Government endorses Punclut project

Government endorses Punclut project

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung

Despite environmental concerns, the Bandung municipal
administration has given the green light to the development of
the Punclut conservation area in north Bandung, West Java.

Bandung Mayor Dada Rosada recently announced his
administration had approved plans to develop an agro-tourism
project on more than 100 hectares of land in Punclut. The project
will include greenhouses and a jogging track.

Punclut can be reached via Jl. Ciumbeuleuit, which runs
directly to Lembang. The area is crowded with tourists, both
local and foreign, and residents shopping along the sidewalks and
jogging around a track on weekends.

Hundreds of sidewalk vendors set up in the area, mostly
selling vegetables, fruits and Sundanese specialties such as nasi
timbel (rice wrapped in banana leaves). These vendors, who
reportedly can make hundreds of millions of rupiah, apparently
drew the interest of developers, who thought they could make even
bigger profits by doing the same thing as the vendors, only on a
larger scale.

Bandung Development Planning Agency head Tjetje Subrata said
permits had been issued to at least three developers for the
area. PT Dam Utama Sakti received a permit to develop 80
hectares, PT Mulya Sejati 30 hectares and PT Trigana will develop
a 0.9 hectare plot of land.

"The developers obtained the permits in 2000 from the former
mayor, Aa Tarmana, but the status of the land they will develop
is still unclear. We will give them the opportunity to develop
the land, but 80 percent of the Punclut area must be 'regreened'
first," Tjetje told The Jakarta Post recently.

He said developing Punclut could help prevent further damage
by squatters who build shanties in the area. However, he
acknowledged that any development work could cause controversy
because it would require the eviction of some residents.

He said an area of land occupied by eight community units of
more than 1,700 families, or 7,500 residents, would have to be
cleared. A large number of these residents do not possess land
ownership certificates and most of them are living on state land,
he claimed.

In order to avoid conflicts in the area of the planned Punclut
development, the municipality is at the moment working out an
agreement with several NGOs and residents.

The City Council also seems to have given the green light, if
not enthusiastically, to the development plan. The head of the
council's Commission D for residential and transportation
affairs, Idris Yusuf Lubis, said: "Just let the developers handle
it. The municipality is now overwhelmed and does not have
sufficient funds."

He said the government could not afford to buy the entire plot
of land and turn it into a conservation area because the city
development budget this year -- 12 percent of the Rp 1 trillion
(US$111 million) provincial budget -- was not sufficient.

However, the decision to entrust Punclut to developers has
angered some residents in the area. Ida Farida, 40, a resident of
Cipicung Girang, said she had given up talking about the plan.
Since 1997, she has had her land ownership certificates revoked
by the National Land Agency.

"They say that there will not be any development in the north
of Bandung, including Punclut, but lately it seems that
residents' land will be handed over to the developers," she said.

Sutiah, 36, a resident of Cipicung Hilir, said she did not
care about the plan as long as she and her family were
compensated for their house and land.

NGOs also are divided over the development plan. Tjetje
claimed that many local NGOs had voiced support for the project.
But an expert from the Sundanese Environmental and Observer
Council, Sobirin, has gone on record with his objections.

He said that anyone planning to develop Punclut had to offer
guarantees that they would reforest the area in order to preserve
water resources in Bandung.

A 1995 study by Bandung Institute of Technology hydrologist
Arwin Sabar found that only 30 percent to 40 percent of water
catchment areas in northern Bandung were still functioning.