Alma Adventa

Research Associate (part time)
University of Leicester

Alma Adventa obtained her Mining Engineering degree from Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia, master’s degree in Natural Resource Studies from the University of Queensland, Australia and PhD in Water Resource Quality from the University of Manchester, UK. Her work involves research and campaigns of natural resource management including mining, water resources, forest, peatland, social justice and indigenous people’s rights. She also volunteers in a number of non-governmental organisations in Indonesia and the UK.

Dennis Albihad

Research Assistant
Gadjah Mada University (UGM)

Dennis Albihad is a research assistant in peatland ecology.  He has conducted research on the effects of haze generated by peat fires.

Annisa Alifindira

Research Assistant
University of Indonesia (UI)

Karen Anderson is a terrestrial remote sensing expert who specialises in spatial monitoring of eco-hydrological phenomena. She leads the DroneLab facility at Exeter and has pioneered new approaches for peatland structural and hydrological assessment, also working on up-scaling such observations to satellite scales for peatland carbon inventory. 

Karen Anderson

Associate Professor in Remote Sensing
University of Exeter

Karen Anderson is a terrestrial remote sensing expert who specialises in spatial monitoring of eco-hydrological phenomena. She leads the DroneLab facility at Exeter and has pioneered new approaches for peatland structural and hydrological assessment, also working on up-scaling such observations to satellite scales for peatland carbon inventory. 

Corry Antang

Lecturer & Researcher
University of Palangka Raya (UPR)

Annisa Alifindira is a research assistant at the University of Indonesia.  Her studies include environmental anthropology, political ecology and the climate crisis.

Rahmad Ade Arianto

Freelance GIS and Mapping Specialist

Rahmad Ade Arianto graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the Department of Forestry at the University of Palangka Raya. He has worked on mapping forest and land areas prone to fire and as a consultant for WWF-Indonesia on several projects including carbon stock and deforestation mapping in the Katingan Regency of Central Kalimantan.

Ina Arleny

Lecturer, Faculty of Medicine
University of Palangka Raya (UPR)

Ina Arleny is an environmental scientist with more than 10 years’ experience working as a laboratory technician and 2 years as Technical Manager of a chemistry and toxicology laboratory. She was Section Head at the Environment Agency of Central Kalimantan from 2011 to 2016. Ina’s current research is a combination of environmental biology, aquatic ecotoxicology and analytical chemistry to study the effects of peatland fires on river pollution and food fish.

Devina Ayona

Research Assistant
University of Indonesia (UI)

Devina Ayona currently works as a research assistant at the Faculty of Social and Political Science, University of Indonesia. Her academic interests include political psychology and international politics.

Faradhina Azzahra is a research assistant at Gadjah Mada University. Her research interest is on Agent Based Modelling. For KaLi, Faradhina will simulate the smoldering process of peatfire in agent-based model using NetLogo.

Kartika Bungas

Lecturer & Field Researcher
University of Palangka Raya (UPR)

Kartika Bungas is a lecturer in the Department of Aquaculture at UPR and works as a field researcher for the university’s Fishpond and Aquaculture project. Kartika gained a master’s degree from the Department of Natural and Environmental Resource Management at Lambung Mangkurat University in 2009 and a doctorate from the Department of Natural and Environmental Resource Management at Brawijaya University in 2013.

Rachel Carmenta

Lecturer in Climate Change and International Development
University of East Anglia (UEA)

Rachel Carmenta is an interdisciplinary environmental scientist working on issues at the intersection of environment and development, environmental risk, and the relationship between place and well-being. Over the last decade, much of her work has focused on tropical fire (both intentional and accidental) in contested forest frontiers, including Indonesian peatlands and the Brazilian Amazon. Her research includes exploring the multiple burdens associated with wildfire for marginalised small-scale land managers, understanding the policy-practice gap, and decolonising performance assessments of environmental-focused interventions, which include fire management interventions.

Jennifer Catto

Senior Lecturer in the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Science
University of Exeter

Jennifer Catto is a weather and climate scientist with expertise in using observations and climate models to understand and predict rainfall variability, trends, and extremes in the present and future climates. In particular she is an expert in using objective identification of weather systems and weather regimes analysis from a weather system and climate drivers’ perspective.

