Bogor gardens to help develop mangrove conservation area

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

The Jakarta administration has plans to develop a mangrove conservation area on the northern coast of Ancol in cooperation with the Bogor Botanical Gardens, the garden's director says.

Irawati said Jakarta officials had asked her to find experts on mangroves to be involved in the project, Jakarta's first mangrove-only botanical park.

"We think it's a good idea to develop a collection of mangroves in a botanical park, because we don't have a complete collection of mangroves in the Bogor Botanical Gardens," she said in a recent interview.

However, Irawati said the project could face significant problems "because there is severe sea pollution in the northern coast, caused by both household and industrial waste".

Several private companies had also contacted garden management to help in their plans to develop botanical gardens in the city, Irwanti said.

One of them, housing estate developer Mega Kebun Jeruk, is to sign a cooperation agreement with garden management on Friday.

The firm would help collect a range of plants, including the nearly extinct menteng and kemang fruit trees, the names of which have been immortalized as wealthy suburbs in Jakarta.

"The projects are in line with our intention to develop as many botanical parks nationwide before our forests are gone because of illegal logging or development," Irawati said.