Knowing the benefits forests can offer, Jakarta seeks to expand its urban canopy cover and improve the health and productivity of its residents.
"Jakarta tries to combine economic and ecological aspects in the city development because nature is a crucial element to develop a livable environment for all city inhabitants. Nature is beneficial for our city because they do not just help in improving the air quality and managing the water cycle, but also beneficial to encourage the city inhabitants to be active and healthy. This motivates Jakarta to conserve its nature by developing parks within the cities, improving the quality of existing green open spaces and preserving the mangroves in the coastal area.”
—Anies Baswedan, Governor, Jakarta.
September 2021.
Success Story
Like many other megacities, Jakarta, Indonesia faces a challenge in air quality, mainly caused by vehicle exhaust. In order to change this condition, Jakarta published a set of quick-win actions to improve its air quality as mentioned in the Gubernatorial Instruction No. 66/2019 on Air Quality Control. One such action is the development of urban parks and optimization of greeneries in all corners of the city. This action is implemented in several stages. At an early stage, the city developed a green open space masterplan for the period 2018-2038 consisting of the City’s short-, mid- and long-term plans for providing high quality green open spaces.
In realizing the actions mentioned in the masterplan at the implementation stage, Jakarta conducts a study to analyze existing tree cover and green open spaces in the city to assess opportunities for tree planting, greeneries optimization and further actions. This particular activity is done in collaboration with the Cities4Forests program.
As of 2020, Jakarta has developed 48 urban parks and the city is committed to developing more in the years ahead because it understands the importance of urban parks and greeneries that are not just beneficial toward reducing air pollutants, but also toward improving the productivity and healthiness of Jakarta’s inhabitants and boosting the economy.
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