IKN promotes the concept of a sustainable forest city
This article has been translated by PwC Indonesia as part of our Indonesia Infrastructure News Service. PwC Indonesia has not checked the accuracy of, and accepts no responsibility for the content.
Investor Daily - IKN mengusung kota hutan berkelanjutan
25 May 2023
Jakarta - Nusantara Capital City Authority (OIKN) will merge the culture and the conservation aspects in developing Nusantara Capital City (IKN) as a sustainable forest city. It is carried out to realise the dream of developing IKN to not consist only of buildings, but to also build a new civilisation in a liveable and loved urban ecosystem. “We believe that a sustainable forest city will have many new concepts that complement each other,” OIKN Head Bambang Susantono said.
In the discussion on culture and conservation in the IKN forest city concept that was held collaborative among OIKN, Indonesian Sciences Academy (AIPI), CIFOR, and World Agroforestry Centre in Jakarta on Wednesday (24/05/2023), Bambang explained that IKN was one of the opportunities for a living lab to develop a city with new concepts. “How these concepts interact socially, culturally, economically, technologically, and in other manners is interesting,” he stated. He affirmed that Nusantara must reflect Indonesia. “It must be a melting pot with Indonesia’s taste of harmony among people, nature and culture, which will be the three aspects that will form Nusantara,” Bambang revealed.
AIPI Chairperson Satryo Brodjonegoro said that, in building IKN, challenges that must be faced were how to carry out all of the construction, while still paying attention to forest functions, biodiversity, and climate change. “The environmental aspect is one of the aspects that we must focus on in the process of developing IKN. In the future, we will mention that IKN is a sustainable forest city. Hopefully, all of our efforts to develop this city will be realised in accordance with our dreams,” he revealed. AIPI welcomes the sustainable forest city concept that was proposed by OIKN.
According to OIKN Environment and Natural Resources Deputy Myrna Asnawati Safitri, OIKN is designing Rimba Kultural Nusantara. “The forest and the culture must be connected,” she stated. That connection can be realised in accordance with the spatial layout in the urban forest. OIKN is currently identifying the location. “We will see how local biodiversity and Indonesia can coexist,” Myrna said. OIKN will provide a space in the urban forest area for plants from the 38 provinces in Indonesia, and they will also replant plants endemic to Kalimantan and other Nusantara plants.
Myrna also revealed that she was currently preparing the masterplan for biodiversity in IKN. This a form of the implementation of Presidential Instruction No. 1/2023 on Mainstreaming of Biodiversity Conservation in Sustainable Development, and it is also a direction towards safeguarding developments in IKN. “We are also in a process of preparing a policy that is related to the local wisdom,” Myrna said. Academic studies from the policy are being prepared, and dialogues are currently being held with the people, including women.
AIPI members who acted as discussants during the discussion were Professor Jatna Suproyatna, Professor Yunita T. Winarto from Universitas Indonesia, and Professor Damayanti Buchori from IPB University. The discussants agree that IKN development is a momentum to improve the construction paradigm to prioritise the environment and inclusivity.
