Beyond slash-and-burn: The roles of human activities, altered hydrology and fuels in peat fires in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

Jenny E Goldstein; Laura L B Graham; Sofyan Ansori; Yenni Vetrita; Andri Thomas; Grahame B Applegate; Andrew P Vayda; Bambang H Saharjo; Mark A Cochrane

doi:10.1111/sjtg.12319

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Beyond slash-and-burn: The roles of human activities, altered hydrology and fuels in peat fires in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

Journal article

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Beyond slash-and-burn: The roles of human activities, altered hydrology and fuels in peat fires in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

Jenny E Goldstein, Laura L B Graham, Sofyan Ansori, Yenni Vetrita, Andri Thomas, Grahame B Applegate, Andrew P Vayda, Bambang H Saharjo and Mark A Cochrane

Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, Vol.41(2), pp.190-208

2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/sjtg.12319

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Abstract

fire

Indonesia

peatlands

soil degradation

socio-ecological systems

Near-annual landscape-scale fires in Indonesia's peatlands have caused severe air pollution, economic losses, and health impacts for millions of Southeast Asia residents. While the extent of fires across the peatland surface has been widely attributed to widespread peatland drainage for plantation agriculture, fires that transition from surface into sub-surface soil-based fires are the source of the most dangerous air pollution. Yet the mechanisms by which this transition occurs have rarely been considered, particularly in diversely managed landscapes. Integrating physical geography methods, including active fire scene evaluations and hydrological monitoring, with qualitative methods such as retrospective fire scene evaluations and semi-structured interviews, this article discusses how and why sub-surface peat fire transition occurs in an intensively altered peatland ecosystem in Indonesia's Central Kalimantan province. We demonstrate that variable water table levels and flammable surface vegetation (fire fuels) are co-produced socio-political and biophysical phenomena that enable the conditions in which surface fire is likely to transition into peat fire and increase landscape vulnerability to ongoing, uncontrollable annual fires. This localized understanding of peat fire transition counters normative causal narratives of tropical fire such as 'slash-and-burn', with implications for the management of new fire regimes in inhabited landscapes.

Details

Title: Beyond slash-and-burn: The roles of human activities, altered hydrology and fuels in peat fires in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia
Authors: Jenny E Goldstein (Corresponding Author) - Cornell University
Laura L B Graham (Author) - Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation
Sofyan Ansori (Author) - Northwestern University
Yenni Vetrita (Author) - Indonesian National Institute of Aeronautics and Space
Andri Thomas (Author) - Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation
Grahame B Applegate (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
Andrew P Vayda (Author)
Bambang H Saharjo (Author) - IPB University
Mark A Cochrane (Author) - University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
Publication details: Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, Vol.41(2), pp.190-208
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia
Date published: 2020
DOI: 10.1111/sjtg.12319
ISSN: 0129-7619
Organisation Unit: Tropical Forests and People Research Centre; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Forest Industries Research Centre; Forest Research Institute
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99450851202621
Output Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Geography

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