No abstract

Peat fire is one of the environmental disasters occurring widespread during the dry season in South Sumatra. The region has long been recognized to have extensive peatland, hence it is considered as the vulnerable areas to fire. This study employs spatial analysis to evaluate the likely linked factors causing peat fire in the study area. Two interannual climate modes such as the El Niño – Southern Oscillation and Indian Ocean Dipole were considered to have affected the area with respect to climate anomaly at the 1995-2016 periods. This phenomenon was followed by the peat fire in many areas. There appears a close linkage between the occurrence of peat fires and climate anomaly. A number of hotspots tend to occur annually during the drought season. A significant number of hotspots took place during the 2006 pIOD and 2015 El Niño events due to a significant decrease in rainfall intensities.

Blue carbon ecosystems are key for successful global climate change mitigation; however, they are one of the most threatened ecosystems on Earth. Thus, this study mapped the climatic and human pressures on the blue carbon ecosystems in Indonesia using multi-source spatial datasets. Data on moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) ocean color standard mapped images, VIIRS (visible, infrared imaging radiometer suite) boat detection (VBD), global artificial impervious area (GAIA), MODIS surface reflectance (MOD09GA), MODIS land surface temperature (MOD11A2), and MODIS vegetation indices (MOD13A2) were combined using remote sensing and spatial analysis techniques to identify potential stresses. La Niña and El Niño phenomena caused sea surface temperature deviations to reach −0.5 to +1.2 °C. In contrast, chlorophyll-a deviations reached 22,121 to +0.5 mg m−3. Regarding fishing activities, most areas were under exploitation and relatively sustained. Concerning land activities, mangrove deforestation occurred in 560.69 km2 of the area during 2007–2016, as confirmed by a decrease of 84.9% in risk-screening environmental indicators. Overall, the potential pressures on Indonesia’s blue carbon ecosystems are varied geographically. The framework of this study can be efficiently adopted to support coastal and small islands zonation planning, conservation prioritization, and marine fisheries enhancement.

Peat fire is an annual catastrophic event in Indonesia, particularly in South Sumatra region during the dry season. Several previous studies have suggested that anthropogenic forces (land cover) contribute to peat fires. Analysis of the hotspots distribution on land cover types is needed to address peat fires in the futures. This study is aimed to evaluate the distribution of hotspots on the land cover type of the South Sumatra peat area during the last two decades (1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016). Remote sensing technique with visual image interpretation method using multitemporal satellite images is used to identify the variations of land cover in the study area. The results showed that the peat area of South Sumatra in 2013 dominated by ferns/ shrub (58%) and only about 10% covered by peat swamp forest (PSF). The largest hotspot distribution during the observation periods was spread in land cover types of Ferns/ shrub (34.808 hotspots) and Industrial Plantation (7.223 hotspots). Note that the densest hotspot located in the industrial plantation with an average of 37 hotspots/ 100 km 2 / year. Meanwhile, only a small percentage of the hotspots located in PSF and occurred consistently over the last five years of observation periods. Based on results, the South Sumatra peatland is very vulnerable to burn during the dry season in the future. The government as policy maker must protect the existence of PSF and keep the ferns/ shrub from the fires and subsequent land cover changes (Industrial plantation or small holder area).

In 2019, Indonesia seasoned another haze disaster due to peat fires. In the South Sumatra province, fires occurred in most of the peatland areas. The research aims to identify peat fires that occur in protected forest areas in The South Sumatra. The boundary of the protected forest area is obtained from the Forest Department of South Sumatra Province. Meanwhile, the fire events in the study area were analyzed by the hotspot distributions data during the dry season 2019 (Juni-November). The identification of fires (hotspot data) on the peat area uses peat distribution data from the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry. The geographic information system technique with a spatial analysis method is used in this research. The identification results show that only a small part of the peatland in the study area has the status of protected forest areas. Most of the protected forests in the South Sumatra peat area burned in 2019. The results of this study indicate that the natural conditions of the peat ecosystem in protected forest areas have been degraded due to fire events. On the other hand, peat fires in protected forest areas indicate human activity for resource use and land use in the area.