Bambang Nurbianto and Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

Devastating floods hit Greater Jakarta recently, paralyzing most of the capital for three weeks from late January to mid-February. At least 22 people died and 300,000 were displaced across the city. Many people, particularly environmentalists, blamed uncontrolled, illegal construction in several designated "green areas" in and around the capital as the major causes of the Great Flood of 2002.

Last week The Jakarta Post visited the Bopunjur green area, which was designated as the main water catchment area for the upper Ciliwung river, which eventually flows through Jakarta.

The issue of environmental damage in the Puncak area in Bogor and Cianjur regencies, West Java, has featured in almost all publications in the nation following the recent huge floods that hit Jakarta.

The upland area should be maintained as a green area that functions as a water catchment and environmental buffer zone. But it continues to see the conversion of green areas into businesses and settlements, such as villas and hotels.

The environmental damage will likely be unstoppable, at least in the near future, as so far there is no positive sign that environmentally friendly development policies might be adopted in these areas.

Four presidential decrees, issued between 1963 and 1999, have proved toothless in trying to prevent environmental damage.

In the latest presidential decree, the Puncak area, which is also known by the acronym Bopunjur, covers 11 subdistricts in Bogor regency, three subdistricts in Cianjur regency and three subdistricts in both Cianjur mayoralty and Depok mayoralty, (all in West Java), and two subdistricts in Tangerang regency, Banten province.

But the current focus of public attention, however, is on the Puncak tourist resort in three subdistricts in Bogor -- Cisarua, Ciawi and Mega Mendung -- which cover 18,298.9 hectares of land. The area functions as a water catchment for the Ciliwung river, which originates here and subsequently flows into the Java sea via Jakarta.

Environmental damage due to continuing conversion of green areas, such as forests and tea plantations, into businesses and settlement areas is believed to have contributed to the devastating floods in the capital from late January to mid-February.

The areas that have been extensively covered over with concrete can no longer absorb rainwater. The flooding in Jakarta was made worse, as the rain water in the areas directly flowed through the Ciliwung river and its tributaries into Jakarta.

The Ciliwung river has at least seven tributaries originating in the area: the Cisukabarus, Cibogo, Cisarua, Cilember, Ciluar, Cisesek, and Cibuluh.

Another indication of environmental damage in Bopunjur is the level of erosion. Every year some 400 tons of mud from each hectare of land are transported to the Ciliwung river through the tributaries. The tolerable erosion rate is 39 tons per year per hectare.

Mas Ahmad Santoso of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL) said weak law enforcement would worsen environmental conditions in the area. "A crackdown against illegal villas should be carried out, otherwise it will encourage others to indulge in similar illegal activities," he told The Jakarta Post.

Mas Ahmad is right. People in several villages in the Puncak have easily occupied state land without fear of legal action by the authorities.

Such illegal occupation of state land in the areas is still taking place.

Ace Sulaeman of the state-owned plantation company PTP Nusantara VIII Perkebunan Gunung Emas said over 400 hectares of state land had been claimed by people known as penggarap (cultivators) after they cut down the tea plants.

"Cultivator" is a term that does not only refer to local farmers, who cultivate state land, as it could be rich people from Jakarta, who bought state land from illegal occupants.

The state land occupation began in 1997 when the land concession (HGU) of the state plantation company PTP Nusantara VII expired. From that time, people did not only occupy the nonproductive state land, but also cleared away tea plantations, which were still productive.

The people thought they could freely cultivate the state land, whose status was not clear as to whether it was part of PTP Nusantara VII's cultivation rights on about 1,700 hectares of tea plantation in the area.

The land speculators worsened the condition. The speculators wanted to buy the land from the cultivators although the land was not supported by adequate documentation.

"As we know that the land is owned by the state, we will not issue any transaction documents. We may only make a note about any deal, without further consequences," said head of Tugu Utara village in Cisarua subdistrict, Jajat Sudrajat.

But many others made transactions without their being witnessed by government officials. The land buyers were mostly rich people, who did not care about the amount of money they spent on buying state land, at a price of only Rp 15,000 per square meter, said Ace, adding that many of them bought the land by the hectare.

Initially, the new buyers of state land simply hired farmers to cultivate the land for vegetables, such as tomatoes, cabbages, mustard greens and onions. But in the long term, they built villas or houses.

Dozens of such buildings could be found on state land in several villages in Cisarua subdistricts, like Kopo, Sukagalih, and Cidokom.

"There are five villas built on state land in this village. I have reported them to the subdistrict office, but I have not seen any followup," said Hudan Mutakin, head of Sukagalih village, located some eight kilometers from the main road connecting Jakarta and Cianjur.

Tea plantations were not the only target of land speculators as the 127 hectares of Balekambang reserve forests and 125 hectares of Mandalawangi protected forest in Cisarua have been totally occupied by the cultivators and land speculators, according to Ace.