Shofwan Choiruzzad

Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations
University of Indonesia (UI)

Shofwan Al Banna Choiruzzad is Assistant Professor at the Department of International Relations, University of Indonesia. He also serves as the Executive Secretary of the university’s ASEAN Studies Center. His research interest is on the political economy of multiscalar entanglements, which includes issues such as palm oil political-economy, sustainability standards, postcolonial foreign policy and regionalism, and anthropocentrisation.

Alastair Crawford

Postdoctoral Research Associate
University of Exeter

Alastair Crawford is an environmental scientist with research experience in wildfire and palaeofire science. Before moving into academia he worked in environmental management and environmental education roles in the public and third sectors. He is currently studying how variations in peat properties may influence Borneo’s fire regimes.

Wilson Daud

Lecturer
University of Palangka Raya (UPR)

Wilson Daud is a lecturer in the Department of Social Economic Agriculture at UPR. With a doctorate in Corporate Social Responsibility and Community Empowerment, his work and research specialises in the livelihoods of small-scale farmers around palm oil plantations and in peatland areas in Central Kalimantan. He has worked on corporate social responsibility programmes for palm oil and coal companies in Central and South Kalimantan and, in 2020, assisted in the development of village-owned enterprises to support local food security.

T Davies-Barnard

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
University of Exeter

T Davies-Barnard is interested in the relationship between changes in the climate and vegetation. Her research has covered work on how the biogeophysics and biogeochemistry balance out at different scales and in different future scenarios, land use change, and terrestrial nitrogen and carbon cycles, particularly biological nitrogen fixation. T is currently working on improving the representation of the terrestrial nitrogen cycle in the JULES model.

Monika Febiola

Research Assistant
University of Indonesia (UI)

Monika Febiola is a graduate of the International Relations program of UI. She acts as a research assistant for the KaLi project and her academic interests largely lie in environmental and developmental issues. Other than that, she is keen on both the bilateral and interregional relations between Europe and Asia.

Angela Gallego-Sala

Professor in Ecosystems and Biogeochemical Cycles
University of Exeter

Angela Gallego-Sala is a biogeochemist and an expert in the climatic regulation of peatland function and the role of peatlands in the carbon cycle. She is co-leader of the internationally recognised ICBP-PAGES working group C-PEAT (Carbon in Peat on EArth through Time) and currently leads an ERC Consolidator project: “TroPeaCC: Tropical Peatlands and the Carbon Cycle” and a NERC funded project: “ICAAP: Increased Carbon Accumulation in Arctic Peatlands”. She also works on monitoring peatland restoration success in the UK and Indonesia and investigating peatland fire history in the tropics.

Ailish Graham

Postdoctoral Researcher
University of Leeds

Ailish’s work aims to understand the interactions between land-use change, fire, air quality and human health. She uses regional air quality modelling to simulate haze events caused by peatland fires and to estimate impacts on human health. Her modelling work will also quantify the benefits of peatland restoration on these events.

Mabda Haerunnisa F. Sidiq

Research Assistant
University of Indonesia (UI)

Mabda Sidiq worked as a research assistant for KaLi while based in the Faculty of Social and Political Science at the University of Indonesia. Her research interests revolve around understanding the relationship between science and technology and international politics.

Anna Harper

Senior Lecturer in Climate Science
University of Exeter

Anna Harper is a climate scientist with expertise in climate-vegetation interactions. She is an experienced land surface modeller, using the JULES model to represent the sensitivity of the carbon cycle to changes in climate, nutrient cycles, and land use.

Mark Harrison

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
University of Exeter

Mark Harrison has studied the ecology and conservation of Kalimantan’s tropical peatlands since 2003, leading numerous research projects and has published 47 papers relevant to this project. He co-organised the workshop held at the University of Exeter in 2017 and led the conservation challenges review paper for People and Nature from which this project emerged.  He recently convened and guest edited a special issue of Mires and Peat (Vol. 22) including 7 articles on tropical peatland biodiversity and conservation. He is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Exeter, Honorary Visiting Fellow at the University of Leicester and a Research Director of Borneo Nature Foundation International.

Edison Harteman

Lecturer
University of Palangka Raya (UPR)

Edison Harteman is a lecturer in the Department of Fisheries at UPR. Edison received his doctorate in marine science from Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) in 2008 and specialises in the effects of marine pollution and toxicology on marine animals (Chemical Oceanography). His research to date has included studying the impact of heavy metals on fish, the effect of calcium carbonate on peat swamp ponds and tidal swamps, and research on the use of peat swamp, tidal swamp, inland swamp and water treatment for fish farming ponds between palm trees.

