Fairly or unfairly, Jakarta is defined by its neighborhood slums, mega-shopping malls and torturous traffic. Little attention is paid to its parks - yes, it has some - or the slowly increasing number of outdoor oases that dot the capital, enabling city dwellers to feel, albeit temporarily, as if they're in a verdant land.
Despite being congested, a magnet for traffic jams and a case study in urban sprawl, Jakarta could be a more pleasant place in the coming decades. The city is promised a green face-lift as part of a 2010-2030 spatial master plan that will see the development of more green area, although just how much is far from clear.
Open space has long been an issue in Jakarta, with environmental and urban-development experts pointing out the obvious: The lack of green makes the city less livable.
"There aren't many city parks or neighborhood parks for families to use for enjoyment and recreation. There are plenty of malls and office buildings, but very few outdoor areas for people to enjoy," said Suryono Herlambang, a spatial-planning expert who heads the Department of Urban Planning and Real Estate at Tarumanagara University in Jakarta.
The push for a greener Jakarta dates back to the rule of President Sukarno. In 1965, more than 35 percent of Jakarta was green space, but this has been in continual decline ever since due to rapid urbanization and population growth. While Indonesia's founding leader was fond of grand monuments and statues, the national and city leaders who followed didn't see open space as a priority. And modern Jakarta's history of urban development - numerous master plans and near-zero implementation - saw potential green areas swallowed up by residential and office developments.
Today, only 9.3 percent of the city's 661,000 square kilometers is classified as green space. That converts to 65 square kilometers, but it's not as big as it sounds: "green space" is defined as both public and private land, meaning household gardens and potted plants in addition to city and neighborhood parks.
"Jakarta has a very limited amount of green area, given the fact that it is overcrowded. There isn't much room to build new green spaces, so we need to look at new ways to develop the ones we already have," Suryono said. "It is not unusual for an overpopulated city like Jakarta to have issues with space, especially green space."
The Jakarta administration says it is working overtime to reclaim natural spaces, including by tearing down 32 gas stations that were allowed to sprout in green-belt areas and snapping up plots of land in about a third of the city's 2,500 neighborhood wards and setting them aside as pocket parks.
"If you want to increase the green areas by 1 percent overall, you have to add 5.6 or 5.7 square kilometers of open space. That is five and a half times the size of Monas," Governor Fauzi Bowo told the Jakarta Globe. "Where do you get it in Jakarta? It is a mission impossible."
The lack of space has contributed to the mall culture that increasingly defines Jakartans' lives. On weekends, and for some during the week, the city's shopping centers are flooded by families, teenagers and anyone else looking for something to do in a cool, clean environment. While convenient, it's not necessarily healthy - or affordable.
Some of Jakarta's more notable green areas are Monas, Taman Suropati, Gelora Bung Karno, Lap Banteng, Ragunan Zoo, Taman Mini Indonesia, Cibubur and a few neighborhood parks in Menteng, Tebet and Srengseng.
But Suryono says more green spaces can be developed if the Jakarta administration and the public are a little more innovative. Urban parks can be built along the water-reservoir areas of Pluit, Sunter, Pulomas, Grogol and Tanjung Duren; green spaces can emerge around riverbanks and football fields.
"I would also like to see more neighborhood parks. They are great for children and families to play and do activities outdoors," Suryono said.
Any chance of turning back the clock, experts say, lies with the 2007 Spatial Planning Law. City planners are now drafting its local regulations, which are aimed at modernizing Jakarta's landscape over the next two decades. Under the 2010-30 master plan, the city is targeting increasing open green spaces from 9.3 percent to 30 percent of the city's area to balance new urban development.
Suryono says the 30 percent target is completely unrealistic because Jakarta is already overcrowded and the amount of preserved green space will depend on the commitment of the city administration. The only solution is starting over in a number of areas, he says.
"Jakarta is an already overpopulated and overcrowded city, and living space is limited, so building a central green space is not a real option," he said. "There is no area big enough in Jakarta to build a central green area, but by ‘restructuring' certain areas we can create integrated green zones to improve the amount of green space available to the public."
Yayat Supriatna, a spatial planner at Trisakti University in West Jakarta, also says increasing green spaces to 30 percent of the city by 2030 is a pipe dream given Jakarta's high population density, which grows by the year. He says urban planning requires considerable foresight and consideration of such factors as population growth, density and movement.
“The problem with urban planning and development in Jakarta is the amount of people living in the city, Yayat said. “Jakarta is handicapped in that respect because there is limited living space and continual urban sprawl. This affects the quality of spatial planning, with more and more people moving to the city.”
Each year, more than 250,000 people move to Jakarta for education and work opportunities. The uncontrolled movement of people puts tremendous pressure on the city's infrastructure and increases the demand for housing, which runs counter to the plan to create more green space.
According to Rachmat Witoelar, a former state minister for the environment, Jakarta was designed to support a population of about a million, but it's now nine times that number.
