Establishing Agroforestry Conservation Buffer Zones to Protect Tropical Peatland Forests of Indonesia

Abstract

Indonesia, as a tropical country in Southeast Asia, has a vast area of peatland forest threatened by deforestation and forest degradation. Peatland forest in Kalimantan, Indonesia, has been overexploited for about five decades. Originally it was the indigenous people, who utilized peatland forests as a resource to produce traditional food crops, fruits, and spices. Commercial exploitation, particularly for palm oil plantation, has become the primary reason in recent decades. Agroforestry practices have been proposed as an alternative livelihood to the rural communities that live near peatland ecosystems in Kalimantan (Borneo) and as a buffer to protect the peatland ecosystems. The objective of this study was to combine readily available ecological data and the base map data gathered from participatory approach to determine the most suitable locations for buffer zones in the Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve. Together through the participatory approach, the communities, government, and private sector conducted the planning, surveying, and developing of a suitability base map. The other variables considered in the making of a suitability map were ecological factors (peat soil depth, land cover, and normalized difference vegetation index, NDVI) and disturbance factors (access and established traditional land uses). The ArcGIS software was used to process the parameters. The southern area and some parts of the northern region of Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve were the most suitable locations to implement agroforestry as a buffer. The most area for a suitable location is found in model LC20P50N20 (land cover weight: 20%, peat depth weight: 50%, and NDVI weight: 20%) with 9154 ha. The large proportion of shrubland in the land cover parameter and the shallow peat depth played a major role in this model outcome.