Green Maps show oases of calm in the city

Fritz Kuhlmann, Contributor, Jakarta

Complaining is all too easy sometimes. Jakarta is strangled by traffic, a concrete jungle, suffocating from pollution, dirty and frantic, common knowledge says. But that is only one side of the city.

There is another, greener side. But it sometimes is hidden, neglected or ignored.

"There are open spaces, but they are not really accessible or inviting," urban designer Marco Kusumawijaya said recently. "A lot of people actually don't really know the city they live in."

There is that fabulous mangrove forest north of Kota near the shore where even monkeys play. But it completely lacks paths to stroll on, signs explaining where to go and some locals use certain spots of it as a garbage dump, Marco explained.

Even in posh Menteng, Central Jakarta, there are neglected spots like one near busy Jl. Cokroaminoto. A very small hedge and a very big sign indicate that this is supposed to be a public park.

In fact there are some trees mysteriously managing to survive. But the ground is covered with dead leaves, occasionally joined by some crumpled plastic bags.

But neglect does not seem to be the main problem -- it's the sheer scarcety of parks.

"There are just too few green spaces in the city," a young man from the neighborhood said, walking his puppy.

"But it wouldn't really make sense to have more of them if all too often you don't even have proper sidewalks for pedestrians, for a start," his female companion commented.

In fact, the authorities, at least in the city center, do provide good maintenance of most green areas. Directly behind Menteng Plaza, for instance, there is a small garden with a bright blue painted fence, lush green grass, fully equipped with winding paths, benches to sit on and even some flowers. Not far from there is the spacious Taman Suropati that features fountains and sculptures.

Less fortunate quarters of Jakarta like central Kota, though, hardly have any park. Quite a few designated green areas in the past have been converted into parking lots or built upon. This calls into question the Jakarta master plan 2000-2010 that aims at increasing the proportion of the city's green spaces from 9 percent to almost 13 percent of its total land area.

The master plan also simply accommodated some of the violations of the previous plan. More parks are built, as the city government stresses, but perhaps for the time being, not enough.

Still, compared to Bangkok, for instance, the situation in Jakarta might not be that bad. In the center of the Thai metropolis, Buddhist temples with their gardens often are the only green spot to provide shelter for the rest-seeking pedestrian.

Thai people put nicely potted plants in front of their houses, but this does not make up for the lack of street greenbelts. Anyway, many citizens of Jakarta prefer indoor window-shopping instead of going to a park. On weekends, the malls are crowded. During daytime, everyone seeks to escape the heat of the sun, but it also became a matter of lifestyle and status. Malls have the image of being modern, they represent a glitzy world just like in those Hollywood movies. Ironically, the concept of city parks itself is quite "Western". At night, most parks in Jakarta become meat markets of prostitution. So even when the sun is down, most people would not like to go for a walk in those gardens.

Instead of complaining, a group of volunteers organized by Marco Kusumawijaya have put together a Green Map of Kota to follow that of Menteng.

"But it's not all about trees, birds, nature," he stressed. His collaborators also look for cultural sights like temples or for fair trade shops. The aim, Marco said, "is to help people live a better, a more sustainable life".

So Green Mappers don't cry out for political demands?

"We simply try to raise awareness by providing information," Marco said.

More than 40 different icons are used to indicate points of interest on the map. The volunteers collect all the data themselves by going out into the streets to gather first-hand information.

"It's like a hobby," volunteer Marisa Kamici, 30, said. She is a landscape architect and her office is in the neighborhood. But sometimes the researchers, asking around among the inhabitants of Kota, meet mixed emotions.

"For some people, the whole concept of environmentalism seems so strange, they don't understand what we are doing," Marisa said. "Others are afraid we might be some kind of control, reporting to the government."

So the Green Mappers carefully weigh their findings. Marisa discovered that in one of the traditional Chinese markets of Glodok, turtles are on sale, apparently an endangered species, protected by law.

After intensive discussion of the group, that, too, will be marked in the Kota map.

"We are not judging people," Marco said. "But we tell things the way they are."

The Green Map movement is a global one, from a concept invented in the early 1990s by Wendy Brawer from New York. The American has related that she decided to "go green" after an orangutan at the Yogyakarta Zoo tossed a stone her way during a visit in 1989.

"Three years ago I went to the U.S. and got introduced into that methodology," Marco said.

For areas outside Jakarta, the Green Map Yogyakarta was launched in 2002, and Marco is currently working on one for Bukittinggi, West Sumatra.

Still, the Green Maps are somewhat marginal. They are on sale in only one single bookshop in Kemang, South Jakarta, and through the group's website.

"We don't have a marketing unit," Marco said. The group does receive some funding from the World Bank's small loans program.

"It's actually easier to get money than to get people involved into discovering the green spots of the city," Marco said. "Many Jakartans just don't care."