Can't see the forest for the busway

Nirwono Joga, Jakarta

While the administrations of leading metropolises in the world, such as Amsterdam, London, Melbourne, Singapore and Washington D.C. are making great endeavors to grow large trees in their parks and to maintain and protect existing trees, the administration of the Special District of the Capital City of Jakarta -- without making any fanfare about its so-called re- greening program -- persists in its plan to fell grand, 20-year- old trees that have trunks of 50 to 100 meters in diameter.

In the name of (un)sustainable urban development, the administration's second and third busway corridors, traversing Pulo Gadung-Monas-Kali Deres, will require the felling of 248 trees on the greenbelt median from Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan to Jl. Letjen Suprapto.

This is not all. To broaden the corridor for these busway routes, 1,510 trees on Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan and 564 more on Jl. Letjen Suprapto must also be felled.

"I have given my permission to fell those trees. If I have to choose between the trees and the (busway) project, well, I will proceed with the busway project," said Governor Sutiyoso.

Indeed, Jakarta's transportation system and infrastructure need redesigning to solve the increasingly serious congestion. However, this restructuring effort will be counterproductive if the administration ignores the quality of the urban environment.

As a matter of course, without a well thought-out plan, construction of the new busway corridors may result in lower air quality and poorer road layout. The 11 traffic congestion points and limited capacity of alternative roads will become even more packed that motorized vehicles, stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, will only produce polluting emissions at crossroads and along the treeless and hot alternative roads.

The Jakarta administration must first put in order the infrastructure of pedestrian bridges and zones, zebra crossings and sidewalks along the busway route. The busway project should not focus only on Trans-Jakarta buses and shelters, but also on supporting pedestrian and passenger facilities.

Furthermore, the distance between one busway shelter and the next is close enough so that road users will become visually exhausted by a view crowded with shelters and bridges, increasing stress levels and thus, contributing to increased congestion.

The absence of a master plan for green areas in Jakarta is one cause of the confusion in the management of open, green spaces. Management of green areas include regreening plans for public spaces -- such as median strips, pedestrian paths, and space under bridges/flyovers.

It is easy to understand, then, why the city public works agency and the communications agency, without the slightest compunction, felled 248 trees and then asked the city parks agency to replace them with 2,490 trees.

Many Jakartans are unaware that the capital has a close historical association with trees. In the past, Jakarta was known as Sunda Kelapa, a clear reference to the abundance of coconut trees, and in Central Jakarta are the residential areas of Menteng, named after the (Baccaurea recemosa), Cempaka Putih -- white frangipani -- and Karet, or rubber trees.

In South Jakarta are Kemang (Mangifera caecea), Bayur (Pterospermum javanicum), Gandaria (Bouea macrophyla) and Bintaro, and North Jakarta has Kelapa Gading -- more coconuts -- and Kapuk, the kapok tree. East Jakarta has Kayu Putih, or eucalyptus, Kampung Rambutan after the fruit and Kebon Pala for nutmeg, while West Jakarta has Kebon Jeruk, a citrus orchard, and Kosambi(Schleichera oleosa).

It must be realized that trees are long-term assets and investment of a city, with economic, ecological, educational and esthetic values.

Using the green open space standard of 7.81 square meters per person, the School of Forestry at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) conducted in 2003 a study on water catchment areas in Jakarta. The IPB concluded that the capital needed 15,897 ha of green open space, or 21.45 percent of the city area, for water catchment areas.

Meanwhile, another study was conducted the same year by Trisakti University's Landscape Development Institute of the School of Landscape Design and Environmental Technology of Trisakti University. Using the same standard for green open spaces, Trisakti calculated the ideal green area needed to control air quality and absorb pollutants: Jakarta needs 23,500 ha of green space, or 36 percent of its total area.

However, the administration has set a green space target of only 13.94 percent of its area, which means that by 2010, the city's capacity to control air quality would be only 40 percent.

In other words, Jakarta would have less than one "lung".

According to the 2000-2010 Master City Plan, the administration intends to plant 6,202,816 trees between 2000 and 2010 out of a final target of 10,812,500 trees.

In comparison, Singapore has implemented a Parks and Trees Act and Parks and Trees Rules, which regulate tree felling and tree protection in the city-state. Melbourne has its Victoria's Heritage Act of 1995, which protects rare trees and old trees that have lived for hundreds of years.

To try and restore Jakarta as the "City of Trees" without undertaking any serious, professional efforts to manage and conserve our trees is futile, particularly as it takes dozens, even hundreds, of years for a tree to become large and magnificent. The same holds true for a city.

The writer is chairman of the Indonesian Landscape Architecture Study Group, Jakarta.