Kontribusi kebakaran gambut terhadap emisi GRK tergolong cukup besar. Penelitian yang dilakukan Center of International Forestry Research (Cifor) mengungkap 85% emisi gas rumah kaca yang dihasilkan Indonesia berasal dari alih fungsi lahan. Sekitar 37% dari penggundulan hutan, dan 27% dari kebakaran gambut.

The government undertakes a review of existing licenses, license holders would be prohibited from opening up any peatlands that have not yet been drained and planted. President Widodo also instructed his minster of the environment and forests to initiate a program to re-wet disturbed peatlands. “If implemented, these measures will stop the bleeding,” says Frances Seymour, the former director general of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) in Indonesia and now senior fellow at the Center for Global Development.

Peatlands are waterlogged areas in the forest which do not burn easily unless they were drained and left to dry, according to scientists at the Bogor-based Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). However, rampant clearing of forests and drying of peatlands for palm oil or timber plantations have left these areas highly at risk to fires, especially during the dry season. “The dried-out peat ignites easily, burns underground and creeps under the surface,” CIFOR said on its website.

One of the countries most seriously affected by this year’s mighty Niño is Indonesia.  Louis Verchot of the Centre for International Forestry Research warns that El Niño may yet induce a second burning season, next February and March.

The government has estimated that the cost to the economy could be as high as 31 billion US dollars. “Peat degradation is the main source of Indonesia’s carbon emissions through fire,” said Herry Purnomo, a scientist at the Center for Forestry Research (CIFOR).  An absence of transparent spatial maps, corruption and ineffective local governments are to blame for a lack of legal action against those who deliberately start fires, Purnomo said. “Many cases of burning committed by large- and medium-scale companies were not acted upon because these firms have major political and economic influences either locally or nationally,” said Purnomo.

Kementerian Lingkungan Hidup dan Kehutanan (KLHK) tengah menyusun Peraturan Pemerintah Pengganti Undang-Undang (Perppu) tentang Lingkungan Hidup yang pada intinya adalah membatasi hak masyarakat untuk bisa membakar hutan paling banyak 2 hektare (ha). Herry Purnomo, Peneliti Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) mengatakan, aturan yang mengizinkan masyarakat adat boleh membakar hutan seharusnya tetap dipertahankan, namun dengan pengawasan yang ketat dari pemerintah daerah.

Penelitian CIFOR menunjukkan modus jual beli lahan marak di balik kebakaran hutan. Peneliti pada Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) Bayuni Shantiko menyatakan, aturan baru melarang membakar lahan tidak otomatis menyelesaikan masalah. Dalam kasus-kasus kebakaran, pihaknya mendapati besarnya keterlibatan oknum pemerintah, perusahaan, bahkan penegak hukum. Kesimpulan itu diperoleh dari penelitian selama 10 bulan di sejumlah kawasan di Riau, seperti di Bengkalis, Rokan Hulu, Rokan Hilir, dan Dumai. Modus lain yang terjadi yang diperoleh tim dari CIFOR adalah tren kebakaran hutan selalu meningkat ketika menjelang Pemilihan Kepala Daerah. Tahun 2015, kebakaran banyak terjadi di daerah-daerah yang siap menggelar pilkada serentak akhir tahun.

A study published last year found that between 2000 and 2010, oil palm development accounted for 678,668 ha of natural forest destruction in Sumatra. Nearly 90 per cent of this deforestation was driven by private enterprises, followed by smallholdings (10.7 per cent) and state-owned plantations (0.9 per cent). This is according to the study by researchers from ETH Zurich, Bogor Agricultural University and the Centre for International Forestry Research in Bogor.