Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Environment and Forestry stated that Indonesia had so far successfully restored 5.5 million hectares of peatlands.

“In the last 10 years, we have succeeded in busting the myth that peatlands cannot be restored,” the ministry’s Director General of Environmental Pollution and Damage, Sigit Reliantoro, stated during an online discussion monitored here on Wednesday.

At the event held to discuss peatland management and restoration, he noted that Indonesia bore witness to major incidents of forest and land fires, including in 2015, during which 2.6 million hectares of land had been ravaged.

Reliantoro noted that in the last decade, the Indonesian government has applied strategies for the prevention and restoration of damaged peatland ecosystems.

Moreover, the government has taken legal action against individuals and corporations proven to be involved in peatland ecosystem damage in the country.

As of 2023, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry had carried out an inventory for 300 peatland hydrological units (KHG), with an area of 15.42 million hectares out of a total of 24.67 million hectares.

"We have also restored peatland ecosystems, especially hydrologically, in concession areas, reaching 3.9 million hectares spread across 73 industrial plantation forests and 259 palm oil plantations," he explained.

He further affirmed that the government is also making restoration efforts outside concession areas through the Independent Villages Care About Peatlands Program in collaboration with 272 villages, with 51 thousand hectares of peatland wetting areas as of 2023.

He also highlighted that the Peatland and Mangrove Restoration Agency (BRGM) had reported that 1.6 million hectares of peatlands had been restored as of 2023.

"Thus, in total, if we add 1.6 million hectares, there are 5.5 million hectares of peatland ecosystems that have been restored. Therefore, once again, in the past 10 years, we have succeeded in debunking the myth that peatland ecosystems cannot be restored," he remarked.

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