Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries 2014; 3(3): 163-170 Published online May 30, 2014 (http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/aff) doi: 10.11648/j.aff.20140303.14 Spatiotemporal distribution of peatland fires in Kapuas District, Central Kalimantan Province, Indonesia Achmad Siddik Thoha 1 , Bambang Hero Saharjo 2 , Rizaldi Boer 3 , Muhammad Ardiansyah 4 1 Department of Forestry Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of North Sumatra, Medan, Indonesia 2 Department of Silviculture, Faculty of Forestry, Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor, Indonesia 3 Department of Geophysics and Meteorology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor, Indonesia 4 Department of Soil Science and Land Resources, Faculty of Agriculture, Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor, Indonesia Email address: siddikthoha@gmail.com (A. S. Thoha), bhsaharjo@gmail.com (B. H. Saharjo), rizaldiboer@gmail.com (R. Boer), ardyaja@gmail.com (M. Ardiansyah) To cite this article: Achmad Siddik Thoha, Bambang Hero Saharjo, Rizaldi Boer, Muhammad Ardiansyah. Spatiotemporal Distribution of Peatland Fires in Kapuas District, Central Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Vol. 3, No. 3, 2014, pp. 163-170. doi: 10.11648/j.aff.20140303.14 Abstract: Peatland fires occur almost every year in Indonesia and their impact is harmful to human life and the environment. The objective of this study was to determine the distribution of peat fires, including hotspot characteristic, fire period and spatial distribution according to biophysical factors and human activities. Characteristics of peatland fires were determined through spatial analysis between hotspots and rainfall and factors affected peatland fires such as land cover, distance from the river, distance from road, spatial plan and peat thickness. The study found that strong indication of peat fires in Kapuas is indicated by the hotspot with a confidence value of more than 50%. August to October is the hotspot increasing time in Kapuas because the rainfall is low. The densest hotspots are generally found in swamp shrubs, close to the river, close to the roads, in the very deep peat, with a spatial planning of peatland conservation area. We concluded that peatland conservation area and unmanaged land in Kapuas District were in vulnerable condition of the fire. We suggest to the government to improve unmanaged land utilization and protect peatland conservation area in Kapuas District. Keywords: Hotspot, Fire Period, Spatial Analysis, Fire Management 1. Introduction Peatland fires occur almost every year in Indonesia and their impact is harmful to human life and the environment. A peatland fire in 1997/1998, when the El Nino occurred in Indonesia, contributed 13-40% emissions of global carbon emissions [1,2,3]. In Kapuas district, there are hundred thousand hectares of peatland located in the former of a million hectares of Peatland Development Project, the famous one was Mega Rice Project (MRP), which was proposed since 1995. The MRP opens the peatlands massively including swamp forests with thick peat with the construction of thousand kilometers canals that have an impact on the drying of peat ecosystem. The drying of peat ecosystem makes the area very prone to fire which results in massive carbon emissions [4]. It has been shown by [5] that carbon emissions from fires will be even greater when the peatland is burnt. Fires from tropical peatlands produce carbon dioxide emissions 4-40 times greater than other tropical habitats. The factors causing peatland fires of various studies are related to climate and human activity. As in the study by [6] found that there is a close relationship between the rainfall data from the satellite to fire hotspot activity in Central Kalimantan. Rainfall anomaly during the dry season in June to October is a critical moment in determining the activity of fire. Human activity factors, for example distance from the village, distance from roads, distance from the canal or river networks contributed the risk of peatland fires while land cover affected the fire in 48% [7,8]. The efforts of forest fire management aimed at reducing the incidence of fires that can affect the lives and livelihoods. Peatland fires characteristic such as the fire period, relationship with the weather factors and the fire distribution indication according to biophysical factors and human activities are needed as suggestions for the