"It's unbelievable these farmers could grow a forest in only five years"
Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor
After five years of hard work, a group of farmers in Bogor have brought back to life a 12-hectare area of forest and natural pasture that was suffering a slow and miserable death thanks to ongoing environmental damage incurred over a number of years.
Cipendawa village farmers in Megamendung district have successfully planted various tree seedlings and vegetables on the 12-hectare area once described as suffering "critical environmental damage".
"We were concerned with the environmental damage in Bogor, Puncak and Cianjur resort areas," group leader Bambang Istiawan said Friday.
"We could not wait for the Bogor regency administration to regreen the area, which is why we took the reforestation initiative."
And their success story has attracted Bogor regency legislative council and administration officials.
Officials visited the "mini" forest situated in Blok S of Cipendawa village, which is a part of the Bogor, Puncak, and Cianjur settlement.
Head of the agricultural resources division at the Bogor regency forestry and plantation agency Eliza said the farmers' secret to success should be adopted as an official administration program.
"It's unbelievable these farmers could grow a forest in only five years," Eliza said.
"Other farmers should be involved in such projects because there is a total of 118 hectares of critically damaged land in dire need of reforestation in Megamendung district alone," she said.
Councilor Edi Wibowo from Commission B on the environment said the administration should make it a pilot project to help restore the hills in Bogor, Puncak and Cianjur.
But the regreening project was not easy, Bambang warned.
"Planting the seedlings is the easiest part of the whole work," he said.
"Each day we had to check the seedlings, water them and replace the dying ones.
"When we started it was hard to get a good source of water so we had to dig deep to make a well.
But Bambang said after the trees had grown, two natural springs emerged.
"We did all this because we wanted to return our neighborhood to its old self when only few rich people had their villas up here," he said.
"At that time the air was fresh and the forests were still untouched.
"The villa owners just don't care about the environment in Puncak."
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