Indonesian authorities, teachers and firms are working collectively to construct a miniature tropical rainforest they hope will function a blueprint for the reforestation program in Indonesia’s new capital in jap Borneo.
In 2019, President Joko Widodo introduced plans to relocate the capital to Kalimantan, Indonesia’s a part of the Borneo Island, to ease a few of Jakarta’s burdens, together with air pollution, visitors congestion and rising sea waters.
The president says the transfer may also enable the federal government to reforest lands that had been degraded by many years of business actions reminiscent of mining and pulpwood and oil palm plantations.
Below the reforestation program, the federal government goals to replant lush tropical rainforest on 82,891 hectares (204,800 acres) of barren lands that dominate the realm the place Indonesia’s deliberate new capital, referred to as Nusantara, will sit.
Forestry consultants have cautioned that this system could also be overly formidable as a consequence of its sheer scale and since it’s the primary of its sort that goals to reintroduce tropical rainforests right into a degraded ecosystem in Indonesia.
Previous rehabilitation packages within the nation have principally entailed efforts to rehabilitate secondary forests, quite than landscapes which might be completely barren as a consequence of monoculture plantations and mining actions. The packages have primarily relied on methods referred to as enrichment planting, involving the introduction of economically useful tree species, normally only a few of them, to reinforce the variety of degraded however still-standing forests.
In contrast, establishing tropical rainforest in a very deforested space requires a completely totally different method, one which includes the planting of a lot of tree species from all kinds of species.
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Efforts to replant native tree species [in Indonesian rehabilitation programs] are nonetheless missing to date. Due to this fact, we hope that the miniature tropical rainforest may showcase what actual rainforests are like within the new capital.
Syahrinudin, researcher, Mulawarman College
The chosen tree species should characterize totally different heights — tall, low and understory — to create layers of vegetation throughout the reforested lands.
Tall timber present shade and vitamin to the soil, whereas the understory — the layer of timber and shrubs between the forest ground and cover — gives meals and shelter for small animals and birds and huge predators that dwell within the forest.
Nevertheless, Indonesia is inexperienced in utilizing this multilayered and multispecies methodology in its previous reforestation packages, mentioned Syahrinudin, a lecturer and researcher on the soil sciences and forest vitamin lab of the Mulawarman College’s forest college in Samarinda, the capital of East Kalimantan province.
That’s why the Nusantara Capital Metropolis Authority (OIKN), a authorities company that oversees the progress of the brand new metropolis’s growth, Mulawarman College and three corporations — Danone, PT Indo Tambangraya Megah (ITM) and PT Multi Harapan Utama (MHU) — are constructing a miniature tropical rainforest on a 96-hectare (237-acre) plot of land some 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) away from the central authorities’s core space of the brand new capital, he mentioned.
The miniature tropical rainforest is estimated to value as much as 20 billion rupiah (US$1.27 million).
“The Mulawarman College serves as an adviser [in the development of the miniature tropical rainforest], and those who do the replanting are distributors, which we’ll instantly observe,” Syahrinudin advised Mongabay. “PT ITM and PT MHU may also assist [the program], and the Mulawarman College is working along with Danone. So there are three corporations concerned.”
Mining corporations working in Indonesia reminiscent of PT ITM and PT MHU are legally mandated to rehabilitate their concessions as soon as they’re performed mining and likewise to rehabilitate watershed areas.
However the two mining corporations’ involvement within the miniature tropical rainforest venture will not be a part of their authorized obligations, mentioned Myrna Asnawati Safitri, the deputy for surroundings and pure sources at OIKN.
“It [their involvement] is for his or her company social duty packages,” she advised Mongabay. “So it’s exterior their obligation to rehabilitate watershed areas.”
PT ITM sustainability director Ignatius Wurwanto mentioned his firm’s involvement within the miniature tropical rainforest venture exhibits a dedication to transcend the authorized minimal. “As an organization that works in forest areas, there’s an obligation to rehabilitate former mining concessions. However past that, there’s a extra necessary obligation, which is to guard the sustainability of Indonesia’s forests,” he mentioned.
PT MHU mining help common supervisor Wijayono Sarosa mentioned the corporate had already deliberate to determine 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres) of protected forest in Nusantara. Then, Wijayona says, OIKN requested the corporate to additionally take part within the development of the miniature tropical rainforest.
“So we’ll construct 30 hectares (74 acres) of forests within the miniature [tropical rainforest] web site,” Wijayono mentioned.
