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couple, Namira and Rama, were spotted hanging out on a bench under the trees in the Cijantung forest on a Saturday afternoon. They said they visited the urban forest to sit and feel the breeze after leaving Cijantung Mall, which is located nearby.

“We’re lucky that we live not only near a mall, but also near a forest. We can balance our lives between the city and a little bit of nature,” Namira said with a laugh.

Amid Jakarta’s rapid and sprawling development, the presence of urban forests is often overlooked by the city’s love for anything concrete.

Cities are required to allocate at least 10 percent of their total area for urban forest, as stipulated in a 2002 government regulation. In Jakarta, where vacant land is limited, urban forests occupy 149 hectares, only 0.23 percent of Jakarta’s total of 661 square kilometers, according to data from the Environment and Forestry Ministry.

Still, urban forests in Jakarta are no urban legends. An example of a preserved urban forest is the Cijantung forest in Pasar Rebo, East Jakarta.

Dozens of varieties of flora grow in the 1.75-ha forest, which is situated at the edge of the Army Special Forces (Kopassus) headquarters area. The forest is surrounded by Cijantung Park, Graha Cijantung Mall, the Army’s office buildings and residences.

Cijantung’s urban forest caretaker, Mujito, and two colleagues tend the plants every day with weekend shifts taken in turns.

They work with East Jakarta Forest Agency officers called the Tim Hijau (green team), consisting of seven people whose duties include taking care of the plants and tidying up the area.

“A forest is nothing like a park. Most people don’t intentionally come here to spend their leisure time. Forests don’t have as many facilities as parks. They don’t have pretty decorative plants and they have gazillions of mosquitoes,” he told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

The Cijantung urban forest only has a jogging track, a few benches, some food stalls that only open on Sunday, a public restroom and a hut. While taking care of a park is aimed at making everything pretty to please the eyes of visitors, Mujito said that an urban forest got different treatment. The workers should make it as natural as a real forest.

“For example, we don’t throw away the fallen leaves. We just sweep them away from the jogging track and spread them under the trees until they decompose,” he said.

Such urban forests play an important role in city life. Not only do the trees provide oxygen for other living creatures, urban forests are used as tourist attractions and research centers, as well as for flood prevention and germplasm biodiversity conservation.

The Cijantung Forest is one of 15 urban forests in East Jakarta. They occupy 73.3 ha in the 188-sq-km municipality.

“We’re trying to preserve flora biodiversity in our urban forests, maintain tree density and the forests’ cleanness, especially from plastic waste,” the head of the East Jakarta Forest Agency, Romy Sidharta, recently said as reported by kompas.com.

East Jakarta’s urban forests were recently awarded an Adipura environmental award for being the best urban forests in 2017 and 2018, with Vice President Jusuf Kalla presenting the prestigious award on Jan. 14. Cijantung and the Munjul and Rawa Dongkol urban forests are the best known in the area. Others include the Cipayung, Ciracas, Setu and Halim urban forests.

The Environment and Forestry Ministry’s 2016 decree for the Adipura program sets out two things to measure for the urban forest category: tree density and flora biodiversity. An urban forest is considered good if the trees grow densely and it is home to more than 71 varieties of plants.

East Jakarta has the most urban forests of all municipalities in the capital city. Central Jakarta only has one urban forest in the Istiqlal Mosque area. North Jakarta’s urban forests are located in Sunter Lake, West Flood Canal, Kawasan Berikat Nusantara Marunda and Kemayoran. West Jakarta has only one urban forest in Srengseng and South Jakarta has two that are located near the University of Indonesia and the municipality headquarters.