem Linkages, (5) Peatland Externalities, and (6) Priorities and Prevention of Massive and Disastrous Damage. Water management is one of the most important aspects in peatland management, which needs to be performed by water regulation so that the peat soil surface remains wet, preventing it from drought in the dry season and causing fires, and at the same time preventing flood disasters during the rainy season. Efforts to utilize excess water during the rainy season to cover the water deficit in the dry season need to be endeavoured to minimize wasted water.

Effect of salted fish waste and cow manure on NPK availability and uptake of lowland rice on peat soil in Pelalawan Riau

The low yield of rice in thick peat can be overcome by provisioning complete nutrients. Various efforts have been made to increase the productivity of Indonesian peatlands, one of which is by adding salted fish waste and cow manure. This research was carried out on a plastic house scale from October 2017 to January 15, 2018, in Pelalawan District, Pelalawan Regency, Riau. This research was arranged in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD), consisting of eight treatments, namely L0 = Control, L1 = 1.5 ton.ha-1 of fish waste, L2 = 2.25 ton.ha-1 of fish waste, L3 = 7 tons/ha of cow manure, L4 = 15 ton.ha-1 of cow manure, L5 = 1.5 ton.ha-1 of fish waste + 7 ton.ha-1 of cow manure, L6 = 1.5 ton.ha-1 of fish waste + 15 ton.ha-1 of cow manure, L7 = 2. 25 ton.ha-1 of fish waste + 7 ton.ha-1 of cow manure, and L8 = 2.25 ton.ha-1 of fish waste + 15 ton.ha-1 of cow manure. The results showed that the application of cow manure and salted fish waste could increase soil pH, total NPK, and NPK uptake. The application of 2.25 tons/ha of fish waste and 15 tons/ha of cow manure resulted the best results in soil pH, total NPK, and NPK uptake, therefore it is recommended for the cultivation of lowland rice on peat soil.

The potential of liberoid coffee cultivation on the peatlands (a case study: the peatlands in the Meranti island, Riau)

The Meranti Islands is one of the liberoid coffee production centers in Indonesian of which 94% of its total land area consists of peatland. The objective of this study was to disclose the potential of liberoid coffee cultivation in the peatlands of the Meranti Islands, Riau Province. The study was conducted from July to December 2015 in the Meranti Islands Regency. This study was conducted by means of survey method. The data used were the primary and the secondary data. The results of the study showed that liberoid coffee was adaptive on peatlands of the Meranti Islands and had a high economic value, therefore it can be used as an alternative usage of peatlands in Indonesia. The superior varieties of coffee recommended for the development of liberoid coffee are Liberoid Meranti 1 and Liberoid Meranti 2. These varieties are classified as open-pollinated composite types with respective yield potential of 1.69 and 1.98 tons ha−1 of coffee, good seed quality, “excellent” flavor, and caffeine content of 1.02 and 1.11%. This variety is adaptive on peatlands with a climate A type or other areas that have the same agroecosystem as that of the Meranti Islands Regency.

Characterising policy responses to complex socio-ecological problems: 60 fire management interventions in Indonesian peatlands

Governance of complex socio-ecological problems such as climate change, deforestation, and chronic wildfires is becoming “messier”. Theory and case study evidence suggest that “messy” institutional characteristics like non- government involvement and multi-level decision-making can improve social and environmental outcomes. However, these characteristics still lack systematic documentation, and there have been few efforts to systematically characterize and compare the interventions associated with them. We examined 60 fire management interventions (FMI) undertaken between 1999 and 2016 in response to Indonesia’s disastrous peatland fires. We documented their institutional characteristics (i.e., lead sector, multi-level character) and compared their design across institutional types, focusing on design attributes associated with performance such as targeting to high-risk soil types, landholders, and time periods, and the use and design of incentives. We found gaps between scientific recommendations and practice when it came to intervention targeting. However, industry FMI were more likely to employ nuanced targeting among landholders. Government, industry, and civil society adopted differing intervention strategies, including notable differences in the design of incentives. These findings provide the groundwork for research comparing intervention outcomes between institutional types. They also highlight the need for further stock-taking to inform research in these areas.

When Wetlands Dry: Feminist Political Ecology Study on Peat Ecosystem Degradation in South and Central Kalimantan

<p>Indonesia tropical peatlands area is 47 percent of out of the total global peatlands. But unfortunately, sustainable peatland governance has not been widely applied in the management of peatlands, instead of being home to biodiversity, peatlands in Indonesia have ended up dry, burning and turned into monoculture plantations. The problem of peat ecosystem degradation is the result of unsustainable - historical environmental governance politics. This study shows the political complexity of peatland governance and its impact on women with a feminist political ecology lens. This research was conducted in several villages in Central and South Kalimantan, the largest tropical peat areas in Indonesia. This study found that 1) Rural women were realized that there are problems with peatland governance, both practically and politically; 2) women and girls have multiple impacts from peat ecosystem degradation ie, women are deprived of living space, women find it difficult to get water and food sources, women take over the role of the head of the family because men migrate but are not always recognized as the head of the family, and women are impoverished because they lose their independence and must work as oil palm workers. This study uses a feminist political ecology study as an analytical tool to see the multi-layered oppression experienced by rural women due to peat ecosystem degradation.</p>