A blueprint for reforestation
The miniature tropical rainforest will function a blueprint for the sort of reforestation envisioned by the president, Syahrinudin mentioned.
Efforts to reforest the brand new capital had began in late 2022 by the Ministry of Setting and Forestry, and to date the ministry has reforested 2,141 hectares (5,291 acres) of the Nusantara web site.
Consultants have recognized plenty of obstacles within the reforestation efforts, which embody a choice for nonnative tree species, poor planting practices and monitoring, and a common misapplication of reforestation ideas.
OIKN wasn’t concerned in that reforestation work.
“Efforts to replant native tree species [in Indonesian rehabilitation programs] are nonetheless missing to date. Due to this fact, we hope that the miniature tropical rainforest may showcase what actual rainforests are like within the new capital,” Syahrinudin mentioned.
The miniature tropical rainforest will host at the least 150 of endemic tree species, he mentioned.
That is far fewer than the 1,433 endemic tree species recognized in Kalimantan, however greater than the variety of tree species that’s normally planted in Indonesian reforestation packages.
Based on knowledge from the organic know-how college on the Bandung Institute of Expertise, there are solely 60 tree species recognized to be planted in varied reforestation packages, whether or not they’re carried out by the federal government or by corporations.
“So there’s an enormous hole between the variety of endemic tree species recognized in Kalimantan and the variety of tree species usually utilized in reforestation packages,” Endah Sulistyawati, the dean of the college, mentioned throughout a webinar final yr. “I believe this occurs as a result of replanting actions to date have solely been targeted on particular tree species. Possibly there’s a choice in direction of particular species wanted by folks, ones with business values. That’s comprehensible.”
The 150 tree species within the miniature tropical rainforest are meant to resemble lowland dipterocarp forest, the unique ecosystem of East Kalimantan, by which as many as 240 totally different tree species can develop inside 1 hectare (2.47 acres).
Thus far, Mulawarman College has collected 50 endemic tree species to be planted on the preliminary part of the institution of the miniature rainforest, Syahrinudin mentioned.
The college obtained the seeds principally from Indonesia’s affiliation of forestry companies, APHI, and distributors round Samarinda, he mentioned.
Emphasis will probably be place on planting timber that may develop properly in shaded areas and are extensively accessible within the close by ecosystem, Syahrinudin mentioned.
The miniature rainforest may also home a smaller variety of dominant tree species, which have the most important, fullest crowns within the stand, extending above the final degree of the cover to obtain full gentle from above, he mentioned.
The 96-hectare mini-rainforest will probably be divided into clusters measuring 20 by 20 meters (66 by 66 toes). A cluster will host two dominant timber, 4 codominant timber whose crowns make up the final degree of the cover and 6 tolerant timber — all of which will probably be planted in random spacing.
To ensure the seedlings develop properly, conservation staff will intensively keep the seedlings for the primary 4 years and monitor their development, Syahrimudin mentioned.
“The rehabilitation methodology [used in the miniature rainforest] has to vary from the traditional method. If we use typical methodology with business-as-usual funding and enter, it’ll be very tough [to make the program succeed],” he mentioned. “So we’ve got to be progressive and take note of the tree species that we’ll plant, what sort of remedy we’ve got to provide and what surroundings we have to put together [for the trees to grow well].”
The conservation staff may also guarantee that the seedlings are at the least 1 m (3.3 ft] in top and wholesome, in order that they will compete with different crops and survive, he mentioned.
The miniature can have its personal nursery, the place seedings are ready for the replanting program, Syahrimudin mentioned.
“We are going to attempt to enhance the standard of the seeds within the nursery in order that their heights can attain 1 m earlier than transferring them to the sector,” he mentioned.
The event of the miniature tropical rainforest began in November 2023, and the aim is to completely plant all seedlings by the tip of 2024, he mentioned.
President Joko Widodo, along with different public officers, visited the miniature rainforest and did some replanting work there on Dec. 20, 2023.
The president planted a dipterocarp tree species referred to as Shorea laevis, regionally referred to as Bangkirai. The tree species is taken into account susceptible as a consequence of deforestation for agriculture and logging for its timber.
“That is an effort to reforest and rebuild tropical rainforest, from monoculture [plantations dotting the landscape of the new capital] to tropical rainforest,” Widodo mentioned after planting the tree. “From simply eucalyptus [plantations] to a wide range of tree species.”
This story was revealed with permission from Mongabay.com.
