Sungai Gelam Peatland Restoration Initiative - FINCAPES Project - Public Comments Invited

Peatlands are vital ecosystems that provide numerous ecological and socio-economic benefits. They act as significant carbon sinks, help regulate water flow, support biodiversity, and provide livelihoods for local communities. However, unsustainable land-use practices and construction of drainage canals, such as deforestation and conversion to oil palm plantations, have led to widespread degradation of peatlands in Indonesia.   

The Sungai Gelam Peatland Restoration Initiative aims to improve ecosystem health, mitigate climate change, and support local livelihoods through a Nature-based Solutions (NbS) approach to peatland restoration. The restoration activities will be implemented over four years (2025-2028), ensuring sustainability through ecological monitoring and community engagement.

The key beneficiaries of this initiative are the residents of Sungai Gelam Village, with a total of 3,087 households (5,355 females, 5,329 males) distributed across six hamlets and 35 neighbourhood units. The Sungai Gelam Village community cooperative manages 1,764 hectares of peatland, much of which is degraded. This degradation threatens the ecological integrity of the peatland and the livelihoods of the community that depends on it. To address this issue, the proposed initiative aims to restore the degraded peatland ecosystem in Sungai Gelam Village using a combination of ecologically and economically valuable plant species.

The specific action under this notice involves instalation of three semi-permanent canal blocks (of between 5.5 and 6 metres wide and 4 metres in height) across previously constructed drainage canals to facilitate the rewetting of degraded peatland in Jambi Regency, Indonesia.