Livelihood Transformation in Indonesian Peatland Communities: A Never-Ending Adaptation Strategy

Local communities have mainly depended on peatlands for their livelihoods since ancient times. The peatland ecosystem plays a vital role, not only at the local level but also at the national and global levels. The important role of peatlands has shifted and influenced the government's policies, affecting the community's livelihood. This paper aims to analyse the shifting livelihood of local communities and formulate adaptation strategies for future challenges. The study employs a systematic literature review with NVivo for coding and themes categorization, providing a structured and transparent synthesis. The research results indicated that government policies often overlook local wisdom values and tend to marginalize community livelihoods. However, peat conservation policies have had a positive ecological impact. The communities have adapted to the policy changes, such as implementing zero burning for land clearing, planting adaptive tree species, utilizing paludiculture and agrosilvofishery, and building blocking canals. However, the result has not significantly contributed to their increased prosperity. They still faced numerous challenges, including the conversion threat of peatland to palm oil and limited knowledge and capacity for adaptation. Therefore, various efforts should be undertaken, including collaboration, the formulation of policies based on local needs, the intensification or introduction of new commodities, market development, the promotion of profitable commodity development as part of peatland restoration, and raising awareness of the importance of peatland for sustainable income, social, and environmental benefits. Although communities have implemented several adaptation strategies, these have not been smoothly executed to date. As elaborated in this paper, such strategies have led communities to face a never-ending state of adaptation.