The Indonesia Peat Restoration Agency’s (BRG) mandate has been renewed for another four years until December 2024. With the extension, the government has renamed the agency to the Peatland and Mangrove Restoration Agency (BRGM), making it responsible for mangrove rehabilitation on top of peatland.
The agency has been tasked to restore an estimated of 2 million hectare (ha) of degraded peatland and mangrove ecosystems in 13 provinces. It looks to cooperate with other ministries such as the Ministry of Public Works and Housing and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry. The latter, for example, will continue to ensure that the mangrove rehabilitation is performed scientifically with technological interventions and based on green investment.
BRGM was first established in 2016 and has restored 143,448 ha of about 1.7 million ha of peatland on concession lands in 2018 and about 780,000 ha of peatland in non-concession areas in 2019. Initially, it focused on only 7 provinces, but now its reach has expanded to include provinces of North Sumatra, Riau Islands, Bangka-Belitung, East Kalimantan, North Kalimantan and West Papua.
Indonesia is the country with the third largest peatland area, after China and Russia. The country’s mangroves store more than 3 billion tons of carbon.
(Sources: Forest Hints; Forest News; Jakarta Post; Mongabay)