Teuntje Hollaar

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
University of Exeter

Teuntje Hollaar is a terrestrial environmental scientist with research experience in palaeofire science. Her work has explored how wildfire activity changed in climate systems of the past and in times of different monsoonal strengths. Special focus is on the connection of the hydrological cycle, vegetation cover and fire activity. She is currently mapping how fire activity impacted and spread through Borneo’s peatlands.

Muhammad Ali Imron

Vice Dean for Research, Community Services and Cooperation
Gadjah Mada University (UGM)

Muhammad Ali Imron (goes by Imron) is an environmental scientist with current projects including ‘Towards a Fire Early Warning System for Indonesia (ToFEWSI)’ and ‘Biodiversity conservation in shade-grown coffee landscape of a lowland tropical forest in Java’.

Adi Jaya

Director
Centre for International Cooperation in the Sustainable Management of Tropical Peatland (UPT CIMTROP)

Adi Jaya has worked for the University of Palangka Raya since 1988 and has over 20 years’ experience researching tropical peatland ecosystems. He is a soil science specialist with a master’s in watershed management from the University of Nottingham and a doctorate in geography focusing on peatland ecology. Adi has been involved in research activities led by Indonesia’s Peatland Restoration Agency (BRG) and collaborated with farming communities to implement peatland restoration strategies. Working with the universities of Nottingham and Leicester, Adi has conducted research into sustainable use of peatlands. In January 2023, Adi was appointed Director of UPT CIMTROP UPR.

Karen Jeffers

Project Manager
University of Exeter

Karen Jeffers is the KaLi Project Manager. She has over 7 years’ experience of research and conservation in Kalimantan supporting Borneo Nature Foundation’s long-term monitoring of biodiversity and forest health in Sebangau. Karen was in Kalimantan during the fires of 2015 and 2019. Having experienced the haze first hand and seen its impact on colleagues, communities and the environment, the KaLi project resonates on a very personal level for Karen.

Kitso Kusin

Doctoral Candidate & CIMTROP Staff
University of Palangka Raya (UPR)

Kitso Kusin has worked at CIMTROP since 1997 and is currently working towards his doctorate in environmental sciences at UPR. Kitso specialises in studying peatland ecosystems including carbon and groundwater monitoring, reforestation and peat rewetting. He was advisor to the Indonesian Peatland and Mangrove Restoration Agency (BRGM) on its canal blocking and evaluation project and to the Indonesian Ministry of Public Work’s Environmental Impact Assessment for Food Estate activities in the ex-Mega Rice area. Most recently, Kitso was advisor to a survey of changes in land cover of peat swamp forest led by the World Research Institute Indonesia.

Rob McFarling is a research assistant at the University of Exeter. His research centres around stress and disease in aquaculture species, utilising high-throughput sequencing methods to explore epigenetic mechanisms and transcriptomic responses.

Magdalena Mleczko is a remote sensing scientist. She received her MSc degree in geodesy and spatial information systems and PhD in geodesy and cartography, specialisation: remote sensing, from the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland, in 2009 and 2017 respectively. Her research activities are in the areas of SAR remote sensing, polarimetry, image processing and image classification. She is particularly interested in analysing remote sensing satellite data for eco-hydrological wetland monitoring and agriculture purposes.

Tezza Napitupulu is Research Fellow investigating the multidimensional distributional impact of peatland fires in Indonesia. In 2011-2015, she worked on an interdisciplinary European Research Council Starting Grant to study the adaptive nature of culture using a cross-cultural approach, working with indigenous groups in North Kalimantan. She completed a PhD in Environmental Social Science from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in 2017 and a master’s in Economics from North Carolina State University in 2007.

Darmae Nasir

Vice Rector of General Business & Finance
University of Palangka Raya (UPR)

Darmae Nasir, formally Director of the Centre for International Cooperation in the Sustainable Management of Tropical Peatland (CIMTROP), is Vice Rector of General Business and Finance at the University of Palangka Raya. He leads a multidisciplinary research team at UPR collaborating with KaLi partners to deliver the project’s research objectives. Darmae graduated from the University of Nottingham with a master’s in environmental management and a doctorate in geography focusing on livelihood sustainability. He has been a lecturer at UPR since 1992 and, in 2016, joined the advisory board of Indonesia’s Peatland and Mangrove Restoration Agency (BRGM).

