City forests in dire need of donors

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite the city administration's oft proclaimed intention of expanding green areas across the capital, it has no money to maintain the existing 18 urban forests that cover a total of 195.8 hectares in the city.

Jakarta Agriculture and Forestry Agency head Peni Susanti revealed that her office only received Rp 2.3 billion (US$270.588) per year for the maintenance of urban forests.

"What do you expect from such a meager amount of money? Of course, the answer is that we cannot do much," Peni told The Jakarta Post recently.

Peni, who has just returned from a trip to Singapore to observe the city state's policy in dealing with its forests, said that the money she received was 12 times less than that allocated by Singapore to finance the maintenance of its urban forests.

Due to the financial constraints being faced, she said, her agency had invited private individuals and businesspeople to take part in the protection of urban forests.

"So far, there have been some private sector firms that have taken part in our scheme to rehabilitate some of our damaged forests. But still, the numbers are very few," she remarked.

Without public participation, she asserted, all measures taken to protect the city's forests would be to no avail.

Some forests had been damaged by pollution and conversion to commercial uses.

Urban forests, among other functions, serve as the city's lungs and water catchment areas, and play host to a significant variety of plants and animals.

In line with the policy of protecting the city's forests, Governor Sutiyoso had earlier expressed his intention of developing the mangrove forests at Muara Angke, North Jakarta, which are a wildlife conservation area, into an ecotourism site.

Sutiyoso said that the mangrove forests, which were home to troupes of long-tailed monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) and monitor lizards, would soon be opened up for public recreational use.

"We will use next year's city budget to finance the project," Sutiyoso said.

Peni added the development of an ecotourism site at Muara Angke was part of the effort to regreen the capital.

"We want to increase the city's green areas to up to 13.9 percent of the total land area of Jakarta by 2010, up from the current 9 percent," said Peni.

Jakarta has a total area of 63,744 hectares.

Government Regulation No. 63/2002 on urban forests suggests that each city should set aside at least 10 percent of its total area for green areas.