| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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One of the uniqueness of BNI Tibang Urban Forest is built on critical land arid and barren. Another unique thing is that its presence is the result of an extraordinary collaboration between the Government of Banda Aceh as the land provider with Bank BNI as funder and the Bustanusalatin Foundation as construction executor.
BNI Tibang Urban Forest is the first urban forest ever had in Banda Aceh, constructed by BNI Bank in Indonesia using CSR funds, and worthy to be a co-operation between local governments and state-owned enterprises in environmental conservation activity. This success story has attracted the attention of the President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to visit and inaugurate the BNI Tibang Urban Forest during his visit to Aceh attend 7th tsunami disaster …in December 2011.The president and first lady as well as a number of state officials also had the opportunity to plant trees in the urban forest.
Moreover, in BNI Tibang Urban Forest there is a special area planted with typical trees of the area around the archipelago that was donated and planted directly by mayors from all over Indonesia during attending Association of Indonesia Local Governments (APEKSI) meeting and city sanitation summit of Indonesia Sanitation-Care Cities Alliance (AKKOPSI) in Banda Aceh.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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The initiative is implemented by Sanitation and Beautification Department (DK3) as the responsible organization in Green Open Space management in Banda Aceh municipality together with Bustanussalatin Foundation, an environmentalist foundation. DK3 together with Bustanussalatin Foundation tried to approach BNI Bank to gain it’s CSR fund through BNI Go Green programme. Now, after the urban forest was totally transferred to Banda Aceh government, the operational and maintenance is in the hand of DK3. About 500 inhabitant directly affected by this initiative, they are the villagers of Tibang. Moreover, the initiative is also to answer the needs of 250.000 citizen of Banda Aceh.
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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BNI Tibang Urban Forest development took place in 4 stages in a total period of 2 years. Stages through is as follows:
1. Stage 1 : Land and Basic Infrastructure Preparation, and Trees planting
Stage 1 of BNI Tibang Urban Forest development is the most crucial stage because at this stage a great deals to transform poor land into an urban forest and the dream starts to look real, especially when the trees were planted. At this stage various elements, both physical, land, trees, work organization, the public, and the administrative need to start working together as well as possible.
The first stage of BNI Tibang Urban Forest development started in January to May 2010. The activities carried out in the first phase are: 1). Preparation of BNI Tibang Urban Forest Master plan; 2). Trees Planting; 3). Provision of Basic Infrastructure; 4).Development of Community Participation
The four above items is considered as a crucial step that must be executed carefully, because of the failure of this initial step will influence the next steps.
2. Stage 2 : Development of Circulation Strip, Main Plazas and Trees Maintenance
Stage 2 took place in June-December 2010 with the target to take care and raise trees that have been planted during the first phase and to build infrastructure in the such as circulation paths, bridges, pedestrian paths and ramp canopy trail, and observe the appropriate tree species.
3. Stage 3 : Development of Thematic Park, Provision of Public and Social Facilities
Stage 3 took place in January-June 2011 with a target of increasing the diversity of tree species and particular themes, adding facilities for the comfort of visitors and more facilities that are informative.
4. Stage 4 : Installation of Electrical and Information Board
Stage 4 is the final stage, conducted in July-December 2011, is the finishing stage and planting rare tree species.
Completed of development stage, BNI continue to support funding for urban forest the maintenance activities until the end of 2013. Beginning in 2014, BNI Tibang Urban Forest was fully transferred to the Government of Banda Aceh through Sanitation and Beautification Department (DK3) of Banda Aceh Municipality.
Besides BNI Bank as a major donor in the development of BNI Tibang Urban Forest, there is also financing from other parties such as:
• Budget for land acquisition phase I in 2008 (covering an area of 6.2 ha), from Banda Aceh municipal government, IDR 10.5 billion.
• Land acquisition budget Phase II (covering an area of 0.9 ha), from Banda Aceh municipal government, IDR 1.5 billion.
• Budget for development and maintenance of Phase I to Phase IV to be submitted to the Government of Banda Aceh consists of 3 phase with a total budget of IDR 4.9 billion.
• Budget for water tower construction and clean water distribution network towards the north, from the Aceh Government through the Department of Fisheries, Agriculture, Plantations, IDR 200 million.
• Post-handover to the City (2014), the Government of Banda Aceh allocate the maintenance and development of supporting infrastructure IDR 123 million.
