Bogor gardens to help develop mangrove conservation area

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.