A recent study by the Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia named Jakarta as the most vulnerable city in the region to the impacts of climate change because of its high population density. After the release of the study, Witoelar called for new regulations to stem the tide of migrants coming into the capital each year, saying population density had become an urban-development issue in addition to one of public health.
As part of its goal to increase green space, the Jakarta administration has proposed clearing out illegal squatter communities along rivers and railway tracks and converting the land into parks, gardens and playgrounds. This is easier said than done, of course, for many complex reasons, and activists are already complaining that the communities have not been consulted.
The city itself is also in a bind. It is notoriously difficult to acquire land for any public project, and clearing away squatters for green spaces is certain to result in a tangle of court cases and messy publicity.
The last thing any Jakarta governor wants to see is a pitched battle between public-order officers and local residents over the demolition of a community.
It is just such a nightmare of conflicting claims that resulted in the April rioting that left three dead in Tanjung Priok when officials attempted to clear land designated to be part of an expanded port.
Ubaidillah, a member of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Wahli), says the city's spatial master plan is badly flawed in its current form.
"It is not clear how the government plans to go about fulfilling its objectives," he said. "Furthermore, it did not really consult with the community in developing this plan or seek what the communities really want and need."
Jakarta-based nongovernmental organizations also have questioned what will happen to squatters once they are removed. The city has considered relocating them to government-built low-cost housing complexes, but there's resistance among slum dwellers to move too far from their current homes. It also remains to be seen who would fund the new complexes.
"Slum neighborhoods are built in certain areas because those areas are in close proximity to the source of their income," Suryono said. "It's not fair that people live in an area that floods every year, but it's also not fair if they are removed."
While the city's plan has stirred debate among environmental groups about the ethics of removing people to open up more green space, it's not even certain that it will go forward.
"The details of the plan itself are uncertain," Ubaidillah said. "We don't know what the plan is, where the new green spaces will be or who will be affected. This makes it hard for us to react, comment and campaign for a better proposal."
Much of the negative reaction stems from the lack of certainty surrounding the city's draft bylaw, which has been under development for the past year.
"It's not clear what strategy the government is taking to achieve more green space and what these green spaces will actually be used for," Suryono said. "And if the government does build new green spaces, where will these areas be and what will happen to the offices or homes in these areas?"
Ubaidillah argues that the Jakarta administration should be looking to develop other options to create more green space.
"The government should not only be looking to move people and clear already occupied spaces to create more green spaces in Jakarta," he said. "It should also look at buildings and areas breaking environmental rules and pull them in line to meet the green standards and quality expected of a green city."
Green spaces. Everyone loves the concept. But retrofitting this messy city to make it happen seems certain to be one of the largest single challenges ahead.
Despite being congested, a magnet for traffic jams and a case study in urban sprawl, Jakarta could be a more pleasant place in the coming decades. The city is promised a green face-lift as part of a 2010-2030 spatial master plan that will see the development of more green area, although just how much is far from clear.
Open space has long been an issue in Jakarta, with environmental and urban-development experts pointing out the obvious: The lack of green makes the city less livable.
"There aren't many city parks or neighborhood parks for families to use for enjoyment and recreation. There are plenty of malls and office buildings, but very few outdoor areas for people to enjoy," said Suryono Herlambang, a spatial-planning expert who heads the Department of Urban Planning and Real Estate at Tarumanagara University in Jakarta.
The push for a greener Jakarta dates back to the rule of President Sukarno. In 1965, more than 35 percent of Jakarta was green space, but this has been in continual decline ever since due to rapid urbanization and population growth. While Indonesia's founding leader was fond of grand monuments and statues, the national and city leaders who followed didn't see open space as a priority. And modern Jakarta's history of urban development - numerous master plans and near-zero implementation - saw potential green areas swallowed up by residential and office developments.
Today, only 9.3 percent of the city's 661,000 square kilometers is classified as green space. That converts to 65 square kilometers, but it's not as big as it sounds: "green space" is defined as both public and private land, meaning household gardens and potted plants in addition to city and neighborhood parks.
"Jakarta has a very limited amount of green area, given the fact that it is overcrowded. There isn't much room to build new green spaces, so we need to look at new ways to develop the ones we already have," Suryono said. "It is not unusual for an overpopulated city like Jakarta to have issues with space, especially green space."
The Jakarta administration says it is working overtime to reclaim natural spaces, including by tearing down 32 gas stations that were allowed to sprout in green-belt areas and snapping up plots of land in about a third of the city's 2,500 neighborhood wards and setting them aside as pocket parks.
"If you want to increase the green areas by 1 percent overall, you have to add 5.6 or 5.7 square kilometers of open space. That is five and a half times the size of Monas," Governor Fauzi Bowo told the Jakarta Globe. "Where do you get it in Jakarta? It is a mission impossible."
The lack of space has contributed to the mall culture that increasingly defines Jakartans' lives. On weekends, and for some during the week, the city's shopping centers are flooded by families, teenagers and anyone else looking for something to do in a cool, clean environment. While convenient, it's not necessarily healthy - or affordable.
