Indonesia's New Capital Nusantara Designed as a Forest City

TheIndonesia.id - President Joko Widodo said the State Palace in the National Capital (IKN) Nusantara, East Kalimantan, would be built on the highest plateau at a height of 80 meters above sea level. Nusantara is also designed to be a forest city.

“It's the highest here. so that you can see (the panorama) to the right and left," said President Jokowi in his presentation on the Presidential Secretariat's Youtube channel, which was attended in Jakarta, Tuesday, March 15, 2022.

The President also said that IKN Nusantara was built with a forest city concept. This means that green forests in the surrounding IKN area should be sustainable.

"But what is used for this capital city is industrial forest plantations, which are monocultures, with homogeneous plants, cut down every 7 years," he said.

The government will rehabilitate it into a heterogeneous forest, which is not a monoculture. The government, he said, also first built a nursery center capable of producing 20 million plant seeds per year.

"From there, we plant for forest rehabilitation at IKN Nusantara, so that the plants are not monocultures, the plants are endemic, local plants that can attract animals to enter, can attract birds, attract butterflies," he said.

"So this is what we want to do, rehabilitate both the forest and reclaim the existing mining sites because there are indeed a lot of forests that have been encroached on by the community and some of them have to be repaired and rehabilitated," explained the President.

The President explained that there were indeed proposals from several ministers for the 17 August independence commemoration ceremony to be held in the Indonesian capital in 2024. The proposal could have been implemented if the State Palace, ministry/ institutional offices, and related facilities had been completed.

"If the Palace has been completed or other ministries have finished or other facilities have been completed, yes it is possible. But later when the progress is seen, "said the President.