Introducing appropriate technology for zero burning site preparation through compost and charcoal briquette production – An action research in Kuala Dua Village, Pontianak, West Borneo

Dry seasons in Indonesia are usually accompanied by smoke originated from land and forest fires occurred especially in the Islands of Sumatra and Borneo. In worst case, they create haze lasting many days that jeopardizes many aspects of human lives not only within the country but also in the neighboring countries. Smoke and haze are originated mainly from biomass burning during site preparation for agriculture or plantation forestry. Both local people and companies do traditionally these unwise practices because of economic reasons although it is forbidden by law and alternative practices have been recommended. Action research was carried out with aims to develop a model of zero burning site preparation by converting existing biomass into organic fertilizer and charcoal briquette. The model was set up in Kuala Dua Village near Pontianak, West Borneo where traditional site preparation through biomass burning is widespread creating almost every year haze or smokes disturbing air traffics at the nearby airport and damages to the peat ecosystem. One hectare opened peat land dominated mostly by ferns was chosen for the model development. Biomass in the site was estimated by weighing all materials categorized as fuels and further calculations were done to determine carbon mass releases, CO 2, CH4, NOx and O3 emissions as well as particle releases. Appropriate and locally adaptive technologies were introduced to the farmers to produce organic fertilizer and charcoal briquette from various species of ferns as a main source of biomass. Results showed that biomass harvested in the site can be used as raw materials for organic fertilizer through composting techniques using effective microorganisms (EM) and charcoal briquette production. Total amount of biomass in the site was much as 44 ton per ha potentially releasing 3.465 ton CO2, 0.036 ton CH 4, 0.0014 ton NOx, 0.044 ton NH3, 0.0367 O 3, 0.641 ton CO and 0.77 ton fine particles. It was observed that the technology is acceptable to the local conditions and can be applied selectively to reduce gas emissions and mitigate negative impacts to the environment.