The Indonesian government should improve transparency and public access to land-use data, make the ban on new plantations on primary forests permanent, and give communities access to forests.
A balanced research program should focus on good and rational peat management efforts that minimise environmental impacts, and on water regulation that reduces the risk of fire.
Indonesian peatlands are important to many people: farmers, bureaucrats, businesspeople, and conservationists. But preserving this value for everyone will mean listening to everyone’s concerns.
Last year, fires burned 2 million hectares of peatlands in Indonesia. The country wants to restore them. But first it needs to know the extent and depth of its peatlands.
Lakes of the Hudson Bay Lowlands, in northeast Canada, are showing evidence of abrupt change in one of the last Arctic regions of the world to have experienced global warming, according to Canadian research…