Peatlands support the daily needs of people in many villages in Indonesia, including in Central Kalimantan Province. They provide the natural resources to enable fisheries, agriculture, plantations, and forestry. However, peatland utilization comes with various challenges, including fire, soil acidity, inundation, low fertility, and limited choice of suitable species. Many of the current uses of peatland can result in its degradation, oxidation, and increased risk of peat fire. Avoiding further environmental degradation will require the development of new technology that allows the community to both earn a livelihood and protect the peatland. In this study we assessed a range of technologies applied by 14 farmers at Tumbang Nusa village, Central Kalimantan province, in managing degraded peatlands in their home yard for agricultural business. The study shows that for endemic peatland species, good success can be achieved if they are planted directly. However, for species endemic to mineral land, there are four technologies applied by farmers in managing degraded peatland. The choice of technologies is influenced by their economic capacity/cash flow flexibility and their understanding of peatlands. Technologies intended to adapt to land inundation include the use of polybags, development of raised beds, and making peat mounds with mineral soil in the centre. Technologies to address the acidity and soil fertility include amelioration with dolomite lime and fertilizer. The use of polybags filled with peat soil is the easiest technology to adopt and can be conducted by all family members. However, a farmer’s choice of technology needs to always consider the potential environmental impacts in addition to increasing soil fertility so that peat conservation is maintained.

No abstract

ABSTRAKPenelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji komoditas unggulan apa saja yang dapat dikembangkan di tiga kecamatan dalam kawasan KPHL Model

Weeds are abundantly available, which grow on peat swamps, but unfortunately have not yet been widely utilized. Those weeds can be prospectively potential as raw material for bio-briquettes. In relevant, this research aimed to look into the qualities of bio-briquettes manufactured from 10 species of peat swamp weeds. Initially, each weed species was carbonized and then shaped into charcoal powder. The resulting weed-charcoal powder was then mixed with wood sawdust at 1:1 ratio (w/w), and agitated thoroughly to obtain homogenous stuff. Afterwards, the homogenous stuff was added with starchderived binder (adhesive). Such adhesive was previously prepared by heating 5 g tapioca-starch flour in 75 ml of water. The starch-added stuff was then pressed into bio-briquette, and further put in the oven at 60°C for 24 hours, or just dried under the sunlight heat for 2 days. The parameters as examined on the dried bio-briquette comprised calorific value, moisture content, fixed-carbon content, ash content, and sulfur content. Results revealed that the weeds of purun tikus (Eleocharis orcrostachys) species was regarded as the best for bio-briqutte manufacture, as it excelled other species in the overall examined parameters, i.e. calorific value (4,647.9 cal/g), fixed carbon (25.63%), moisture content (5.48%), ash content (8.78%) and sulfur (0.55%).

Peatland degradation and community livelihood are often driven by market forces. Successful peatland restoration including community livelihood improvement programs is therefore highly correlated with market development of various local peatland commodities that are introduced to replace fire-using farming activities. However, since the development of local peatland commodities is often under subsistence marketplaces, investigation of their market is not attractive and has received little attention. This paper investigates the market structure of the local peatland commodities developed by the local community under peatland livelihood programs using Rapid Market Appraisal (RMA) technique and market structure analysis to quickly draw challenges and opportunities of market development of peatland commodities. We also analyze a business model applied by the local community, particularly their strategy to adapt to market dynamics and to secure market competition. The information is essential to serve as a basis for formulating appropriate interventions needed to develop a more established market of local peatland commodities, which as a consequence will prevent peat forest conversion. The investigation finds that at least three types of peatland commodity market structures are evolving in the research site. Each of them has different challenges and needs different interventions to make the livelihood programs more sustainable. Meanwhile, the local community is more oriented towards sales than the marketing of peatland products. They have not prepared a specific strategy yet to adapt to and win the dynamic market competition. It needs significant efforts to change its business culture if relevant stakeholders intend to develop the local peatland commodity market as a part of peatland restoration and community livelihood improvement programs.