• In 2015, in addition to Banda Aceh local government of IDR 639 million, Bank BNI also provide a budget for the provision of some support infrastructure IDR 263 million channeled through Sahabat Hijau Foundation
• To expand the existing land, in 2015 the Government of Banda Aceh land acquisition around the urban forest area of 2,090 m2 with a budget of IDR 1.25 billion.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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The initial idea of BNI Tibang Urban Forest development come from Banda Aceh government by providing land and collaborate with Bustanussalatin Foundation to formulate the initial concept. While the financing is from CSR program of BNI Go Green. This collaboration is an excellent example of public private partnership in environmental conservation.
Local government of Banda Aceh is actively involved in the development of BNI Tibang Urban Forest. Banda Aceh Mayor together with the Deputy Mayor and the City Manager (Sekda), directly down to the field to monitor the progress of development.
Other parties (agencies, public and private) involved in this work are:
1. Department of Fisheries, Agriculture, Plantations of Aceh Province
This office had several activities in BNI Tibang Urban Forest, namely to build a guard house and provide clean water distribution piping.
2. Community of Tibang Village
Tibang village society either individually or in groups involved in the development of BNI Tibang Urban Forest. About 56 women (mothers) were involved. Tibang village society is also involved in security keeping activities, namely Syamsuar and Darmawan. The involvement of local community also performed for individuals with special skills, such as stone pairing workers, planters, and construction workers.
3. Environmental Concern Group
Several environmental concern groups actively involved in trees planting, such as in May 23rd, 2010, the Union of Indonesian Bachelor in Forestry (PERSAKI) planting trees in BNI Tibang Urban Forest.
Technical support came from Bustanussalatin Foundation’s experts which have expertise in environmental engineering, agriculture and landscape architects in collaboration with technical personnel DK3 and involving Drs. Ahmad Abdul Muttalib as field expert. He was former DK3 active employees who retired in 2011, also as Kalpataru award winner from the President of the Republic of Indonesia in 2010. Besides experts/technical personnel, for development activities, labor requirements largely taken from Tibang villagers.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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The existence of BNI Tibang Urban Forest provide countless benefits not only for humans (the surrounding communities and residents of Banda Aceh in general), but also become a new habitat for many types of flora and fauna. The villagers feel that the presence of BNI Tibang Urban Forest may reduce the salty level of their well water and began to be used for drinking water and the land may be used for vegetables planting.
Currently, at least 25 species of birds have started to settle and nest there, and some types of butterflies and water bioata also found began to live there.
Based on the study result, each square meter of green open space is able to produce 50.625 g O2 / day, so BNI Tibang Urban Forest which has an area of 7.1 hectares able to produce 3.59 tons O2 / day. If the oxygen demand of human is 0.864 kg / person / day, BNI Tibang Urban Forest able to provide oxygen for the needs of 4,165 Banda Aceh inhabitants.
Broadly speaking, the concrete output of BNI Tibang Urban Forest development for the community, among others:
1. Land that had been displaced into fertile and useful as well as improving the quality of biodiversity after suffering heavy damage from the 2004 tsunami;
2. Helps the absorption of rainwater into the soil, thus reducing the potential for flooding and help reduce the effects of sea water intrusion;
3. Bringing species of birds and other fauna, such as butterflies and a variety of aquatic biota;
4. Being a means of recreation and sport as well as a place to gather, interact, socialize for families and various communities;
5. Improve the quality of life of local community (Tibang Villagers), include the women group and empower local communities to improve their skills in agriculture and construction/carpentry.
Output number 1 to 4 are in line with goal 15 of SDGs (Life on Land), protect, restore and sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystem, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss. While output number 5 is relevant with goal 5 of SDGs (Gender Equality), achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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The main challenges faced in the construction of BNI Tibang Urban Forest is during trees planting are:
• The poor land condition
It is anticipated by land enrichment by adding natural fertilizer and sludge cake from waste water treatment facility.
• The presence of sea water intrusion
It is anticipated with the right choice of plants that can tolerate salt water, such as pine trees;
• Sun Heat and fresh water deficiency which endanger seedling
To solve the problem, it was started by protecting the seeds to be planted, for example by fitting coconut leaves to protect the seed direct sun heating, while fresh water supply was gained from deep wells (170 m depth)
• The sea breeze blowing unhindered so often which may cause the new planted seeds are fallen;
It is anticipated by reducing the number of leaves by aborting the leaves to reduce wind gusts against the trees to avoid trees uprooted.
• No expertise and skills of local people in farming
To overcome this problem, the community awareness and appreciation was built. Expertise and skill in farming is not difficult thing and may be learned by providing a proper training for them.
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