The peatland on this particular area is damaged because several canals were built a couple of years ago for illegal logging activity. Now the logging activity has stopped, but the canals remain. Draining and damaging the surrounding peatland each and every day.

In one canal, I see about 50 Greenpeace activists and local community working hard building the dam. Under command of Petteri, the dam looks good. They already finished the first wall and continue to build the next one.

We're stopping the greenhouse gas emissions by restoring this place to the normal condition of the rainforest. Big work, big hope considering this peatland is already severely destroyed. But it is not the Mission Impossible! What’s the point of planning the mission if we already feel it’s impossible to achieve the goal? Just call it Mission Possible, or even Better, Mission of Hope. Because no matter how hard it is, there’s always be a hope.

Scientists say that what we're doing here with the community really can restore the condition of the surrounding peatland.

“Much of the carbon released from peatland swamps is the result of draining so the land, or the logs, can be used,” says Professor Jonotoro, a peatlands expert. Professor Jonotoro has been joining our efforts to stop deforestation for quite some time. This friendly man is also very concerned about the forest here.

Jonotoro is the right person to talk to get to know more about the peatland situation. He is from the Ministry of Forestry, and lectures at Lancang Kuning University in Pekan Baru. According to Jonotoro, peatland is made up of a waterlogged store of semi-decomposed vegetation, which squelches underfoot. The deeper the peatland - it can stretch to a depth of more than 15m - the more carbon it holds. “As the water level drops, more and more of the stock of carbon is released into the atmosphere.”

If set on fire - dry peatland can burn for weeks - the fire can be extinguished on the surface, only to continue burning underground and reappear the next day. The paper and palm oil industry uses burning as one way of preparing the land for their plantations.

“By building this dam, we aim to restore the peatland to the rainforest condition” Jonotoro explained.

I asked him just how much this area has been damaged. And once our damming project is finished - how long the restoration process would take. Jonotoro paused and looking at me sharply. I was afraid he no longer wanted to explain further because I’d already asked a lot of questions since we departed from the camp. But no, he grabbed his field hat and said: “Come with me!”

We walked deeper inside the area - being very careful because peatland is unstable. After 20 minutes walking, we arrived at the area surrounded by head high grasses. There was a pipe there and Jonotoro checked it by putting wooden tools in it.

“That’s dry. This place is losing the water table,” he said. He pulled his measurement tools and it showed that the water was 50 centimeters down.

“The best condition for peatland is 20 to 0 centimeters. When this peatland can achieve that condition, the environment can be restored. Usually, we can see the effect for the ecosystem after around three months. The result will depend on many things. But we will definitely get positive results from the damming"

So - there's hope.

-- Hikmat

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