Central Kalimantan has extensive forests. The forest area in Central Kalimantan is 12,561,867.57 ha. It is the second largest in Indonesia after Papua Province. According to the website inarisk.bnpb.go.id, Central Kalimantan is one area that has a high potential for forest fires. The incidence of forest fires in the Central Kalimantan Province recorded at sipongi.menlhk.go.id from 2017 to 2021 are as follows 1,744; 47,433; 317,749; 7,681; and 3,653 Ha. The incidence of major fires occurred in 2019 and declined sharply in 2020 and 2021.

To preserve tropical peat forests, the Minister of Forestry of the Republic of Indonesia, through Minister of Forestry Decree No. 423/Menhut-II/2004, designates the Sebangau area in Central Kalimantan Province as a National Park with an area of 568,700 hectares. Sebangau National Park is the largest tropical peat forest conservation area in Indonesia, with variations in peat depth between 1 meter to 12 meters and up to 14 meters at some points.

Sebangau National Park is geographically located at 1° 55′ 14.80″ – 3° 02′ 32.71″ South Latitude and 113° 18′ 22.71″ – 114° 04′ 36.58″ East Longitude. Administratively it is in Katingan Regency, Pulang Pisau Regency, and Kota Palangka Raya in Central Kalimantan Province. Sebangau National Park (Taman Nasional Sebangau) is the only national park in Indonesia where more than 90% of its area is a peat ecosystem. This national park management office is located on Jalan Mahir Mahar KM. 1.2, Paduran Sabangau, Sebangau Kuala, Paduran Sabangau, Kec. Sebangau Kuala, Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan 74874. Complete information about the Sebangau National Park can be accessed at tnsebangau.com.

From July to September 2019, there were 125 hectares of fire in the Sebangau National Park area. During these three months, 141 hotspots were monitored. This burned land is not a stretch, but only on a small scale. However, as a result, many trees fall. The fire also threatens the life of endangered animals in the forest, such as gibbons, orangutans, macaques, pangolins, thongs, and more. So, Sebangau National Park needs to pay attention.

Sebangau National Park become one of the pilot areas responsible for Phase C. The area becomes one of the observation and analysis sites of rehabilitation and restoration programs. Sebangau National Park is one of the main areas that have implemented interventions to restore the forest after fires. Phase C provides an activity to enable continuous monitoring of forest resources and develop appropriate measures to nurture balanced rehabilitation and growth of nature as follows:

1. Building a knowledge base containing geographical data, national forest inventory data, firefighters’ scientific knowledge, scientific and technical reports, and whitepapers.
2. Development of forest and landscape management alternatives for specific regions should consider information on biodiversity index and ecological site classification, including forest growth models.
3. Application of Decision Support System (DSS) tool for alternative assessment and finding the optimal management approach for a specific region/area considering the stakeholder’s requirements.
4. Development of fire management alternatives for a specific region and DSS to assess the alternatives.
5. Soil rehabilitation strategy.
6. Restoration roadmap of natural resources.

Pilot Implementation

SILVANUS team visited the Sebangau National Park in November 2023, at the Koran river, where project members reached the site in the pristine jungle by boat. The contributions of SILVANUS platform to biodiversity restoration in the area were discussed with the stakeholders, along with policy recommendation and technical modelling which would help firefighters, first responders and other stakeholders to assess the fire danger and reduce the threat.

As the pilot was organised after the formal assessment methodology to evaluate the effectiveness of pilot demonstration activities systemically had been elaborated, the effectiveness assessment was conducted in both formulas (ex-post and ex-ante). The Pilot Owner, Pilot Observer and Task Leader prepared a pilot evaluation template and a survey to evaluate pilot effectiveness and replicability studies in the SILVANUS project, collected information from their observations and pilot attendees, and made the assessment.

• Phase A (Prevention and Preparedness)
  1. Evaluation of satellite image monitoring tools (integrated in OFM) and SILVANUS dashboard.
  2. Present Silvanus wildfire awareness campaign materials to related stakeholders.
• Phase B (Detection and Response)
  1. Demonstrate the decision support systems in supporting the fire spread simulation.
  2. Present the forward command centre and exploring further user requirements.
  3. Observe the current technology, tools, and organization of disaster management office (BPBD).
  4. Observing the real peat forest and collecting the visual information in order to improve the fire detection application in underground fire incident.
• Phase C (Restoration and Adaptation)
  1. Demonstrate, test, early user adoption of the biodiversity tagging mobile application (Woode)
  2. Data collection of leaf images and its tree species in tropical forest.
  3. Demonstrate the technological support to the ecological resilience long term forest monitoring and evaluation of forest restoration using “open forest map” application.
  4. Observe current implementation of “manual” biodiversity tagging in real tropical forest.
  5. Learn current forest restoration policy and programs in peat forest.
  6. Gathering user feedback and further user requirements from forest management stake holder such as Sebangau national park managements, the disaster management office (BPPD), local government, and related parties.
  7. Drone image and video data collection over the pilot area.