Tree Planting is not uncommon thing anymore in the world. I am sure that many green activists, NGO, authorities in most of countries must have done this action. Yup! Tree planting on is such a good solution to keep the world breath the oxygen and it is also a great way to prevent landslides and erosion on hills and flood on valleys. Tree planting is usually done for reforestation and land reclamation. But before that, there is something which must be done to enjoy the benefits. It is Sustainable maintenance.

Sustainable maintenance is needed to ensure the action effective for solving the problems. As we know, reforestation and land reclamation are not instant ways like cooking instant noodles. Restoring the forest and land to the condition before the disaster occurred need some time until it is really complete 100 percent.

So far, we know that sustainable maintenance toward land reclamation is watering, pruning, fertilizing. But those are not enough to keep the process of reforestation to be complete. There are some aspects which should get some treatment as kind of sustainable maintenance. And I believe, the aspect is the root of deforestation problem.

This is one of deforestation cases. At Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, Some citizens illegally convert the forest on Ciwidey and Pangalengan to be vegetable plantation. It is absolutely dangerous because those two areas are forest areas which have duty to absorb the rain in the hills area to prevent flood occurred in lower areas. Due to illegal plantation, Bandung, the city which is never flooded, now is threatened when the rain season comes.

And if the government notices the phenomenon, tree planting must be one of many solutions beside of litigating those citizens.  I will not say this is bad, but economic reasons are the basic for legalizing forest converting for the citizens. Then, I believe sustainable maintenance is not only maintenance toward the new planted tree, but also an alternative solution to citizens? economic problems in order to prevent them for doing the same thing. If the citizens do not get any treatment, they must try to enter the area and demolish the trees.

Lately, Indonesia?s Ministry of Forestry has created National Tree Planting Movement 2014. The object of this movement is drainage basin. But, it is known from the news source that the province which has implemented the idea of this movement is only Central Java. I guess it is great as Central Java is one of the most productive agricultural provinces in the country, so there must be a lot of deforestation cases.  I hope other provinces will follow the step to reconstruction their forests especially for my place, which is still on recovery process after smog disaster happened a few months ago.

Finally, I wish sustainable maintenance will not only be done toward the objects of tree planting action, but also the root of problem should be treated in order to keep the process complete without any disturbance.

Some references:

http://www.menlh.go.id/gerakan-menanam-pohon-nasional-2014/

http://m.inilah.com/news/detail/2109462/ciwidey-dan-pangalengan-masuk-zona-rawan-banjir

Picture Source:

http://www.menlh.go.id/gerakan-menanam-pohon-nasional-2014/