Regrowing Borneo's Peat-Swamp Forest After the Fires

Repeated fires, worsened by decades of illegal drainage, have devastated the tropical peat-swamp forests around Sebangau National Park in Central Kalimantan, prime habitat for one of the world's largest wild orangutan populations. Borneo Nature Foundation launched a project to plant 1 million native trees across roughly 2,500 hectares of burned peatland over five years, growing seedlings of threatened species like Shorea balangeran in community nurseries and employing local people to plant and monitor them. The team pairs replanting with peat rewetting, building dams to block drainage canals, since reflooded peat is far more fire-resistant than the dried-out peat that burns every El Niño season.