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Ade Basir Baesuni: Puncak's tree-planting campaigner
The once pleasant air in the Puncak area of Bogor, West Java, is warmer now that the open green countryside has become a popular site for luxury villas
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The once pleasant air in the Puncak area of Bogor, West Java, is warmer now that the open green countryside has become a popular site for luxury villas.
ADE BASIR BAESUNI: (JP/Theresia Sufa)
The change has turned Ade Basir Baesuni into a determined conservationist, planting trees in the area wherever he can.
In his self-designed regreening campaign, the 40-year-old Bogor farmer and teacher has been supported by his students from Madrasah Aliyah Miftahulhuda senior high school and SMP Terbuka Amerta Megamendung junior high.
Ade said planting trees was easy; the difficult part is caring for them.
He said government officials and society groups had planted millions of trees in Puncak, sometimes with little effect.
"They just leave the trees without knowing whether they grow or die. Maybe they think the important thing is that they made a regreening effort and the job is done.
"Even though 5,000 to 10,000 trees have been planted in a single day, if they don't get proper care, it's a waste; they will die," Ade said.
Ade studied only as far as elementary school but he has a masterful knowledge of farming.
He successfully cultivated a seedling nursery and was asked to manage the gardens of SMP Terbuka. The school was established by the nongovernmental organization Gerakan Peduli Sekitar Kita (GPSK), which is largely made up of members of the Buddhist community.
The school is located on the grounds of the Vihara Myogan-ji Megamendung temple and built especially to receive children from poor families.
Apart from managing the junior high school's gardens, Ade was also given the job of teaching conservation. He also teaches students in the madrasa.
In 2000, Ade, who was born and raised in Megamedung, Bogor, gathered his fellow farmers and formed the farmers organization Paseban Asri Farmers' Group with a total of 40 members.
The first activity undertaken by the group was to create a seedling nursery in Cijulang hamlet of Kopo village, Megamendung.
They planted several varieties of trees especially well suited to reforestation purposes, such as mahogany, Dutch teak and Albasia.
At the same time, Ade also educated the community about the importance of planting trees.
He talked to locals and spent time at ojek (motorcycle taxi) stands to remind people to plant whatever trees they could, emphasizing that they shouldn't leave their yards empty.
"For me that communication is important. Although I only say hello for five minutes, my message for them to plant trees reaches them," said the father of two.
"Usually, from 10 people that I meet on the street or at the ojek stand, it's certain at least one is interested and follows up on the activities of the Paseban Asri Farmers' Group. There was also one family who straightaway planted a tree in their yard the next day."
For his conservation activities, Ade and his farmers' group were invited in 2003 by the GPSK organization to establish a nursery at the temple.
The organization has an annual regreening program, held especially during Buddhist religious festivals.
In addition, Ade was also asked to help make artesian wells and plant trees inside the temple complex.
The result is that an open green area of 13 hectares inside the temple complex has been changed into a small forest. Interestingly, water sources are discovered running from the trees' roots.
In 2006, Ade was entrusted with running SMP Amerta. Apart from teaching environmental classes, he also launched a program teaching students how to cultivate plants.
Together with his students and some members of the farmers group, Ade carries out a regreening program every month.
They plant a small number of trees -- just 20 to 30 at a time -- on empty and infertile land as well as on the banks of the Ciliwung River and at the edge of the main road in Puncak.
Every week, students from both schools divide into groups to water the plants.
Ade said the most difficult problem he faced was educating the owners of luxury villas since most of them lived in Jakarta.
"The average villa uses a lot of land but there are rarely any trees being planted. Every time we undertake a regreening campaign, we always distribute tree seeds for free to people, including the villa owners," Ade said.
He said that if a villa owner understood their campaign, the trees were usually planted, but if not, they were often thrown out, such as the time they planted trees on the private property of a steeply sloping riverbank in Kopo village.
"We knew already that was private land; we were helping to prevent any landslide," he said.
He blamed damage to the Puncak area on poor urban planning and weak supervision from the government.
During the Dutch period, Puncak had been set aside as a plantation area but it has now filled up with villas.
Even parts of the tea plantations have been plundered.
"I've already experienced the impacts of environmental damage in Puncak. We never used to have a water problem here, and there were never landslides even though this area is hilly," Ade said.
