Cooler air means calmer people

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.