Understanding nutrient cycles as a key to sustainable forest plantation on tropical peatland in Indonesia

Indonesia has around 14 million ha of peatlands which constitutes 7.4% of Indonesia’s land area and very potential to be developed to support national development, especially related to economic strengthening and in enhancing employment opportunities. An expand areas of peatlands in Indonesia are already being utilized for forest plantation of Acacia crassicarpa. To gain clues in understanding how the chemically poor ecosystems can support the plantation, nutrient cycles. The research was carried out in Acacia crassicarpa plantation areas in South Sumatra, Jambi, and Riau, respectively representing shallow, medium, and deep peat. Data collection includes chemical characteristics of the peat, decomposition rate of the litter, fluctuations of the water table, and growth and production of the Acacia crassicarpa. The results show that: a) Acacia crassicarpa growth and production on peatlands much more depend on the nutrient cycles than on the chemical characteristics of the original soil; b) Leaf-fall and the speed of decomposition respectively from the highest to the lowest, are Riau (deep peat), South Sumatra (shallow peat), and Jambi (medium peat); and c) The more leaf-fall produced and the faster the decomposition, the faster is the nutrient cycles and hence the highest is the production of plant biomass.

Spatial model of peatland fire control strategies through peat maturity level approach: Case Study of the Kepulauan Meranti District

Tropical peatland in Indonesia is the largest in the world. Approximately 30% of the area potentially can be converted into agriculture and plantations. However, it is very susceptible to forest fires due to agricultural land preparation. The practice of burning forests is done because of some reasons namely fast, inexpensive, and produced ash that will fertilize the soil. The impact of land and forest fires is very large both in terms of economic, social, and environmental. Fires on peat lands consist of crown fire, surface fire, and ground fire which have a severe impact on environmental, social and economic impacts. In terms of management, it is also more difficult and longer time compares to fires on mineral land. The main objective of this paper is to use spatial modeling to provide an early warning system for forest fires on peat lands based on peat maturity level approaches. Physical data, which include the level of maturity, peat thickness, land unit, and land cover will be considered as an independent variable. Meranti Islands District, Riau Province is selected as a case area. The spatial analysis was carried out on physical aspects and the distribution of hotspots that had a level of confidence greater than 80%. The results showed that identification of potential fires through peat maturity levels, cannot be used optimally because peat areas that have different levels of maturity are not separate polygons or still in atribut form., The land cover of shrubs should be a major concern in the identification of potential fires.

The interaction of peat and sulphidic material as substratum in wetland: ash content and electrical conductivity dynamic

A part of peatlands in Indonesia developed above sulfidic material. They spread around the tidal swamps area. Vertical tide movement will certainly bring a consequences to the behaviour of both materials, such as ash content and electrical conductivity properties. The research was conducted to study ash content and electrical conductivity of peatland with several thickness and acid sulphate soil under some hydrological conditions. The results showed that ash content and electrical conductivity decreased with increasing of peat thickness, especially in upper layer of peatland. Decrease and disappear of peat layer has increased the ash content and electrical conductivity in the peat layer and in the sulfidic layer. Declining of ground water level increased electrical conductivity of soil.

The social and economic impacts of peat Land palm oil plantation in Indonesia

The area of peatland in Indonesia reaches 13 million hectares, around 12.37%, 1.67 million hectares, used for plantations. Around 700 to 800 thousand ha are used for oil palm plantations, with a productivity of 20-25 tons / ha / year, this value is no less than that of other types of land. The purpose of this study was to analyze the social and economic impacts of oil palm plantation development, analyze the financial feasibility of cultivation on peat and non-peat lands and analyze the sustainable management model of oil palm plantations. The results of this study, the development of oil palm plantations has a positive impact on economic and social conditions. Social problems arose between the company and the community in the management of oil palm plantations when the government issued a moratorium on permits for the opening of oil palm plantations on peatland due to fire. The exploitation of oil palm on peatlands has lower benefits compared to mineral land. Management of oil palm plantations can be carried out on peatlands, but it is necessary to consider water regulation so that oil palm plantations are sustainable on peatland because peatlands are easily damaged land.