Nomeritae

Lecturer
University of Palangka Raya (UPR)

Nomeritae graduated with a master’s in engineering from Gadjah Mada University in 2009 and completed a Doctor of Philosophy degree at Monash University Australia in 2017. She currently works as a lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering at UPR. Nomeritae has been an advisor on hydrology and irrigation for several projects including the Indonesian Ministry of Public Work’s Environmental Impact Assessment of the swamp irrigation system for the Food Estate initiative in the ex-Mega Rice area in Central Kalimantan. Most recently, Nomeritae was advisor to the survey of changes in land cover of peat swamp forest organised by World Research Institute Indonesia.

Febrian Edi Nugroho

Research Assistant
Gadjah Mada University (UGM)

Febrian Edi Nugroho has a background in forest resource and conservation. His research interest is around biodiversity conservation including the use of GIS for conservation.

Hanun Nurrahmawati

Research Assistant
University of Indonesia (UI)

Hanun Nurrahmawati is a Research Assistant at the University of Indonesia. Her research focus includes environment, urban studies and GIS.

Patrick O’Reilly

Research Associate
University of Leicester

Patrick O’Reilly has over 25 years’ experience in practical rural development work and applied and academic research focusing on rural livelihood strategies, locally based rural development and public policy for rural areas, including eight years working on these issues in South East Asia. His recent research has focused on livelihood practices in rural communities living on tropical peatland, exploring how such practices are shaped and shape human-environmental interactions. He further examines the implications of these interactions for environmental governance and community well-being.

Rory Padfield

Lecturer in Sustainability
University of Leeds

Rory Padfield is an interdisciplinary social scientist interested in the connections between tropical commodities, community livelihoods, climate change and stakeholder engagement in the sustainable management of tropical landscapes. His knowledge and experience of Southeast Asia is grounded in 6 years working at a university in Malaysia where he engaged with government agencies, industry and NGOs on research related to tropical land use change.

Susan Page

Professor of Physical Geography
University of Leicester

Susan Page studies impacts of land use and fire on tropical peatland carbon dynamics, ecosystem restoration, ecosystem services and livelihoods. She has participated in multinational research on SE Asian peatlands with Darwin, EU, UKRI and UKSA funding and was the first to draw attention to the scale of carbon emissions from Indonesian fires. She was lead author of the fire component of the IPCC 2013 Wetland Supplement and is advisor to Indonesian plantation companies on peatland management.

Effie Papargyropoulou

Lecturer in Sustainable Food Networks
University of Leeds

Effie Papargyropoulou is an environmental social scientist interested in sustainability. She has experience in evaluating the environmental and economic performance of climate mitigation measures in low carbon cities and has worked previously in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Gregory Paull

Aquatic Resources Centre Manager
University of Exeter

Gregory Paull is the manager of the Aquatic Resources Centre, a large interdisciplinary research facility supporting over 100 scientists whose studies span environmental health and protection, human health and drug discovery and aquaculture. Greg has worked at the University of Exeter for over 20 years where he also obtained his PhD in fish reproductive biology and eco-toxicology. Greg is a Named Animal Care and Welfare Officer and uses his experience to aid researchers with fish husbandry, cultivation and welfare in laboratory and field studies.

Picierwatie

Analyst of Aquatic Biota
University of Palangka Raya (UPR)

Picierwatie has been working in the limnological laboratory at UPR since 2010 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in aquatic resources management from the Faculty of Fisheries in 2013. As member of a collaborative team led by the Indonesian Peatland and Mangrove Restoration Agency (BRGM) and the Centre for International Cooperation in Sustainable Management of Tropical Peatland (CIMTROP), Picierwatie conducted research on developing technology for local fish cultivation in peat swamps and the implementation and monitoring of a model for local peat swamp fish farming integrated with peat rewetting and paludiculture in Pilang village, Central Kalimantan.

Nuradia Puspawati

Public Health Researcher
University of Indonesia (UI)

Nuradia Puspawati worked as a research assistant for KaLi while at the University of Indonesia. Nuradia has an educational background in public health policy and administration. Her research interests lie primarily in the area of health policy analysis, policy evaluation, maternal and child health, and tobacco control.

