Tropical Peatland Restoration in Indonesia as an Integrated Pathway to Sustainable Development Goals: Policy, Rewetting, Revegetation, and Livelihood Revitalization
Keywords:
Tropical peatland, restoration governance, rewetting, revegetation, paludiculture, SDGs, IndonesiaAbstract
Indonesia’s tropical peatlands are globally significant carbon stores and locally important socio-ecological landscapes, yet decades of drainage, fire, and conversion have transformed many peat hydrological units into persistent sources of greenhouse gas emissions, disaster risk, biodiversity loss, and livelihood vulnerability. This manuscript revises and strengthens the original policy-action analysis of Indonesian peatland restoration by positioning restoration as an integrated pathway for achieving selected Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDGs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 13, and 15. Using a qualitative synthesis of policy instruments, restoration program experience, and recent scientific literature, the paper examines how three restoration measures - rewetting, revegetation, and revitalization of local livelihoods - interact with national peat governance and sustainable development targets. The novelty of this paper lies in reframing the “3R” restoration framework not merely as technical rehabilitation, but as a governance-to-ecosystem-services pathway that links hydrological recovery, fire-risk reduction, carbon mitigation, biodiversity rehabilitation, community-based livelihoods, and adaptive monitoring. Recent evidence shows that rewetting can reduce peat CO2 emissions and subsidence, but its effectiveness depends on time, water-table stability, canal-network configuration, vegetation recovery, land tenure, and community adoption. Revegetation and paludiculture can improve ecosystem function when species selection is hydrologically compatible and market pathways are secured. Livelihood revitalization remains the most socially sensitive component because economic transitions require trust, extension, gender-sensitive participation, and viable value chains. The manuscript concludes that peat restoration in Indonesia will contribute meaningfully to SDGs only when implemented as long-term, landscape-scale, data-driven, and locally legitimate governance, rather than as a short-term infrastructure project.
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References
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