President Jokowi: Mentawir Nursery Becomes Government’s Commitment in Managing Environment

President Jokowi, accompanied by several mass media Editors-in-Chief and officials, inspects Mentawir Nursery, in North Penajam Paser regency, East Kalimantan, Wednesday (06/22). (Photo by: PR of Cabinet Secretariat/Oji)

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo Wednesday (06/22) started his working visit to East Kalimantan province (Kaltim) by visiting Mentawir Nursery located in Mentawir village, Sepaku district, North Penajam Paser regency. During the working visit, President also brought along several national and regional mass media Editors-in-Chief.

According to the President, the construction of Mentawir Nursery has become a tangible manifestation of the Government’s commitment in managing the environment, especially in the new Capital City of Nusantara (IKN) area.

“We’d like to show that we are serious about environmental issues. In fact, we do not begin the construction here because the environment can be damaged even more. That must be underlined,” President Jokowi said during a discussion with mass media Editors-in-Chief.

In the IKN development, the Government has set the target for the composition of nature to be 75-80 percent of its area.

That way, he added, the development will be in accordance with the IKN concept as a forest city.

On that occasion, the President also highlighted that the Government continues to renew its commitment to tackle environmental problems through nurseries in other provinces on the island of Kalimantan.

“We have shown you our true intentions. If we can produce 12 or 15 million new tree seedlings, and not just in here, we will show you what other nurseries are like in South Kalimantan or Central Kalimantan,” he said.

The President also pointed out the Government’s target to build 30 other nurseries focused on areas with a large mining industry, such as Rumpin Nursery in Bogor regency.

“There will be a lot of development in Kalimantan and Sumatra islands since those areas have a lot of palm oil and mining industry sites,” he explained.

As reported by the website of Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Mentawir Nursery, which is located near the IKN core area, was built on an area of ​​120 hectares. The main facility for a 32.5 hectare nursery will be built in this area to produce approximately 15 million seedlings per year.

For the record, the seeds prepared include nyatoh wood, meranti tree, lime tree, belangeran, agarwood, and guavas. The plantation is expected to attract animals and birds to return to their habitat in IKN. The millions of seeds produced from Mentawir Nursery will be brought to IKN to be planted in critical lands. (DID/UN) (RIF/HD)