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espite having made no major gains in achieving its initial goal, the city administration has said it aims for 34.51 percent of the city to be green space by 2030 — an adjustment from the previous target of 13 percent.

The new plan calls for garden roofs, green walls and absorption wells.

Jakarta’s 2030 Spatial Planning Bylaw draft states that the city would provide incentives for residents to have green open spaces.

Jakarta Development Planning Agency head Sarwo Handayani said he was upbeat that by applying old strategies, and with a Rp 350 billion (US$39 million) allocation in the 2011 budget, the city could achieve the 34.51 percent target as mandated by the 2030 spatial planning draft bylaw.

“We will continue to do what we have been doing, including buying land from residents, mandating developer participation, pushing residents to obey construction permits and improving law enforcement at the city’s Building Supervisory Agency’s,” she said.

Sarwo said that between 2007 and 2010 the administration had acquired 16.7 hectares of land to dedicate to green space.

The 2007 Law on spatial planning stipulates that a city should be at least 30 percent green space, including a 20 percent coverage of public green space.

In the 2030 planning draft, the city sets a target of 34.51 percent open green space, including 14.27 percent public green space.

However, the academic draft of the spatial planning elaborates that the actual target for the next 20 years will be 30 percent of the city’s total area of 662 square kilometers, comprising 14.27 percent public green space and at least 15.73 percent private green space.

Governor Fauzi Bowo said the city would focus on building “interactive” parks in five municipalities and building a 4.11 hectare city forest in Kebon Pisang in Penjaringan, North Jakarta.

The restored Kebon Pisang forest is expected to improve the scenery along the toll road leading to Soekarno Hatta International airport in Cengkareng.

The 14.27 percent target assumes that the city will expand the areas that currently contribute to the existing 10.46 percent green space coverage to 13.14 percent by restoring river banks, beaches and dams.

The controversial north coastal reclamation project in Jakarta is also expected to contribute an additional 1.12 percent to the public green space.

Jakarta’s spatial plan for open and green space has been reduced several times since the 1970s, a policy that has given way to plethora of high rises, including shopping centers, apartments, hotels and office buildings.

Under Governor Ali Sadikin’s administration, open and green spaces in Jakarta accounted for 37.2 percent of the city’s total area.

Under the 1985-2005 spatial plan, that target was reduced to 31.5 percent.

Governor Sutiyoso’s administration slashed this to 13.94 percent.

Fauzi’s administration’s most recent attempt to increase green space in the city was to convert 27 gas stations into parks or green areas.

The action has been praised by spatial planners as a bold move given that some of the stations are owned by powerful business tycoons.

The administration has so far been able to create 2.8 hectares of green space through the program.

The City’s Park and Cemetery Agency currently manages an area of 2,631 hectares, an increase from 2,609 hectare in 2009.

Agency head Catharina Suryowati said funding was a major problem facing increasing and maintaining green areas, but added that experts have suggested that this problem could be at least partly alleviated by increasing the public’s role in maintaining green areas in the city.