Environmental damage unabated

Environmental damage unabated

Bambang Nurbianto and Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

Devastating floods hit Greater Jakarta recently, paralyzing most
of the capital for three weeks from late January to mid-February.
At least 22 people died and 300,000 were displaced across the
city. Many people, particularly environmentalists, blamed
uncontrolled, illegal construction in several designated "green
areas" in and around the capital as the major causes of the Great
Flood of 2002.

Last week The Jakarta Post visited the Bopunjur green area,
which was designated as the main water catchment area for the
upper Ciliwung river, which eventually flows through Jakarta.

The issue of environmental damage in the Puncak area in Bogor
and Cianjur regencies, West Java, has featured in almost all
publications in the nation following the recent huge floods that
hit Jakarta.

The upland area should be maintained as a green area that
functions as a water catchment and environmental buffer zone.
But it continues to see the conversion of green areas into
businesses and settlements, such as villas and hotels.

The environmental damage will likely be unstoppable, at least
in the near future, as so far there is no positive sign that
environmentally friendly development policies might be adopted in
these areas.

Four presidential decrees, issued between 1963 and 1999, have
proved toothless in trying to prevent environmental damage.

In the latest presidential decree, the Puncak area, which is
also known by the acronym Bopunjur, covers 11 subdistricts in
Bogor regency, three subdistricts in Cianjur regency and three
subdistricts in both Cianjur mayoralty and Depok mayoralty, (all
in West Java), and two subdistricts in Tangerang regency, Banten
province.

But the current focus of public attention, however, is on the
Puncak tourist resort in three subdistricts in Bogor -- Cisarua,
Ciawi and Mega Mendung -- which cover 18,298.9 hectares of land.
The area functions as a water catchment for the Ciliwung river,
which originates here and subsequently flows into the Java sea
via Jakarta.

Environmental damage due to continuing conversion of green
areas, such as forests and tea plantations, into businesses and
settlement areas is believed to have contributed to the
devastating floods in the capital from late January to mid-
February.

The areas that have been extensively covered over with
concrete can no longer absorb rainwater. The flooding in Jakarta
was made worse, as the rain water in the areas directly flowed
through the Ciliwung river and its tributaries into Jakarta.

The Ciliwung river has at least seven tributaries originating
in the area: the Cisukabarus, Cibogo, Cisarua, Cilember, Ciluar,
Cisesek, and Cibuluh.

Another indication of environmental damage in Bopunjur is the
level of erosion. Every year some 400 tons of mud from each
hectare of land are transported to the Ciliwung river through the
tributaries. The tolerable erosion rate is 39 tons per year per
hectare.

Mas Ahmad Santoso of the Indonesian Center for Environmental
Law (ICEL) said weak law enforcement would worsen environmental
conditions in the area. "A crackdown against illegal villas
should be carried out, otherwise it will encourage others to
indulge in similar illegal activities," he told The Jakarta Post.

Mas Ahmad is right. People in several villages in the Puncak
have easily occupied state land without fear of legal action by
the authorities.

Such illegal occupation of state land in the areas is still
taking place.

Ace Sulaeman of the state-owned plantation company PTP
Nusantara VIII Perkebunan Gunung Emas said over 400 hectares of
state land had been claimed by people known as penggarap
(cultivators) after they cut down the tea plants.

"Cultivator" is a term that does not only refer to local
farmers, who cultivate state land, as it could be rich people
from Jakarta, who bought state land from illegal occupants.

The state land occupation began in 1997 when the land
concession (HGU) of the state plantation company PTP Nusantara
VII expired. From that time, people did not only occupy the
nonproductive state land, but also cleared away tea plantations,
which were still productive.

The people thought they could freely cultivate the state land,
whose status was not clear as to whether it was part of PTP
Nusantara VII's cultivation rights on about 1,700 hectares of tea
plantation in the area.

The land speculators worsened the condition. The speculators
wanted to buy the land from the cultivators although the land was
not supported by adequate documentation.

"As we know that the land is owned by the state, we will not
issue any transaction documents. We may only make a note about
any deal, without further consequences," said head of Tugu Utara
village in Cisarua subdistrict, Jajat Sudrajat.

But many others made transactions without their being
witnessed by government officials. The land buyers were mostly
rich people, who did not care about the amount of money they
spent on buying state land, at a price of only Rp 15,000 per
square meter, said Ace, adding that many of them bought the land
by the hectare.

Initially, the new buyers of state land simply hired farmers
to cultivate the land for vegetables, such as tomatoes, cabbages,
mustard greens and onions. But in the long term, they built
villas or houses.

Dozens of such buildings could be found on state land in
several villages in Cisarua subdistricts, like Kopo, Sukagalih,
and Cidokom.

"There are five villas built on state land in this village. I
have reported them to the subdistrict office, but I have not seen
any followup," said Hudan Mutakin, head of Sukagalih village,
located some eight kilometers from the main road connecting
Jakarta and Cianjur.

Tea plantations were not the only target of land speculators
as the 127 hectares of Balekambang reserve forests and 125
hectares of Mandalawangi protected forest in Cisarua have been
totally occupied by the cultivators and land speculators,
according to Ace.

"If the authorities cannot stop the change of use of the green
areas to other functions such as villas, the flooding problem in
Jakarta cannot be comprehensively resolved," Mas Ahmad concluded.