Restoring Degraded Peatlands through Improving Land Suitability and Cultivating Native and Non Native Plants of Peatlands

Peatlands as natural resources can be utilized for agriculture in a broad sense (such as fisheries, animal husbandry, smallholder agriculture, plantations, energy, and forestry). Most current users have forced peatlands, resulting in degradation, oxidation, soil subsidence, and an increased risk of peat fires. The research resulted that four permanent limiting factors (natural condition and difficult to repair) were found in the research area, namely oxygen availability (oa); root media (rc); peat (pe); and flood (fh). Two non-permanent limiting factors (be improved by giving soil ameliorant) were nutrient retention (nr) and available soil nutrients (na). The improvement in class from actual to potential changed maximally to be one level better. Improvement efforts to increase peatlands productivity included: managing ground water table by making drainage; fertilize soils with lime and NPK fertilizers; do not burn biomass; manage forests and land fires; maintain organic matters in the soils; and maintain peat depths and maturity. Scenarios to achieve sustainable management of peatlands can be done by the gradual elimination of oil palm plantations and other crops that require drainage over time and replacing them with crops that do not require drainage in combination with forestry including timber and non-timber production forests in the peatlands.