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Jakarta Post

Time to go green, or wait 680 years to achieve target

The city needs to make some breakthroughs to expand green areas by using idle spaces such as riverbanks, strips along railway lines and under elevated roads, experts said Thursday

Desy Nurhayati (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, August 28, 2009

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Time to go green, or wait 680 years to achieve target

T

he city needs to make some breakthroughs to expand green areas by using idle spaces such as riverbanks, strips along railway lines and under elevated roads, experts said Thursday.   

Without this, the 14 percent green-area target citywide could only be reached in 680 years, considering the present expansion rate of green space is only 4 hectares per year, said Nirwono Joga, from
Indonesian Landscape Architecture Study Group.   

The city targets to designate 14 percent of Jakarta to green areas by 2010.

Out of the 14 percent, the city has only designated 9.97 percent, equivalent to 6,826 hectares and thus still has around 4 percent or 2,700 hectares to identify.

“If we calculate the 2,700 hectares with an expansion rate of 4 hectares per year, the target will only be reached in 680 years,” Nirwono said during a discussion on green spaces.

The city’s target is still far lower than the minimum requirement of 30 percent of green space that a city should provide, as stipulated by the 2007 Law on Spatial Planning.

Nirwono criticized the administration for failing to fulfill the target, saying that a limited budget and a lack of political initiative had caused the lack of green space in the city. The administration was also unable to control the rising use of green areas for development of commercial buildings.

“Therefore, breakthroughs are needed to accelerate the expansion of green areas,” he said.

“Idle spaces can provide a considerable amount of green space if the administration makes use of them.”

He said turning the banks of the city’s 13 main rivers into green areas could contribute as much as 280 hectares of green space, by allocating 5 meters on each side of the 280-kilometer long banks.

Making use of idle land under elevated roads could provide an additional 100 hectares to the city’s green areas, he said.

“Functioning strips along railways, electricity power plants and sidewalks citywide could contribute 60 hectares, 200 hectares and 240 hectares, respectively.”    

“Areas around artificial dams and lakes, as well as buffer zones in the city’s northern coastline, can give a total of 875 hectares,” he added.

The administration has been heavily criticized by environmental activists and urban planning experts for handing out permits too readily to companies to build commercial premises, in areas that were designated as green spaces.

Bernardus Djonoputro, from the Indonesian Spatial Planning Experts Union (IAP) said efforts to conserve the city’s environment often contradicted business interests.   

“This rapid development is also a consequence of Jakarta’s vision to be a service city,” he said.

“Around 10 years ago, the city’s development concentrated only around the western and eastern parts, but now it is expanding to the northern coast, with a plan for reclamation.”

Both Nirwono and Bernardus suggested the administration provide incentives and disincentives to push all the stakeholders in the city to provide green areas.

This mechanism is outlined in the Spatial Planning Law, which stipulates that incentives are given in terms of, for example, tax reductions, compensation and awards. Nirwono also urged the administration to collect accurate data on private and public green spaces and to push property developers to fulfill their obligation to allocate between 20 and 30 percent of their occupied areas to green areas.

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