The occurrence of fires has frequently been used to highlight environmental hazards at regional and global scale, and as a proxy for the effectiveness of protected areas. In contrast, the mechanism behind wildfire dynamics in tropical peat land protected areas had been poorly addressed thus far. Our study provides a novel application of assessing fire patterns from a tropical peatland protected area and surrounding landscape. We investigated the importance of both climatic factors (top-down mechanism) and human interventions (bottom-up mechanism) on fire occurrences through analyzing 15-year (2001 -2015) LANDSAT and MODIS images of the Padang Sugihan Wildlife Reserve (PSWR). Fire density along side road and canal construction were analyzed jointly together with the monthly and annual precipitation, and evidences of climatic anomalies. The reserve was effective in limiting fire occurrences from surrounding landscapes only in wet years. We revealed that peat fire patterns in the protected area and the landscape matrix emerged beyond climatic factors, and the distance from canal system could explain the fire occurrences. Our results show that it is essential to address processes at a landscape level, particularly at the surroundings of the reserve, in order to increase the effectiveness of fire protection, including the development of fire-prone classes maps. 2 other causal factors, fires are frequently used as an important indicator to evaluate the 3 effectiveness management of protected areas [2, 3]. A common approach to manage fire 4 in protected areas is applying active fire management or prescribed burning [4-7] which 5 aims to reduce fuel availability for preventing and controlling wildfire [8]. Nowadays, a 6 paradigm shift resulted in managers purposely burning grassland and forests to 7maintain the ecological mechanisms which drive ecosystem dynamics and diversity [7,9]. 8 Anthropogenic and natural factors lead to different patterns of fire occurrences in 9 protected areas across various ecosystems. Fire density was found to be two times 10 higher in non-protected areas than within protected areas in Myanmar [10] and 11 PLOS 1/15Amazonian regions [2]. It has been shown that human intervention influences a 12 protected areas susceptibility to disturbance. At a global scale, forest loss rates in 13 protected areas is associated with high proportions of agricultural land in the country 14 [11]. Managing anthropogenic factors which include fewer road construction, less human 15 impact mechanisms [2] as well as fire-free land management [12] in the reserves has 16 shown their effectiveness in reducing fire-driven deforestation. In contrast to fire 17 occurrences in tropical areas, natural mechanisms caused higher fire density in 18 protected areas than in non-protected areas in West and Central Africa [13]. More fires 19 occurred in 59 percent of the area where deforestation rates dropped between 2000 and 20 2007, since more fuel was available for ignition [12]. Here, controlled ignition and active 21 fire mana...

Fire is considered a major threat to biodiversity in many habitats and the occurrence of fire has frequently been used to investigate the effectiveness of protected areas. Yet, despite the known importance of tropical peatlands for biodiversity conservation and serious threat that anthropogenically induced fires pose to this ecosystem, the influence of protected area designation on fire occurrence in tropical peatland has been poorly assessed thus far. Our study addresses this knowledge gap through providing a novel assessment of fire patterns from a tropical peatland protected area and surrounding landscape. We investigated the importance of both climatic factors (top-down mechanism) and human interventions (bottom-up mechanism) on fire occurrence through analyzing 20-years (2001–2020) of LANDSAT and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) images of the Padang Sugihan Wildlife Reserve and a 10-km buffer area surrounding this in Sumatra, Indonesia. Fire density was assessed in relation to road and canal construction. Monthly and annual precipitation was compared between wet and dry years. The reserve was effective in limiting fire compared to surrounding landscapes only in wet years. We revealed that peat fire occurrence in the protected area and buffer zone was not due to climatic factors alone, with distance from canals and roads also contributing toward fire occurrence. Our results suggest that it is essential to address tropical peatland fire processes at a landscape level, particularly at the surroundings of protected areas, in order to increase the effectiveness of fire protection, improve fire risk classification maps, and conserve threatened tropical peatland wildlife such as the Sumatran elephant.

Herpetofauna merupakan satwa poikilotherm dan sensitive terhadap perubahan temperature khususnya kebakaran, pemahaman respon taksa ini terhadap kondisi setelah kebakaran dapat memberikan informasi indikasi awal resiliensi ekosistem. Nampaknya informasi saintifik terkait dengan respon komunitas herpetofauna setelah kebakaran masih sangat jarang. Tujuan penelitian ini untuk mengeksplorasi keberadaan herpetofauna pada daerah-daerah bekas terbakar di Taman Nasional Tesso Nilo di Propinsi Riau dan mencari faktor-faktor lingkungan yang dapat menjelaskan keberadaannya. Survey di lapangan dilakukan selama periode December 2015-February 2016 untuk mengumpulkan data keberadaan jenis herpetofauna diurnal pada daerah terbakar dan tidak terbakar serta mengumpulkan data lingkungan menggunakan jalur-jalur transek. Jumlah individu yang teramati dicatat dan kondisi lingkungan yang diamati adalah kondisi tutupan habitat dan kepadatan vegetasi yang diukur menggunakan protocol sampling plots dan nested sampling plots, secara berturut-turut. Penelitian ini juga mencatat kematian vegetasi dan komposisi dari bahan organik pada setiap lokasi penelitian. Kebakaran besar yang terjadi tahun 2015 telah menyebabkan perbedaan kondisi habitat herpetofauna yang sangat nampak antara daerah yang terbakar dan tidak terbakar, terlihat pada komposisi herpetofauna yang lebih tinggi pada daerah tidak terbakar (10 jenis) dibandingkan daerah terbakar (5 jenis). Penelitian ini menemukan bahwa sebagian besar jenis yang ditemukan termasuk katak selama ini dikenal mampu bertahan hidup pada lokasi yang terganggu.