Trees in Jakarta not fit for urban areas, expert says

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The suitability of trees planted as part of Jakarta's regreening campaign has come into question, as apparently many are unlikely to withstand heavy storms during the rainy season.

An urban planning expert of Trisakti University, Yayat Supriyatna, told The Jakarta Post on Monday that the success of the Jakarta administration's regreening campaign was debatable, as it was evident after tropical storm Linda hit Jakarta last Friday that the planting of many trees in the city had not been properly planned.

"Jakarta's leaders have long been obsessed with regreening the capital. However, they must remember that trees with strong roots and tough branches are definitely needed for urban areas," he said.

"The trees also have the function of protecting the city from sunlight and rain, and reducing pollution and heat."

Governor Sutiyoso had launched the Jakarta Ijo Royo-royo (Green Jakarta) program under which the City Park Agency will plant a total of 10 million trees by 2010. As of last year, the city had already planted 4.6 million trees.

Yayat suggested city officials pay more attention to the maintenance of trees.

"The park agency must focus on the maintenance of trees of more than 20-years old, as they are prone to falling," he said.

The violent storm that hit the capital on Friday uprooted around 200 trees, mostly in the South Jakarta area. Most of the trees were angsana trees, although canary trees, banyan, palms, khaya and poinciana trees were also toppled in the storm.

"I am still trying to work out which trees would be perfect for the city," Yayat said.

The city's Development Planning Board (Bappeda) had said in 1997 that acacia, poinciana and angsana trees were not recommended for the regreening campaign. Instead, the board suggested the city administration plant mahogany, tanjung and timber trees.

On Monday, uprooted trees and broken branches were still strewn along Jl. Hang Lekir, Jl. Pakubuwono and Jl. Leuser in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta.

City Park Agency head Sarwo Handhayani said her agency was still working to clean up the mess.

"Our personnel are still in the field, working to take the logs to Srengseng," she said, referring to the agency's seedling unit in West Jakarta.

She said that the agency planned to carry out an evaluation of the condition of trees across the capital. However, she admitted that the agency did not have any guidelines on the correlation between a tree's age and its likelihood of falling.

"Some trees are 40 years old but they are still in good condition," she said.