Air view of the palm oil farm (R) and the peat land forest in Bangsal, south of Sumatra.
The Indonesian environment scientist Bracene heads his boat via a shallow channel in the Khathaa swamps lands near his village, which is an environment that disappears soon.
Its imprisonment raised the rich organic materials in salt water, which is evidence of the layers of vegetable material that make biomedic carbon dioxide stores and the key to biological diversity.
Indonesia has more tropical peat lands than any other country, but it also loses this incomprehensible ecosystems.
This affects the local population and wildlife, but also has global effects, because the converted peat lands can release huge amounts of carbon dioxide that calms the planet.
Only 18.4 % of the peat lands in Indonesia remain “without an obstacle”, a study that was found 2023 with vast areas now palm oil or wood farms.
Parliament worries a similar fate that awaits many of the peat -swamplands around his village from Leipong Itam in southern Sumatra.
Local residents say that the palm oil company, Pentang Huraban, has already started digging channels to drain the peat lands for agriculture.
“We protested … we told them that this is an area run by society,” said Brales, who uses one name.
“According to them, they already have rights for this land.”
Bintang Harapan Palma did not respond to a request to Agence France Presse to comment.
Pralensa, an activist from the Lebung ITAM, speaks to the loudspeakers while the villagers participate in a gathering against plans to convert peat lands in their village into the company’s franchise area of the farmer.
Headian lands are a place between water-no water, no land-a environment that slows down the dissolution of the plant and forms a carbon-rich peat.
It covers only three percent of the world’s surface, and they carry an estimated 44 percent of all soil carbon.
The lands of peat in Indonesia are a home to the endangered anorangotan, as well as economically important fish. It also helps prevent floods and dehydration, low local temperatures and reduce salt water storming.
For Pralensa, the hedic lands are not less than the “spiritual bond”.
“From the moment we are, we are born, we are familiar with these hedic lands. We face them every moment every day,” said 44 -year -old.
Disastrous fires
Longs have long been diverted in Indonesia for agriculture, draining water that is the lifeline, with severe consequences.
A fisherman generates a boat with hunting dogs along a channel that was built for the mobility through the Heads Land Forest in Libong Etamam, South Sumatra.
Dry knements are very flammable, and fires can smoke underground and apparently judge the will.
The lands of Al -Kathir were a major cause of the 2015 Indonesian fires, which were burned in the area of about 4.5 times the size of Bali and the country cost about $ 16.1 billion, or about two percent of GDP according to the World Bank.
Fires sparked calls, including the endowment on new concessions from the lands of peat.
Government regulations in the following year have banned many harmful activities, including burning and drying hedic lands.
The Ministry of Environment did not answer the questions provided by AFP.
“The weak supervision and law enforcement in Indonesia allow the exploitation of peat lands,” said Whayu Berdana at Peatland Pantau Gambut.
Rohan, a farmer in the village of Bangsal, said about two hours west of Leibong Ayam.
Indonesia has more tropical terrible lands than any country, but it is poorly losing this ecosystem.
Like lebung Itam, it rings the farms on the converted peat lands.
Panagesal residents can once depend on the vast wet lands to feed the distinctive buffalo, which is dived under the water to grazing.
Fish trap has provided an additional income, along with the small rice field.
Now, buffalo is distorted by farms, while fish are affected by the walls that keep the farms dry, fertilizers and herbal pesticides that have been wiped due to the rain.
“We must protect nature”
The infrastructure of the farm prevents water from moving away properly when the rain ends, which complicates rice cultivation.
Then there is a seasonal fog.
“It is difficult to do anything” when it descends, with only a few meters down.
Everything from “economic activity to children who play and learn very disrupted.”
Rohamman, 53, was one of many Panagesal and Lebong Etamam who filed a prominent fire on fire.
It covers only three percent of the world’s surface, and peat lands estimated at 44 percent of all soil carbon.
They argued three companies with nearby wood farms in wooden lands that bear legal responsibility for the health, economic and social effects of local fires.
The principal of the Bangsal School, Illius Schools, which claims that a company called in the case offered her money and assisted her family if she withdrew, said that filing the lawsuit was not an easy decision.
“I was thinking that from the beginning, my goal here was for the environment, for many people,” she said.
“I chose to continue.”
AFP could not reach the companies called the case. The leading company in Asia Paul and Paper (APP), which buys from the three companies.
This month, the Local Court refused, saying that the prosecutors lack standing.
“The pain cannot be described,” the plaintiff, Mohamed Awal Gunadi, said about the ruling.
“It was difficult because we were facing companies.”
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A fisherman generates a boat with hunting dogs along a channel that was built for the mobility through the Heads Land Forest in Libong Etamam, South Sumatra.
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Air view of the channels that divide the peat land forest (L) and the Aquassia farm in Leipong Itam, south of Sumatra.
The group pledged to appeal, and Bangsal village said to pressure the local government to obtain a new design to protect their remaining lands.
One of the Panagesal residents and Boufalo farms, Mohamed Hussein, said that the healthy peat “like the lungs of the earth.”
“We hope, if we protect nature, the nature will also protect us.”
© 2025 AFP
quote“My Lung Earth”: The Indonesians fighting for Peatland (2025, July 25) on July 25, 2025 from https://phys.org/news/2025-07-Lungs-earth- Endonesians-pend.html
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