Jakarta must protect its mangrove forests

Jakarta must protect its mangrove forests

Nirwono Joga, Chairman, Indonesian Landscape Architecture Study
Group, Jakarta

The Agricultural and Forestry Service has introduced its
mangrove eco-tourism program, an idea in the works for quite a
while. This program is actually an effort to commercialize, not
conserve, mangrove forests. It is obvious that the Jakarta
provincial administration is excellent at "selling" assets,
rather than protecting and conserving them.

This program is said to come from an old idea as various
environmental practitioners and activists have offered this
program to the Jakarta provincial administration as far back as
the 1980s as a solution to "conserve and develop" mangrove
forests and prevent the conversion of mangrove forests into posh
residential areas along with the expansion of the toll road
leading to Soekarno-Hatta international airport.

It is actually quite ridiculous, therefore, to hear the
Jakarta administration now come up with this program instead of
rehabilitating the mangrove forests, which continue to shrink and
what is left is in a terrible state. It also shows that the
Jakarta administration is oblivious to environmental concerns.

Jakarta bylaw No. 6/1999 on the plan for Jakarta's 2000 --
2010 spatial layout design sets the target of the city's green
open space at only 13.94 percent (9,545 hectares) of the total
city area, much lower than the ideal rate of 30 percent.

Meanwhile, in reality the existing green areas now makes up
only about 9.04 percent (6,190 hectares) of the total area of
Jakarta (66,152 hectares). If the motto of sustainable
development remains mere rhetoric and the conversion of green
areas, including protected mangrove forests, for non-
environmental purposes continues unabated, it will be difficult
to reach the target of 13 percent, let alone the ideal of 30
percent.

Mangrove forests as one of the main components of a city's
green space have been stipulated as protected forest areas.
Therefore, all plans related to rehabilitation, renovation,
reconstruction, preservation or conservation, especially
commercialization, require a thorough, profound and independent
analysis of impacts on the environment and on the society. This
means that the plan to develop mangrove eco-tourism areas in
Muara Angke also requires this compulsory impact analysis.

Unfortunately, the Jakarta administration has never shown
consistency in implementing sustainable development. The Jakarta
administration has instead converted part of the protected
mangrove forest in Muara Angke into Pantai Indah Kapuk luxury
housing estate.

As a result, the mangrove forest area has been reduced from
1,200 hectares in 1998 to just 327 hectares in 2003 and part of
Pluit Reservoir was converted for the construction of Mega Mall
Pluit. In this context, the losses on the part of the city
residents are manifold. Mangrove forests are the world's most
productive ecosystems and therefore highly important for
environmental conservation.

A mangrove forest is a unique ecosystem as it encompasses
three areas at the same time: Land, coastal and marine areas,
which, despite their otherwise disparate functions and
ecosystems, are closely inter-related. A mangrove ecosystem
bridges the land and marine communities. The unique character of
a mangrove forest ecosystem has made it home to a typical
biodiversity of organisms of animals living on land, in the sea
and in the air. Mangrove forest areas are also places where
various species of sea fauna spawn and various kinds of
seashells, shrimp and crabs multiply. They are also home to
hundreds of species of birds and often long-tailed monkeys.

Mangrove forests are the right place for marine creatures to
survive. They are an ideal habitat for coral reefs, elements
important for the conservation of urban coastal areas.

Indonesia's has the world's largest number of mangrove
forests. Tragically, over 75 percent of these, including the one
in Angke, have been either seriously encroached upon or wiped out
altogether.

For Jakarta, mangrove forests, ecologically, serve to prevent
the intrusion of sea-water, which, reportedly, has extended as
far as 14 kilometers inland to the Taman Silang Monas area, or
about a third of Jakarta's total area (2003).

A mangrove forest is also necessary to withstand coastal
abrasion, which has destroyed over 50 percent of the coastal area
in the northern parts of Jakarta. Mangrove forests are also the
ideal protection against strong winds and huge offshore waves,
very effective in absorbing water runoff from rivers, including
potential floodwaters and a good neutralizer of marine
contamination by acting as nature's filter.

For aviation and airports close to the sea, such as the
Soekarno-Hatta international airport, mangrove forests are the
habitat for hundreds of species of birds are very important for
flight safety. Hundreds of species of birds, such as seagulls,
herons, starlings, sparrows and many others, live or often visit
mangrove forest areas. Their flight routes are regular, so unless
these birds are well managed, they may cause trouble for aircraft
engines.

Even the Soekarno-Hatta international airport has received a
lot of protests from foreign airliners regarding disturbances
caused by the flight route of these birds. Luckily, there have
been no accidents caused so far. But, of course, prevention is
better than a cure.

If it is indeed seriously committed to sustainable development
and intends to develop mangrove eco-tourism, the greatest
challenge that the Jakarta administration is facing is, first of
all, how to totally rehabilitate protected mangrove forest areas,
which are now badly devastated, so that they will be restored to
their normal condition. Water pollution, piles of garbage and
illegal dwellings, now a common sight, must be wisely dealt with
in a well-thought-out long-term plan.

Efforts to rejuvenate and conserve mangrove forests obviously
take time because the planting of mangrove trees and nipa palms,
two species of plants most dominant in a mangrove forest, from
seed-sowing up to time when they grow to maturity takes at least
15 to 20 years. As the forests are in a badly damaged condition
now, the seeds, especially those of mangrove, can easily die when
sowed, so the planting process needs special attention.

In line with the rehabilitation of mangrove forest areas, the
Jakarta administration and the locals around these mangrove
forest areas, can begin planning the most suitable mangrove eco-
tourism program without adverse effects on the locals' livelihood
and also without disrupting the conservation of mangrove forest
areas themselves.

This planning must involve the locals from the beginning up to
the implementation stage. Regular public hearings must be
conducted. Academics and environmental activists and
practitioners may team up to provide technical assistance for the
rehabilitation of mangrove forest areas and offer the most
suitable eco-tourism development program.

The Jakarta administration and legislative council must also
immediately draft a regional regulation on the conservation of
the city's green open space, including mangrove forest areas, as
the city's assets. In no way and under no circumstances can
mangrove forests areas be converted for commercial purposes.

A city is not built simply on the basis of a discourse. The
building of a city is based on sustainable development undertaken
with full commitment and consistency, regardless of who the
building parties are. Guaranteeing the sustainability of mangrove
forest areas is tantamount to guaranteeing the sustainable
existence of the city and its residents.