About half the number of pages is dedicated to a case study of the Giam Siak Kecil-Bukit Batu Biosphere Reserve (gsk-bb br) on the east coast of Riau province, Sumatra, a nature reserve designated as such in 2009. Part of the Reserve is a so-called buffer zone, with industrial tree (mainly acacia) plantations, while it also comprises a transition zone with oil palm plantations run by companies, plots of oil palm and rubber cultivated by smallholders, and fishing activities. gsk-bb br is the world's first peatland biosphere reserve, and the first biosphere reserve to be established and managed under the initiative of a private company. Chapter 14 (Haris Gunawan & Shigeo Kobayashi), entitled 'The Rehabilitation of Degraded Peat Swamp Forest Ecosystems', deals mainly with enrichment planting with native tree species, a tested method to restore degraded forests. [...]in the Epilogue, the authors suggest changes in the production system that will allow for higher conservation values, and more autonomy for local people, including changes in the ownership of the land, in order to avoid the many conflicts over land that have been reported from the Reserve.
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