Sutiyoso dreams of a garden city
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The names of several areas of Jakarta evoke a pretty picture of the city -- Kebon Jeruk (orange garden) in West Jakarta, Kebon Kacang (peanut garden) in Central Jakarta and Kebon Nanas (pineapple garden) in East Jakarta -- though reality offers a less appealing view.
However, the administration has set about making the capital more attractive through inviting residents to plant their yards with fruit trees.
"Last week, we began planting around 400 fruit trees in several sites in Sawah Besar, Central Jakarta, and Kebayoran Lama, South Jakarta, and we have many others locations in mind," said the city's forestry and agriculture agency head, Mauritz Napitupulu, on Saturday.
Mauritz revealed that several housing complexes in South Jakarta, such as the National Atomic Energy Agency (BATAN) housing complex, the Ministry of Agriculture housing complex, and some others in East Jakarta had asked to be included in the program.
He said the administration planned to distribute among interested residents a total of more than 115,000 fruit trees, worth Rp 11.5 billion (US$1.29 million), this year for free.
"We will only require the residents to fill in a form so that we can draw a map of the locations where we have planted the trees based on the forms," he said.
The forms, he added, were also necessary to prevent unscrupulous residents from selling the trees.
Each two-meter-tall tree is worth between Rp 100,000 and Rp 150,000. The administration plans to provide, among other varieties of tropical fruit trees: mango, guava, durian, rambutan and star fruit.
He said the agency would periodically visit the residents' houses to fertilize the trees, and the residents were only required to water them.
Governor Sutiyoso said the fruit tree scheme was part of his program Jakarta Ijo Royo-Royo dan Burung Berkicau (Jakarta is green and has singing birds).
The Jakarta Parks Agency said that it would also take part in the drive by planting seed-producing trees in parks to attract birds.
Environmentalists have warned that Jakarta, which is the world's third most polluted city after Mexico City and Bangkok, is in dire need of more trees.
Increasing green areas in the city could also help ease flooding, which has become an annual occurrence.
The administration has targeted to reserve a total of 9,155.8 hectares, or 13.94 percent of Jakarta's area of 65,680 hectares, for open and green spaces by 2010. The target has been stipulated in the city's master plan for 2000 to 2010. So far, the administration has only managed to maintain 5,911 hectares of open and green spaces, or 9 percent of the capital's land area.