Cooler air means calmer people

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With the passage of time, the deterioration of Jakarta's physical environment has seemed like an irreversible process, with more and more people inhaling pollutant-laden air, drinking bacteria-laden water and living in an increasingly hotter microclimate.

Protecting the environment has proved to be a daunting task, with the development juggernaut encroaching upon every inch of open space in the crowded metropolis.

One man has labored to prove that human resolve can check the degradation process -- or even reverse it -- for the benefit of all.

Anyone who has ever visited the University of Indonesia (UI) campus in Depok, West Java, and enjoyed its cool, fresh air has Tarsoen Warsono to thank.

The top manager of UI's "city forest" has had a big hand in creating a pleasant environment in the 312-hectare campus.

It was Tarsoen who literally created the green area that envelops the campus from what was merely sprawling, derelict land located on the border of Jakarta and West Java province.

For eight years -- since 1987, when the UI campus was gradually moved from downtown Jakarta to hillside suburbia -- Tarsoen and his two assistants worked laboriously on the planting of trees on a massive scale and the development of six artificial lakes, based on a grand design termed Mahkota Hijau (the green crown).

Although Tarsoen is a biologist by training, he never had the slightest inkling that, eight years later, his project would result in substantial change to the UI environment.

Each morning cold mists descend from above tall trees and stay in the area each day. Downpours occur more frequently, even during the dry season. Most importantly, temperatures have begun to drop.

The most recent result of regular monitoring carried out by UI students showed that there had been as much as a 1.75-degree Celsius drop in temperature in the past 10 years.

Students now get to class in more pleasant surroundings than enjoyed by those of their peers who enroll at universities in downtown Jakarta; the latter, however, become involved more frequently in incidents of juvenile delinquency.

Such a pleasant environment has not only drawn students to study at UI and scores of universities around it, but also tens of thousands of people who flock to the UI campus every week for picnics.

An average of 50,000 people swarm the UI campus to jog, stroll or just hang around in its comfortable, balmy air.

The new environment has not only attracted people but also some animal species thought to be almost extinct after their original habitat was destroyed by massive loss of land in Depok to development.

Data from the UI Center for Development of the Campus Environment (PLK-UI) said that in 2001, 21 bird species, 34 of insects and seven species of reptile were found inside the UI city forest. Tarsoen said that in the late 1980s, there were probably only four species inhabiting the area.

Six artificial lakes inside the forest have also played an indispensable role, accommodating water that flows from Bogor and Depok before going downstream to Jakarta. They serve as a means of controlling flooding in the capital.

In recognition of all these accomplishments, earlier this month the Office of the State Minister for the Environment nominated Tarsoen for the Kalpataru award, the country's highest honor for individuals who have struggled to conserve the environment.

For Tarsoen, the award was the pinnacle of years of struggle to realize the ambitions of his youth.

In 1978, when he was still a young civil servant with the Ministry of Forestry, an American professor opened his mind to an idea that would become a lifelong obsession. Tarsoen was at the 8th World Forestry Congress.

"The professor told me that Jakarta should not merely become a metropolis, or center of Indonesia's economy, but also serve as the world's tropical city, which could become a model for others," Tarsoen told The Jakarta Post in an interview at his modest office located next to one of the six artificial lakes.

Tarsoen's big break in protecting the environment came in 1987, when he was invited by the Ministry of Education to take part in the construction of an environmentally friendly campus for UI.

The Cilacap, Central Java, native served as an assistant to Prof. Sambas Wirakusumah, a respected figure appointed by then education minister Noegroho Notosusanto as chief architect in the project.

He was asked to leave his post with the Ministry of Forestry in West Kalimantan and take up the job full-time. He was later given teaching duties at the university, joining the school of mathematics and natural sciences.

The 63-year-old lecturer is now pursuing a doctorate at the same university.

Tarsoen had a better chance to realize his vision when he was invited to join a team of experts tasked to draw up Government Regulation No. 67/1997, which required every regency and municipality in the country to create its own city forest.

His years of experience elevated him to a position where he was consulted on every project for city forest creation in Jakarta.

He is now in charge of the development of a 400-hectare city forest scattered over a number of locations in Jakarta.

Drawing from the Jakarta experience, Tarsoen realized that the capital was the only city in the country that was earnestly implementing the government regulation on city forests.

"Maybe, because of massive industrialization, we need green areas more than any other city in the country," he said.