Beyond Beautiful Indies
Beyond Beautiful Indies
Bambang I. Soemarwoto*, Natali R. Mustafa**, Rini S. Soemarwoto***
Leiden-Bandung, April 2016
Officially founded on May 18, 1817 by a German-born Dutch botanist Reinwardt, the botanical gardens in Bogor (formerly Buitenzorg) became an icon of mooi Indië (beautiful Indies) in the middle of the nineteenth century. It not only served as a walking area for the Governor-General, but also for the colonial elite as a place to adore the beauty of the landscape. It is described as an image of tropical sublime that has endured for almost 170 years until the present times that can be viewed by tourists, Indonesians and foreigners alike [1].
Today’s city plan of Bogor originated from a governor-general’s decree in 1745 to build a residence place outside Jakarta on the west bank of the Ciliwung river. The chosen location lies about 1 km east of the Cisadane river. As a result, Bogor’s early development in the nineteenth century was restricted in the area between the two rivers, forming a streak of municipal region, beyond which lied tropical rain forests providing tranquility to the surroundings. Not until 1917 the municipality decided to extend Bogor eastward. It increased the city area by 50% to offer housing ranging from small kampong to large mansion types [2].
Bogor had a population of 18 thousands in 1830, 46 thousands in 1920, and about 1 million nowadays. Along with the expanding population and progress of time comes development. In 1920, the traffic in Bogor passing the main post road consisted in average of 25 trucks, 190 cars, and 2700 light vehicles per day [2]. In 2012, according to Bogor municipality’s administration there were in total about 11.000 trucks, 63.000 cars and 260.000 motorcycles registered in Bogor [3]. By the course of the development, the tranquility of the tropical rain forests has been replaced entirely by a vibrant 24/7 economy in a jungle of concrete.
Never before have the Gardens been so important to the society as it is today. It is a place to escape from a dazzling concrete environment. It provides a refreshing green environment, a safe haven from the relentless traffic. The number of one million visitors per year, with 30.000 visitors per day in peak seasons, speaks for itself. One may rightfully wonder whether it has exceeded the carrying capacity of the Gardens, managementwise and naturewise. The sustainability of the Gardens is influenced by not only the occurrence of vandalism and volume of litter, but also the diversity and population of “wild” faunas in the Gardens that must be in an ecological balance with the flora.
One may look back to an eventful year of 2015 preceded by a heavy storm in December 2014. Related or not, a tragic tree fall followed in January 2015 on a sunny calm day which brought 4 immediate fatalities and 21 wounded. This tragedy is like a wake-up call, shaking all awake to recognize a risk never thought before could happen.
In the meantime, it appears that Bogor Palace will become a new sanctuary for President Joko (Jokowi) Widodo [4], an encouraging trend both for the Gardens and Bogor. An event 150 years ago may then be recalled. Teysmann, the then curator of the Gardens, was instructed by his superior, “when felling or pruning a tree, do not forget that the Botanical Gardens are almost entirely a part of the palace of Buitenzorg, and serve as a walking area for the Governor General” [1,5].
There is a parallel with the fact that the Dendrobium Iriana Jokowi was intensively treated at the Gardens for a fungal attack upon arrival in the country. The orchid was received in Singapore in July 2015 by the first lady as what President Jokowi called “flower diplomacy” by the Singapore government. The role of the Gardens must not be undermined.
On the occasion of World Environment Day in June 2015 at Bogor Palace, President Jokowi pledged for more botanical gardens in the country. A total of 47 botanical gardens will be (re-)developed by 2025. Currently Indonesia has 30 botanical gardens, five of which are managed by Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), 24 run by regional administrations and one managed by a university.
A significant contribution to the state’s revenues is expected from the Gardens through ecotourism. A neatly maintained botanical garden is a prerequisite to achieving this goal. This demand was conveyed with strong words of warning by the reform minister, Yuddi Chrisnandi, during his surprise visit in July 2015 to Bogor Botanical Gardens.
In turn, while the management of the Gardens started to conceive new products of ecotourism, such as those to be delivered during the night hours, one might already notice that some landmarks in the Gardens were being transformed with new materials into a new look. Ecotourism is an effective instrument for generating revenues while intending to respect the natural state of the Gardens, but the government’s vision should not be limited to ecotourism.
Bogor Botanical Gardens is not the only one who must face contemporary challenges of the 21st century. Indonesia should benchmark itself with initiatives around the world for repositioning botanical gardens, where knowledge valorization has become central. For example, in Kew Botanical Gardens, this is reflected by projects run by its science department Natural Capital and Plant Health. The economic dimension of plants in their science strategy in the next five-year period has also gained the necessary attention [6].
