Abdul Manan (43) shows the digital maps of Sungai Tohor forest that was burned in 2014. The updated digital maps need to be released for the public to prevent the forest fires and land dispute between the plantation company and the villagers.
In October 2014, Abdul Manan launched an online petition asking the Indonesian president to visit his village and witness the problem of peatland forest fires. When the president visited on 27 Nov 2014, he personally helped dam a canal, and made favourable observations about the sustainability of the community’s growing of sago (a starch extracted from the spongy centre, or pith, of various tropical palm stems) versus large-scale industrial plantations. Later, a promise was made by the Minister that the concession of PT LUM would be revoked and that village forest would be officially granted to the Sungai Tohor community.

Since then, more canals have been dammed. The local community enjoys using the water for fishing/aquaculture, and there have been markedly none or fewer fires since water levels were restored in the peatlands. The community says sago yields in their gardens, where the peat is wet, are better than in the industrial sago plantation which employs drainage.