Secretary General Of The Ministry Of Environment And Forestry: IKN Development Is Real Evidence Of Environmental Recovery

Secretary General of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry Bambang Hendroyono. (Photo: Theresia Agatha/VOI)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) said that the construction of the capital city of the archipelago (IKN) is one clear evidence of environmental restoration in the country.

"Real evidence of environmental restoration, clear evidence of climate change mitigation by planting, for example, IKN," said KLHK Secretary General Bambang Hendroyono when met by reporters at his office, Tuesday, April 23.

Bambang assessed that the IKN development was not built carelessly and had strategic plans related to environmental management.

"How is the target of replanting or restoring the function process by planting the local type of tree, the area has also been seen in the IKN strategic plan," he said.

He added that the IKN development could not be separated from how the government made efforts to replant according to the existence of dams for the availability of water.

"Well, this is what we call ensuring a real commitment to climate change mitigation, which tree planting is something that must be done together," said Bambang.

For your information, the Archipelago Capital Authority (OIKN) has launched the IKN Biodiversity Management Master Plan (Kehati) on 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 Deputy for Environment and Natural Resources of OIKN Myrna Asnawati Safitri on the Soft Launch agenda of the Biological Diversity Management Master Plan. The capital city of Nusantara was monitored online on Tuesday, March 26.

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.

"This is getting heavier because the content in 60 percent is not an ecosystem or a good environment, most of it can be said if 65 percent of the 252,000 (hectares), right, around 160,000. The remaining 55,000 hectares are monocultur plantation forests, meaning not tropical forests," he said.

The launch of this Kehati document is also expected to solve the problem of secondary forests that have been damaged for a long time due to logging decades ago and the intense forest fires in East Kalimantan in 1997.