Quantification of Peat Thickness and Stored Carbon at the Landscape Scale in Tropical Peatlands: A Comparison of Airborne Geophysics and an Empirical Topographic Method

AbstractPeatlands play a key role in the global carbon cycle, sequestering and releasing large amounts of carbon. Despite their importance, a reliable method for the quantification of peatland thickness and volume is still missing, particularly for peat deposits located in the tropics given their limited accessibility, and for scales of measurement representative of peatland environments (i.e., of hundreds of km2). This limitation also prevents the accurate quantification of the stored carbon as well as future greenhouse gas emissions due to ongoing peat degradation. Here we present the results obtained using the airborne electromagnetic (AEM) method, a geophysical surveying tool, for peat thickness detection at the landscape scale. Based on a large amount of data collected on an Indonesian peatland, our results show that the AEM method provides a reliable and accurate 3‐D model of peatlands, allowing the quantification of their volume and carbon storage. A comparison with the often used empirical topographic approach, which is based on an assumed correlation between peat thickness and surface topography, revealed larger errors across the landscape associated with the empirical approach than the AEM method when predicting the peat thickness. As a result, the AEM method provides higher estimates (22%) of organic carbon pools than the empirical method. We show how in our case study the empirical method tends to underestimate the peat thickness due to its inability to accurately detect the large variability in the elevation of the peat/mineral substrate interface, which is better quantified by the AEM method.

Tropical forest and peatland conservation in Indonesia: Challenges and directions

Abstract Tropical forests and peatlands provide important ecological, climate and socio‐economic benefits from the local to the global scale. However, these ecosystems and their associated benefits are threatened by anthropogenic activities, including agricultural conversion, timber harvesting, peatland drainage and associated fire. Here, we identify key challenges, and provide potential solutions and future directions to meet forest and peatland conservation and restoration goals in Indonesia, with a particular focus on Kalimantan. Through a round‐table, dual‐language workshop discussion and literature evaluation, we recognized 59 political, economic, legal, social, logistical and research challenges, for which five key underlying factors were identified. These challenges relate to the 3Rs adopted by the Indonesian Peatland Restoration Agency (Rewetting, Revegetation and Revitalization), plus a fourth R that we suggest is essential to incorporate into (peatland) conservation planning: Reducing Fires. Our analysis suggests that (a) all challenges have potential for impact on activities under all 4Rs, and many are inter‐dependent and mutually reinforcing, implying that narrowly focused solutions are likely to carry a higher risk of failure; (b) addressing challenges relating to Rewetting and Reducing Fire is critical for achieving goals in all 4Rs, as is considering the local socio‐political situation and acquiring local government and community support; and (c) the suite of challenges faced, and thus conservation interventions required to address these, will be unique to each project, depending on its goals and prevailing local environmental, social and political conditions. With this in mind, we propose an eight‐step adaptive management framework, which could support projects in both Indonesia and other tropical areas to identify and overcome their specific conservation and restoration challenges. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions on highland peatland that has been planted with coffee in Humbang Hasundutan Regency, North Sumatra Province

Peatlands in Indonesia are estimated at 26 millions ha. These peatlands are spread across Sumatra on of 8.9 million ha areas. Humbang Hasundutan is one of the area that spread peatlands in North Sumatra with an estimated area of around 1,042 hectares spread in Lintong Nihuta District, Pollung District and Dolok Sanggul District. Peat in this area is unique and rare because the general peat is founded in lowlands adjacent to the coast, but peat in Humbang Hasundutan area is a highland (topogenous) peat which lies at altitude 1000-1450 meters above sea level. The purpose of this study was to determined the amount of CO2 emissions on peatlands cultivated with coffee in Dolok Sanggul District, Humbang Hasundutan Regency. This study was conducted in Huta Bagasan Village, Dolok Sanggul District, Humbang Hasundutan Regency. This research method is a survey research of the amount of CO2 emissions on highland peatlands that are cultivated with coffee. CO2 sampling using a closed hood method. The sampling point is determined 75 cm from the plant. The sampling was taken 3 times a day, namely at 07.00 WIB, 12.00 WIB and 17.00 WIB. Based on the research was known that the highest CO2 emissions were found during the day at 8.12 mg/m2/day, followed by the afternoon at 7.67 mg/m2/day, and the lowest in the morning at 4.21 mg/m2/day.

Fires, Smoke Exposure, and Public Health: An Integrative Framework to Maximize Health Benefits From Peatland Restoration.

Emissions of particulate matter from fires associated with land management practices in Indonesia contribute to regional air pollution and mortality. We assess the public health benefits in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore from policies to reduce fires by integrating information on fire emissions, atmospheric transport patterns, and population exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5). We use adjoint sensitivities to relate fire emissions to PM2.5 for a range of meteorological conditions and find that a Business‐As‐Usual scenario of land use change leads, on average, to 36,000 excess deaths per year into the foreseeable future (the next several decades) across the region. These deaths are largely preventable with fire reduction strategies, such as blocking fires in peatlands, industrial concessions, or protected areas, which reduce the health burden by 66, 45, and 14%, respectively. The effectiveness of these different strategies in mitigating human health impacts depends on the location of fires relative to the population distribution. For example, protecting peatlands through eliminating all fires on such lands would prevent on average 24,000 excess deaths per year into the foreseeable future across the region because, in addition to storing large amounts of fuel, many peatlands are located directly upwind of densely populated areas. We also demonstrate how this framework can be used to prioritize restoration locations for the Indonesian Peatland Restoration Agency based on their ability to reduce pollution exposure and health burden. This scientific framework is publicly available through an online decision support tool that allows stakeholders to readily determine the public health benefits of different land management strategies.