Efforts under way to green Ciliwung

Efforts under way to green Ciliwung

Bambang Parlupi, Contributor/Jakarta

Small forests are still to be found in the outlying parts of
Jakarta despite the rapid development the city is witnessing.

These areas are located along the Ciliwung, the largest river
in Jakarta, which flows through numerous subdistricts from
Srengseng Sawah to Tanjung Barat in South Jakarta. Exploring
these areas is just like going through forested parts of West
Java and they are home to a great variety of flora and fauna.

One particularly green area is the forest in Srengseng Sawah,
Jagakarsa in the south of Jakarta. This forest, which borders
Depok and the University of Indonesia campus is home to over 50
species of plants that grow along the river floodplain.

Jackfruit, ketapang, durian and lanseh trees (Lansium
domesticum) grow freely in steeply-sloping areas.

There are also many species of taro and edible fern trees --
indicating how fertile some of these areas remain.

Several spots along the river bank are areas of natural bamboo
forest. So far, five species of bamboo have been identified and
they have been sustainably cultivated by the locals.

"Indigenous locals take good care of these forest areas
because they benefit from the plants that grow there," said a
local resident and subdistrict councillor, 35-year-old Sarman.

These locals take care of the forest areas that belong to the
government, based on zoning that has been passed down from one
generation to another.

This explained, Sarman said, why the floodplain of the
Ciliwung River, particularly in Srengseng Sawah, was still in a
natural state. "In some places, you can find houses standing
close to the river, but they belong to migrants that run their
own businesses along the river bank areas. They make tempeh and
tofu, for example, but they are small in number."

However, it is not all green and unspoiled. The pressures of
development are obvious in some areas, with garbage mounting up
in some spots.

The dump the local administration had designated was simply
not large enough to accommodate the amount of garbage the
residents produced, Sarman said.

"Worse still, the local administration's sanitation officers
rarely come to these places. That's why garbage from several
illegal sites is dumped here," neighborhood community No. 01 head
Neddi said.

The garbage in the rivers that flowed downstream from Depok
and Bogor also ended on the riverbanks, he said.

Sarman said one of the impediments to tidying up the area was
that locals living along the riverbanks were puzzled about the
status of the land on which their homes stood.

"There is not enough information about the extent of the
riverbank areas that locals may use for their homes. Of course
these areas belong to the government but very often information
about this does not reach the people in the lowest social
classes."

There was a regulation stipulating that a plot of land located
25 meters from a riverbank was controlled by the state.

Unfortunately, he went on, the regulation did not specify
whether the measurement started from the river bank or from
somewhere within the body of the river. Some land certificates,
for example, showed that the plots of land owned by locals
started some 15 meters away from the river bank, he said.

This confusion about the extent of the land that the
government controled would end up affecting the forest areas
growing along Ciliwung. If this confusion about land status was
cleared, much could be done to save the forest areas, he said.

Srengseng Sawah and Lenteng Agung are a natural home to a
number of wildlife species -- tropical nightingales, honey-
sucking birds, swallows, civets, squirrels, snakes, monitor
lizards and turtles.

"Now we don't allow anybody to shoot birds or catch monitor
lizards. It is true, however, that some youngsters violate this
prohibition just for fun," Neddi said.

In welcoming the National Program of Regreening and Nature
Conservation, formally initiated by deputy Jakarta governor Fauzi
Bowo on Dec. 12 this year, three subdistricts in South Jakarta --
Srengseng Sawah, Lenteng Agung and Tanjung Barat -- have been
made pilot projects of for environmentally friendly villages.

The conservation of forested areas along the Ciliwung River is
part of this program and is expected to generate added value to
the locals living in these areas.