Some of Jakarta's more notable green areas are Monas, Taman Suropati, Gelora Bung Karno, Lap Banteng, Ragunan Zoo, Taman Mini Indonesia, Cibubur and a few neighborhood parks in Menteng, Tebet and Srengseng.
But Suryono says more green spaces can be developed if the Jakarta administration and the public are a little more innovative. Urban parks can be built along the water-reservoir areas of Pluit, Sunter, Pulomas, Grogol and Tanjung Duren; green spaces can emerge around riverbanks and football fields.
"I would also like to see more neighborhood parks. They are great for children and families to play and do activities outdoors," Suryono said.
Any chance of turning back the clock, experts say, lies with the 2007 Spatial Planning Law. City planners are now drafting its local regulations, which are aimed at modernizing Jakarta's landscape over the next two decades. Under the 2010-30 master plan, the city is targeting increasing open green spaces from 9.3 percent to 30 percent of the city's area to balance new urban development.
Suryono says the 30 percent target is completely unrealistic because Jakarta is already overcrowded and the amount of preserved green space will depend on the commitment of the city administration. The only solution is starting over in a number of areas, he says.
"Jakarta is an already overpopulated and overcrowded city, and living space is limited, so building a central green space is not a real option," he said. "There is no area big enough in Jakarta to build a central green area, but by ‘restructuring' certain areas we can create integrated green zones to improve the amount of green space available to the public."
Yayat Supriatna, a spatial planner at Trisakti University in West Jakarta, also says increasing green spaces to 30 percent of the city by 2030 is a pipe dream given Jakarta's high population density, which grows by the year. He says urban planning requires considerable foresight and consideration of such factors as population growth, density and movement.
“The problem with urban planning and development in Jakarta is the amount of people living in the city, Yayat said. “Jakarta is handicapped in that respect because there is limited living space and continual urban sprawl. This affects the quality of spatial planning, with more and more people moving to the city.”
Each year, more than 250,000 people move to Jakarta for education and work opportunities. The uncontrolled movement of people puts tremendous pressure on the city's infrastructure and increases the demand for housing, which runs counter to the plan to create more green space.
According to Rachmat Witoelar, a former state minister for the environment, Jakarta was designed to support a population of about a million, but it's now nine times that number.
A recent study by the Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia named Jakarta as the most vulnerable city in the region to the impacts of climate change because of its high population density. After the release of the study, Witoelar called for new regulations to stem the tide of migrants coming into the capital each year, saying population density had become an urban-development issue in addition to one of public health.
As part of its goal to increase green space, the Jakarta administration has proposed clearing out illegal squatter communities along rivers and railway tracks and converting the land into parks, gardens and playgrounds. This is easier said than done, of course, for many complex reasons, and activists are already complaining that the communities have not been consulted.
The city itself is also in a bind. It is notoriously difficult to acquire land for any public project, and clearing away squatters for green spaces is certain to result in a tangle of court cases and messy publicity.
The last thing any Jakarta governor wants to see is a pitched battle between public-order officers and local residents over the demolition of a community.
It is just such a nightmare of conflicting claims that resulted in the April rioting that left three dead in Tanjung Priok when officials attempted to clear land designated to be part of an expanded port.
Ubaidillah, a member of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Wahli), says the city's spatial master plan is badly flawed in its current form.
"It is not clear how the government plans to go about fulfilling its objectives," he said. "Furthermore, it did not really consult with the community in developing this plan or seek what the communities really want and need."
Jakarta-based nongovernmental organizations also have questioned what will happen to squatters once they are removed. The city has considered relocating them to government-built low-cost housing complexes, but there's resistance among slum dwellers to move too far from their current homes. It also remains to be seen who would fund the new complexes.
"Slum neighborhoods are built in certain areas because those areas are in close proximity to the source of their income," Suryono said. "It's not fair that people live in an area that floods every year, but it's also not fair if they are removed."
While the city's plan has stirred debate among environmental groups about the ethics of removing people to open up more green space, it's not even certain that it will go forward.
"The details of the plan itself are uncertain," Ubaidillah said. "We don't know what the plan is, where the new green spaces will be or who will be affected. This makes it hard for us to react, comment and campaign for a better proposal."
Much of the negative reaction stems from the lack of certainty surrounding the city's draft bylaw, which has been under development for the past year.
"It's not clear what strategy the government is taking to achieve more green space and what these green spaces will actually be used for," Suryono said. "And if the government does build new green spaces, where will these areas be and what will happen to the offices or homes in these areas?"
Ubaidillah argues that the Jakarta administration should be looking to develop other options to create more green space.
"The government should not only be looking to move people and clear already occupied spaces to create more green spaces in Jakarta," he said. "It should also look at buildings and areas breaking environmental rules and pull them in line to meet the green standards and quality expected of a green city."
Green spaces. Everyone loves the concept. But retrofitting this messy city to make it happen seems certain to be one of the largest single challenges ahead.
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com
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