Indonesians are still living with the consequences of the pell-mell conversion of carbon-rich peat forests on Borneo island for rice cultivation in the 1990s. It led to recurrent forest fires that spew poisonous haze into the atmosphere.
Now the parched peatland is being sized up for another ambitious project to produce rice and other crops. President Joko Widodo says Indonesia needs to be more self-sufficient in food production and wants to convert vast tracts of land on Borneo and the island of Sumatra, a combined area larger than Connecticut.
At a site in Central Kalimantan, farmers are planting new rice variants that are supposed to produce higher yields. So far, not all farmers have seen the benefits, and critics say the peatland project is ill-conceived. Safrudin Mahendra, an environmental campaigner, asks, "If it fails on the showcase site, what will happen in other areas that have never been used since the 1990s?”
(Assignment for International Women’s Media Foundation and The Christian Science Monitor: Why Indonesia’s rice paddy expansion is raising climate concerns)