Sutiyoso plans regreening project to fulfill dream of fruitful city
Sutiyoso plans regreening project to fulfill dream of fruitful city
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Pepaya, mangga, pisang, jambu, dibawa dari Pasar Minggu
(papaya, mango, banana, guava, brought from Pasar Minggu) goes a
popular folk song depicting Pasar Minggu in South Jakarta as a
fruit-producing area.
Today, however, Pasar Minggu has turned into a bustling urban
area with modern markets and residences and is notorious for
perpetual traffic congestion.
Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, however, now has a much more
ambitious project -- turning the whole capital into a Pasar
Minggu of the old days by offering fruit trees for free.
Sutiyoso, a retired Army general, encouraged people on Friday
to replant their disused land with around 115,000 free fruit
trees worth Rp 11.5 billion that the administration will provide.
"We don't have to acquire land since the residents themselves
will provide their land for the replanting and will grow fruit
trees," City Forestry and Agriculture Agency head Mauritz
Napitupulu quoted Sutiyoso as saying during a meeting at City
Hall.
Mauritz stressed that the program would be more effective than
previous replanting programs, which mostly relied on land owned
by the administration.
"To encourage residents to take part in the campaign, we will
let them reap all the benefits from the fruit trees planted.
Officers from our agency will help take care of the trees once a
month," he said.
He said Sutiyoso had instructed him to immediately implement
the program.
"He (Sutiyoso) told me to start the program before the wet
season comes, which will peak in January and February this year,"
he said.
Mango, rambutan, cassava, durian and star fruit are among
varieties of fruit trees the administration will provide for
free.
Meanwhile, City Parks Agency head Sarwo Handhayani said her
agency would also take part in the drive by planting seed-
producing trees in city parks.
"We will prioritize planting seed-producing trees at some of
our big city parks, like National Monument Park (Monas) and
Lapangan Banteng Park, to invite more birds to live there thanks
to the food available there," Sarwo said.
The city administration hopes 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 in its 2000-2010 master plan.
Currently, there are 5,911 hectares of open and green spaces, or
9 percent of the capital's land area.
Environmentalists have repeatedly said that green areas should
ideally comprise around 30 percent of the city's total area to
help ease flooding and reduce air pollution.
They also criticized the administration's failure to maintain
many green areas in the city, on which office buildings have been
built.