Another example is the extract library recently launched by the Centre of Expertise for Plant Compounds in the Netherlands [7]. It is an outcome of a collaborative research that recognized the importance of a multitude combination of compounds in bio-activities of a plant.
It has resulted in a rich extract library originating from plants readily available in the backyard of the partners involved, and mostly from the collection of the Hortus Botanicus at Leiden. A well-planned search in the extract library can generate opportunities worth billions of dollars for natural products such as food, pharmaceutical, fragrant and aromatic.
The garden has multiple facets and should be dealt with as such. It can be represented by a triangle consisting of science, business, and culture facets. If all these facets are synergized constructively, loads of benefits will result in terms of knowledge and welfare which, if one wills, can be expressed ultimately in terms of financial gains. It is not unthinkable for Bogor Botanical Gardens to take an initiative for a national collaborative research in Indonesia towards such an impactful goal.
To encourage a wide public participation, Bogor Botanical Gardens should bundle traditional homegarden in Indonesia to form a vast treasure of the tropics readily available for bio-activity scans.
Traditionally a significant proportion of each household's food is derived from the homegarden, which is the cultivated land on the site where the house is built [8] essential for food security of the people. A more holistic ethnobotanical approach should be adopted, as such that the context of conservation will no longer be limited to collection, archive or specimens in the gardens, but will also apply to the conservation of the local indigenous knowledge and way of life that promote in-situ bio-diversity.
For example, a case study [9] from Kasepuhan, an upland cultural enclave in west Java, shows that despite having accepted the use of (modern) high-yielding varieties of rice, the people continue to increase the total number of traditional landraces.
Indonesia has a sound knowledge base in the field of traditional homegarden due to extensive research led by the late Prof. Otto Soemarwoto, a highly decorated scientist [10,11] who founded and directed the Institute of Ecology of Padjadjaran University in the period of 1972-1991. He was previously the director of the National Institute of Biology overseeing Bogor Botanical Gardens from 1964 to 1972.
While science is being advanced in the collaborative research, cultural instruments should be developed to disseminate knowledge and ultimately feed enlightenment to the people, including through ecotourism. There are already encouraging signs of a strong will of the people to care for the Gardens, in particular, and their environment, in general, as indicated by a sheer number of relevant social media materials observed in the internet. The cultural instruments should then be complementary to the existing mechanisms.
With the momentum towards the 200th anniversary of the Gardens in 2017, Indonesian government should invest in cultivating multi-mindedness in the Indonesian society. Concrete steps should be taken in the quest to advance the Indonesian science, business, and culture altogether. To avoid reinventing the wheel, collaboration with foreign organizations in a partnership of equals should be harnessed on a basis of mutual respect, interest and good intention. Bogor Botanical Gardens will then flourish in the 21st century beyond beautiful Indies in the 19th century.
References
1. Goss, A. 2011. The Floracrats: State-Sponsored Science and the Failure of the Enlightenment in Indonesia, Univ of Wisconsin Press.
2. van Roosmalen, P.K.M. 2008. Ontwerpen aan de Stad. Stedenbouw in Nederlands-Indië en Indonesië (1905-1950), PhD dissertation.
3. Arya, B. 2014. Penataan transportasi kota bogor berwawasan lingkungan, Jakarta.
4. Parlina, I. 2015. Bogor Palace a new sanctuary for President Jokowi, The Jakarta Post. http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/02/18/bogor-palace-a-new-sanctuary-president-jokowi.html
5. --, Intendant der Gouvernements-Hotels toTeysmann,July 15, 1865/Secret,Miquel Papers, HS 1873, Utrecht University Library.
6. --, Kew Royal Botanical Gardens. A Global Resource for Plant and Fungal Knowledge; Science Strategy 2015-2020.
8. Soemarwoto, O. and Conway, G.R. 1992. The Javanese homegarden. Journal for Farming Systems Research-Extension 2 (3): 95-118. Accessible at http://www.ciesin.org/docs/004-194/004-194.html
9. Soemarwoto, R. 2011. Kasepuhan rice landrace diversity, risk management and agricultural modernization. In Roy Ellen (Ed.). Modern crises and traditional strategies; Local ecological knowledge in Island Southeast Asia, pp. 98-125. Oxford: Berghahn.
10. --, Ecology in environmentally sound and sustainable development by Otto Soemarwoto; compiled by Mohamad Soerjani et al., Committee in Commemorating Professor Otto Soemarwoto Retirement, 1991.
11. --, Eredoctoraten, http://www.wageningenur.nl/nl/Wageningen-University/Over-WageningenUniversity/College-voor-promoties/eredoctoraten.htm
