By: Darmansyah Lubis

Rawasari is one of the villages in Berbak District, East Tanjung Regency, Jambi Province. This village is one of the villages around the Londerang Peat Protection Forest (HLG) bufferzone which has an area of around 12,500 hectares. HLG Londerang is located in East Tanjung Jabung Regency, Jambi, which is the working area of the RIMBA Program for re-wetting strategies to mitigate land fires in the dry season.

The people of this village are mainly from West Java. They transmigrated to this region decades ago. They became farmers on mineral land. Even though some of their land is peatland.

The village is also a victim of haze from forest and land fires. Since 2008, at the suggestion of the Forestry and Plantation Service (Dishutbun) of East Tanjung Jabung Regency, they have been working together to seed jelutong trees (Dyera lowii) to be planted on peatlands. This plant is a typical plant in peatlands. Its sap is commonly used for chewing gum.

Now, out of 238 households in the village, there are at least 80 households that make jelutong nurseries. "There are probably more than 500,000 jelutong seedlings in our village. The seedlings are cultivated by the residents," explained the head of the Rawasari Village Fire Care Community (MPA), Dadang. The jelutong seedlings are currently waiting to be purchased to be planted in peatlands to accelerate water absorption.

Peat Restoration

In Londerang HLG, WWF will work to dam at least 60 small canals and 10 large canals, which were previously used to drain peatlands, as well as a transportation route for wood to the river. WWF is also restoring peatlands by planting a number of burnt areas with jelutong and fruit seedlings.

"There are 70% of jelutong and 30% of fruits that we will plant in an area of 200 hectares. This area is on land with the status of Londerang Peat Protection Forest (HLG)," said Zainuddin Khalid, Cluster 2 Program Manager of WWF MCAI RIMBA.

WWF MCAI RIMBA's work in this peat area began in 2015. The program is expected to be completed by the end of 2017.

Efforts to restore the function of peatlands in the Londerang HLG area are also supported by companies in the vicinity, one of which is PT Agro Tumbuh Gemilang Abadi (ATGA), an oil palm plantation company located around the protected forest. Yesterday's forest and land fire incident has made us realize that the peat around the protected forest area must be cared for and preserved.

"Yesterday we had planned to plant about 5,000 jelutong stems. But when WWF invited us to work together, we thought this was a good step to take. So we opened our hands to work together in this matter," said Eko Pulungan, a staff of PT ATGA.