Overlapping Land Claims Limit the Use of Satellites to Monitor No‐Deforestation Commitments and No‐Burning Compliance

Abstract

Worldwide many businesses have recently pledged to sourcing agricultural and timber products exclusively from deforestation and fire-free supply chains. Geoinvestigations-monitoring the activities of plantation companies using satellites and concession maps-are now applied to identify which companies breach their commitments and regulations. We investigate the limitations of geoinvestigations by analyzing land-use and fire in and around 163 Indonesian concessions of oil-palm and pulpwood, where recurring forest and peatland fires are a national and international concern. We reveal a mismatch between de jure and de facto land occupancy inside and outside concessions. Independent farmers are present in concessions while some companies expand outside concessions. Thus, both actors may be responsible for deforestation and fire inside and outside concessions. On peatland, fire can start outside and spread into concessions, while draining in concessions may promote fire outside. These dynamics make attribution of fire and deforestation in Indonesian concessions impossible without detailed field investigations. This study highlights the need to combine very high-resolution satellite data with extensive field investigations of de facto land ownership, claims and disputes inside and outside concessions. In Indonesia, such activities could fall under the One Map Policy, whose remit is to identify and resolve overlapping land claims.

New Tropical Peatland Gas and Particulate Emissions Factors Indicate 2015 Indonesian Fires Released Far More Particulate Matter (but Less Methane) than Current Inventories Imply

“…Smoke from landscape fires is a significant environmental health issue in parts of southeast Asia, where burning is used routinely to clear unused lands (forest and scrub) before planting, to remove post-harvest crop residues prior to re-planting rapidly and cheaply, or even as a weapon in land disputes [1,2]. Comprised of a mixture of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and air pollutants [3][4][5], the smoke impacts are most keenly felt during dry spells in Indonesia, which hosts more than 80% of SE Asia's carbon-rich tropical peatlands [6,7].…”

“…These peatland EFs are 1779 ± 55 g·kg −1 for CO 2 , 238 ± 36 g·kg −1 for CO, and 7.8 ± 2.3 g·kg −1 for CH 4 , and since they are within 10% of those calculated by [12] using the same weighting factors they provide little evidence for a major change to the total emissions of these three dominant carbonaceous gases reported therein. In fact, to derive total emissions of CO, CO 2 and CH 4 , [12] used a top-down optimization approach based on comparisons between spaceborne MOPITT atmospheric CO concentrations and a priori Global Fire Assimilation System [GFAS] CO emissions from [33] placed within the C-IFS atmospheric chemistry transport model (operated as part of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service). The resulting CO emissions estimate reported by [12] is therefore insensitive to changes in EF CO.…”

Peatland Fires in Riau, Indonesia, in Relation to Land Cover Type, Land Management, Landholder, and Spatial Management

“…Land discrepancies among existing conditions, concession holders, and land management are major problem in peatland management. Owing to land discrepancies, the government has difficulties in identifying the responsible parties for peatland fire [29].…”

Oil palm and biodiversity: a situation analysis by the IUCN Oil Palm Task Force

“…Understanding the variation in oil palm production systems, especially within the 'smallholder' category, is an emerging topic of enquiry as it has implications for understanding and addressing small-scale drivers of land use and land cover change (e.g., deforestation, burning) (25,29,30). For example, differences among smallholders are crucial in developing frameworks for sustainability certification standards and criteria (31).…”

“…In landscapes with a range of different types of oil palm growers with different licensing responsibilities, it can be difficult to assign responsibility for deforestation and fires given unclear land tenure and overlapping claims (25). Studies have segregated palm oil producers based on the size of their plantations, whether they are locals or migrants, and the presence and nature of any financial assistance (27,30,39,47 Agrarian reforms, which -instead of redistributing farmlands -target forests as an 'escape valve' to lessen rural dissent about landlessness, may benefit people but may also lead to rapid forest loss (62,63).…”