Governor asks for help to green the city
Governor asks for help to green the city
JAKARTA (JP): Governor Sutiyoso has urged public and private
parties in the capital to help the administration maintain the
city's forests and, if necessary, plant more trees to spruce up
the capital.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday, the governor said his
administration could "do nothing" to preserve existing trees due
to cuts in the city budget for this year.
He said the authorities had no choice but to rely on help from
the public and the business community in particular to make the
campaign to green the city a success.
"People should be aware that we all badly need adequate space
for city forests which would provide habitat for wildlife and act
as the city's lungs by helping to clean the air," Sutiyoso said
after inaugurating the 10-hectare Wales Barat city forest at the
University of Indonesia's Depok campus to the south of here.
He admitted that the space available for city forests in the
capital was now very limited and expressed his disapproval of
building owners who displayed a reluctance to plant trees in the
grounds of their properties.
He promised to send them letters urging them to plant more
trees.
The governor, who is also an active three-star general in the
military, refused to disclose what punishment he had in store for
property owners who continued to ignore his pleas, saying only:
"They should be ashamed if they have to be summoned by the
governor only to talk about planting trees."
The greening program, he said, "is in the interests of the
next generation".
He also questioned why many developers were reluctant to
replant trees once construction projects have been completed.
"It's not surprising why many parts of Jakarta are often
inundated with floods every rainy season because we have fewer
and fewer water catchment areas," he said.
During the ceremony in Depok, Sutiyoso ceremonially planted
one of the 6,500 trees from 100 species which will be grown on
the site.
The Rp 1.3 billion project is being financed by Mobil Oil
Indonesia to mark its 100th anniversary, which falls this year.
The acting head of the forestry ministry's city office, Ade
Djuhariah Saal, said Jakarta, which covers an area of 655 square
kilometers, currently has only 300 hectares of forest spread over
15 locations. Some of the forested areas can be found at
Srengseng in South Jakarta, and at Cilangkap and Cijantung in
East Jakarta.
The ideal area for a city the size of Jakarta would be about
720 hectares, she said.
"Some of the forests have been turned into housing complexes
and golf courses or put to other uses," Ade said, citing forests
in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, and Pluit, North Jakarta.
Ade claimed a plot of at least 250 square meters in size with
trees planted on it could be classed as a city forest. (ind/bsr)