Authority: Natural Forest Areas In IKN Only 1-2 Percent

The Capital Archipelago Authority (OIKN) said that the natural forest in the IKN area only has about 1-2 percent of the total area.

"If you ask whether there are still natural forests in IKN? Very, very little, maybe only about 1-2 percent of the existing area," said Deputy for Environment and Natural Resources of OIKN Myrna Asnawati Safitri in the Soft Launch agenda of the Biological Diversity Management Master Plan. The capital city of Nusantara was monitored online, quoted Wednesday, March 27.

It is known, the area in IKN reaches around 252,000 hectares (ha).

Myrna said, as much as 60 percent of the IKN area is not an ecosystem or a good environment. Then, as many as 55,000 ha are also monoculture forests, aka not tropical forests.

"Then, the contents are secondary forest or secondary forest 40,000 ha, where did the secondary forest come from? From the logging a few decades ago plus great forest fires in East Kalimantan in 1997," he said.

Furthermore, said Myrna, around 80,000 ha of the IKN area is oil palm plantation land, which contains both legal and illegal mines and various forms of function transfer from existing natural forests.

"Well, it is a challenge to (OIKN) turn a condition like this into a protected area," he said.

Therefore, the IKN Authority has launched the IKN Biodiversity Management Master Plan (Kehati) on Tuesday, March 26, 2024.

This Master plan is in line with the Regional Spatial Planning (RTRW) with 65 percent being a green area.

"I want to say that this document contains the ambition that IKN will become a city that maintains at least 65 percent of its territory as a protected area," said Myrna.

The master plan is aimed at restoring the glory of Kalimantan, following the existing conditions that are very far from their origin due to the massive conversion for decades.

This conversion is caused by the interests of monocultural Industrial Plant Forests (HTI), oil palm plantation activities, mining, and others.