Peatland Monitoring System Training held collaboratively in Ketapang District
Indonesia - 01 December, 2023
Tropenbos Indonesia continues the efforts to prevent forest and land fires on peatlands in Ketapang District, West Kalimantan. In collaboration with UPT KPH Ketapang Selatan (Forest Management Unit of South Ketapang Region), Tropenbos Indonesia organised a training on ‘Peatland Monitoring System’, on Monday to Wednesday, 27-29 November 2023. The training aims to improve the understanding on the importance of a multi-stakeholder-based peatland monitoring system as well as to capacitate the participants on the hands-on of implementing peatland monitoring system. The training consist of theory and classroom sessions, held in Borneo Ketapang Hotel, and field practice, conducted in Sungai Besar Village Forest.
Peatland monitoring activities should ideally be conducted on routine basis, and active participation and involvement of all stakeholders is highly required. Applying an integrated system is necessary to be more effective and efficient, and to remove the possibilities of overlaps across stakeholders. An integrated monitoring system is expected to accommodate collaboration and synergy between stakeholders that also supports restoration activities and sustainable peatland management.
The resource persons of the training are Ms Lisa Tanika, Tropenbos Indonesia’s peatland hydrologist, and Mr Imam Setyo Hartanto from BRGM (Peatland and Mangrove Restoration Agency). At the beginning of the training, Mr Hartanto presented the importance of an integrated peatland monitoring system to prevent forest and land fires. Throughout the remainder of the class sessions, Ms Tanika taught several topics on data collection methods, introduction of the android-based apps of peatland monitoring system developed by Tropenbos Indonesia, model of a monitoring system in Sungai Besar Village Forest area, simulations of data sharing, simple data processing, and, last but not least, on multi-stakeholder synergy in the information system for peatland monitoring.
The three-day training was attended by 38 participants, representatives of the South Ketapang Forest Management Unit (KPH), Sungai Pelang Village Forest Management Unit (LPHD), Sungai Besar LPHD, Pematang Gadung LPHD, Pangkalan Telok LPHD, and the Inter-Village Community Forum Team in Natural Environment Basis (Formad Lingkar). The classroom sessions were also attended by representatives from Ketapang District Government, government at sub-district and village levels, and several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who are members of the Joint Secretariat for Natural Resources Management (Sekber PSDA).
It was expected that the training participants can implement the peatland monitoring system at the landscape level including in Village Forests located in peatland ecosystems. With participants' better understanding on the integrated peatland monitoring system, the prevention of fires on peatlands will be conducted more effectively and efficiently.