POLICY
JAKARTA (FORESTHINTS.NEWS) - Recent satellite images confirm that one of Borneo's largest orangutan habitats, which lies in a logging concession (PT MPK) and forms a major part of the Sungai Putri landscape in West Kalimantan’s Ketapang regency, remains an effective home for over 1000 Bornean orangutans.
More than 80% of the logging concession still consists of relatively intact peat forests, as proven by satellite and ground-based evidence.
Maintaining this impressive land cover situation is a part of the leadership and consistent efforts undertaken by Indonesian Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya through law enforcement actions, including her refusal to approve the company’s 2017 new peat drainage workplan.
As reported by FORESTHINTS.NEWS in early December last year, PT MPK - a company that was acquired by PT IAR (the IAR Foundation/YIARI-controlled company) at the end of August 2019 - was sanctioned by the Indonesian forestry authorities in September last year because of haze-causing peat fires.
The Sentinel Hub images below, which were analyzed by the FORESTHINTS.NEWS spatial team, show that as of the end of July this year over 80% of the PT MPK logging concession (delineated in yellow) is still composed of peat forests inhabited by more than a thousand Bornean orangutans.
The Sungai Putri landscape is also one of the world's last strongholds of the Bornean orangutan. Significant swathes of the peat forests within it, as shown in the above satellite images, still exist in the PT MPK concession.
Permanent solution essential
The potential for peat fires this year remains a serious concern. President Joko Widodo emphasized in a cabinet meeting (Jun 23) that possible fires in peak dry season this coming August should be anticipated.
This warning also certainly applies to PT MPK, whose concession spans the equivalent of 37 thousand soccer fields or about half the size of Singapore, which needs to ensure that its resources are in place to handle potential peat fires this year so as to escape further sanctions.
At the time this news report was posted, spatial monitoring based on NASA active fire data by the FORESTHINTS.NEWS team indicates that no fire spots are detected in the logging concession.
Hopefully there will be no recurrence of last year’s peat fire situation in the concession, as depicted in the photos from the ministry and reported by FORESTHINTS.NEWS in early December 2019.
Indonesian Environment and Forestry Ministry Siti Nurbaya has already confirmed that a permanent solution for tackling haze-causing fires is being tested this year, as also recently reported by FORESTHINTS.NEWS (Jul 3).
In line with this, the PT MPK logging concession, given its legal status as a permit holder under the authority of the ministry, clearly also requires a permanent solution for handling this year’s potential haze-causing fires in its concession.
RELATED STORIES
POLICY
JAKARTA (FORESTHINTS.NEWS) - Recent satellite images confirm that one of Borneo's largest orangutan habitats, which lies in a logging concession (PT MPK) and forms a major part of the Sungai Putri landscape in West Kalimantan’s Ketapang regency, remains an effective home for over 1000 Bornean orangutans.
More than 80% of the logging concession still consists of relatively intact peat forests, as proven by satellite and ground-based evidence.
Maintaining this impressive land cover situation is a part of the leadership and consistent efforts undertaken by Indonesian Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya through law enforcement actions, including her refusal to approve the company’s 2017 new peat drainage workplan.
As reported by FORESTHINTS.NEWS in early December last year, PT MPK - a company that was acquired by PT IAR (the IAR Foundation/YIARI-controlled company) at the end of August 2019 - was sanctioned by the Indonesian forestry authorities in September last year because of haze-causing peat fires.
The Sentinel Hub images below, which were analyzed by the FORESTHINTS.NEWS spatial team, show that as of the end of July this year over 80% of the PT MPK logging concession (delineated in yellow) is still composed of peat forests inhabited by more than a thousand Bornean orangutans.
The Sungai Putri landscape is also one of the world's last strongholds of the Bornean orangutan. Significant swathes of the peat forests within it, as shown in the above satellite images, still exist in the PT MPK concession.
Permanent solution essential
The potential for peat fires this year remains a serious concern. President Joko Widodo emphasized in a cabinet meeting (Jun 23) that possible fires in peak dry season this coming August should be anticipated.
This warning also certainly applies to PT MPK, whose concession spans the equivalent of 37 thousand soccer fields or about half the size of Singapore, which needs to ensure that its resources are in place to handle potential peat fires this year so as to escape further sanctions.
At the time this news report was posted, spatial monitoring based on NASA active fire data by the FORESTHINTS.NEWS team indicates that no fire spots are detected in the logging concession.
Hopefully there will be no recurrence of last year’s peat fire situation in the concession, as depicted in the photos from the ministry and reported by FORESTHINTS.NEWS in early December 2019.
Indonesian Environment and Forestry Ministry Siti Nurbaya has already confirmed that a permanent solution for tackling haze-causing fires is being tested this year, as also recently reported by FORESTHINTS.NEWS (Jul 3).
In line with this, the PT MPK logging concession, given its legal status as a permit holder under the authority of the ministry, clearly also requires a permanent solution for handling this year’s potential haze-causing fires in its concession.
RELATED STORIES
