Forest Area In Java Island Is Getting Smaller, Only 24 Percent

JAKARTA - The forest area on the island of Java is shrinking due to several reasons and currently it only covers 24 percent of the island's area, which is 128,297 km2.

As reported by Antara, the main research expert in the field of biodiversity conservation from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK), Hendra Gunawan, said this in a web forum commemorating International Forest Day 2021: "Forest Restoration a path recovery and will-being", organized by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) online, Sunday.

According to Hendra Gunawan, from about 24 percent of the forest area in Java Island, the forest cover is only about 19 percent, while the other five percent, including botanical gardens and biodiversity parks, have functions such as forests.

According to Hendra Gunawan, the shrinking forests in Java Island, which is the most densely populated island in Indonesia, are due to several reasons, including the conversion of forests for agricultural land, housing, industry, infrastructure, commercial areas, and so on.

There is a change in the function of the forest so that the forest area becomes lost, damaged, fragmented, and this threatens the biodiversity in it. "Other impacts that occur are, water crisis, floods, landslides, animal conflicts, and so on," he said.

According to Hendra, the lost, damaged, and fragmented forests need to be handled, to preserve biodiversity.

He explained that permanently lost forests, for example for the construction of buildings and infrastructure, need to be restored by carrying out reforestation in other possible locations. "Damaged forests need to be rehabilitated and those that are fragmented need to be made connecting corridors for biodiversity," he said.

On this occasion, Hendra suggested that stakeholders take local actions to save biodiversity through planting trees in green open spaces (RTH).

"The green open space development would be better built with the concept of diversity such as forest ecosystems," he said.

Hendra gave an example, the concept is a botanical garden and a biodiversity garden. Based on LIPI data in 2019, in Indonesia, there are 43 botanical gardens with a total area of around 8,850.6 hectares and 29 biodiversity parks with a total area of 1,863.5 hectares.

According to him, Taman Kehati is very suitable as a field laboratory and a vehicle for learning for school students, as well as providing knowledge and character building of love for the environment.

He explained, there are many aspects that can be explored in this biodiversity garden, such as ecology, conservation, hydrology, botany, sociology, economy, medicinal plants, food, to the role of plants as a noise and pollution damper.

Other speakers at the web forum were Senior CSR Manager for Aqua Plant Ciherang Bogor, Heri Yunarso, and LIPI Researcher of Ethnobiology & Human Ecology, Fathi Royyani.