Rapid deforestation threatens botanical gardens

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Anyone who has ever traveled to Puncak resort can easily observe the presence of vegetables farms and luxurious houses on the hills along the road that lead to the Cibodas Botanical Garden in Cianjur Regency, West Java.

Some of the houses and vegetable farms can be found along the riverbanks and on steep hills where, in the event of torrential rain, they are vulnerable to landslides.

The houses and vegetables farms also have displaced water catchment areas in the region.

A recent survey conducted by the Cibodas Botanical Garden revealed that water catchment areas -- deemed to be very important for water conservation and prevention of floods, during the rainy season -- now only account for 12 percent of 322-square-kilometer area upstream of Ciliwung River around the garden.

The survey concluded that massive population growth in the last 20 years had taken a toll in the degradation of the water catchment areas in Bogor, Puncak and Cianjur (Bopunjur), West Java and would, in the long run, encroach on the botanical garden itself.

The head of the Cibodas Botanical Garden, Holif Immamudin, said that rapid deforestation had also resulted in the increase of temperatures in the garden.

"Twenty years ago the temperature here ranged from 16 to 17 degrees Celsius, but now it averages around 18," he told reporters who were on a field trip in the botanical garden on Tuesday.

He said that unless the deforestation was halted soon, the population in the area would suffer the consequences.

According to Holif, regular flooding in Jakarta and a recent string of landlsides in West Java were the result of the vanishing water catchment areas.

"If this haphazard land conversion is not stopped, Jakarta will also run short of ground water in the next 10 years," he said.

An employee at the botanical garden, Didin Nurdin, said most people came to the park for its cool weather. But the temperature had increased by one degree Celsius in each passing decade.

Both agreed that a violation of the regulations pertaining to the natural conservation had sped up the environmental degradation here.

"The minister of forestry's decree No.284/1999 on water catchment areas stipulates that no building can be constructed within 100 meters of the riverside, but here you can easily see that a house was built very close to the river," Holif told The Jakarta Post while pointing at one violator's home.

He also suggested that the central government take over the management of the water catchment areas from the local government.

"Local governments willing give permission for the construction of houses in the water catchment areas simply out of financial considerations, but without taking natural preservation into account," he said.

Because what is at stake is the life of the botanical garden itself, Holif said that the garden's management had embarked on a campaign to save the surrounding environment.

"We have prepared a large number of seedlings for a reforestation drive," he said, adding that the botanical garden could not start the reforestation program by itself.

Currently, the management of the botanical garden in collaboration with the Surrey, U.K.-based Botanical Gardens Conservation International (BCGI) is undertaking a program called Investing in Nature.

The program is aimed at educating teachers about natural conservation.

"Currently there are around 300 teachers involved in activities ranging from lectures, garden tours and discussions," said Bian Tan, the BCGI's South east Asia program coordinator.

He hoped that after the program, the teachers could educate their students on the importance of nature and the environment, and how severe the environmental devastation has become.