Rizky Ramadhan

Doctoral Candidate
Kyoto University

Rizky Ramadhan is a doctoral student in the Environmental Management Programme, Kyoto University. He is also a member of the Global Ecological Economics Research Laboratory.

Samiadi

Aquaculture Research Assistant
University of Palangka Raya (UPR)

Samiadi works with the Aquaculture team at the University of Palangka Raya. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from UPR’s Department of Fisheries. He specialises in fish nutrition, husbandry and natural resources management.

Eduarda Santos

Associate Professor in Environmental Biology
University of Exeter

Eduarda Santos is an aquatic physiologist with expertise in reproductive biology, ecotoxicology and aquaculture. She specialises in using genomics in fish to determine the effects of environmental stressors in fish populations both in contaminated river catchments and in the laboratory and to address the challenges animals encounter in aquaculture.

Thomas Smith

Assistant Professor in Environmental Geography
London School of Economics (LSE)

Thomas Smith’s research focuses on the complex interactions between agricultural practices, land degradation and fire emissions. He uses a range of techniques to measure air pollution from fire and the effects this has on people.

Dominick Spracklen

Professor of Biopshere-Atmosphere Interactions
University of Leeds

Dominick Spracklen conducts research to understand the interactions between climate, land-use change, fire, air quality and human health. He uses satellite remote sensing and regional air quality models to simulate haze events caused by peatland fires and estimate impacts on human health.

Sara Thornton

Research Associate
University of Leicester

Sara Thornton is an interdisciplinary researcher with 10 years of experience in conservation and research on the peatlands of Central Kalimantan. Her PhD investigated the importance of peatland fish and fishing to local community livelihoods and the impact of peatland fires and other environmental changes and challenges on communities. Her work includes long-term fish and water quality surveys in the Sebangau peatland river, exploring fish biodiversity and ecology. She also thinks about ‘interdisciplinarity’ and the challenges and benefits of interdisciplinary working for research impact.

Inga Torang

Lecturer
University of Palangka Raya (UPR)

Inga Torang is a lecturer in the Department of Fisheries at UPR. He gained his master’s degree in agroclimatology at Bogor Agricultural University and is currently completing his doctorate in environmental science at UPR studying the ecology and characteristics of micro-algae in the humic waters of Pager River, Central Kalimantan. Inga has been a consultant on Environmental Impact Assessments including wastewater drainage and hazardous waste management. He has conducted peat restoration and paludiculture research for the Indonesian Peatland and Mangrove Restoration Agency (BRGM) and is a member of the Indonesian Agricultural Meteorological Association (PERHIMPI).

Caroline Upton

Professor in Human Geography
University of Leicester

Caroline Upton studies dynamic interactions between policy, practice and rural livelihoods in the context of debates around environmental governance, environmental justice, ecosystem services and climate change adaptation. Most recently, she has worked with Sara Thornton, Sue Page and Patrick O’Reilly in interdisciplinary analyses of peatland livelihoods and conservation (e.g. Sustainpeat project, ongoing) and through attention to resilience, ecosystem service values and governance challenges under climate change.

Kirana Widyastuti

Doctoral Candidate
Dresden University of Technology
(TU Dresden)

Kirana Widyastuti studied Computer Science and Information Technology at the University of Indonesia. In 2017, as part of a joint project between Gadjah Mada University and TU Dresden, she was involved in developing a peatfire agent-based model. Since then, Kirana has developed her interest in agent-based model development, exploration, and application to ecology. She is currently completing her PhD thesis at the Institute of Forest Growth and Forest Computer Sciences, TU Dresden. In her PhD, she is using an agent-based modelling approach to investigate the impact of peat fire on the movement behaviour of orangutans. For KaLi, Kirana will apply the peatfire agent-based model to a study site in Central Kalimantan.

Maria Anasthasia Winanti

Aquaculture Staff
University of Palangka Raya (UPR)

Maria Anasthasia Winanti is a member of the Fishpond and Aquaculture team at the University of Palangka Raya. She graduated in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree from the Department of Chemistry Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education at UPR.

Yulintine

Lecturer
University of Palangka Raya (UPR)

Yulintine is a lecturer in the Department of Fisheries at the University of Palangka Raya. She specialises in the study of freshwater fisheries and the domestication of native fish for the development of aquaculture.