Botanical garden should be built in central sulawesi: house member

Palu, Central Sulawesi,  (Antaranews Sulteng) - Since Central Sulawesi has an extensive land area, it is deemed necessary to build a botanical garden for boosting environmental conservation, tourism, education, and social culture.

"Central Sulawesi has a land area spanning millions of hectares, so this province needs to have a botanical garden," Ahmad M. Ali, a member of the House of Representatives` Commission VII for the Energy Resources Division, remarked here on Monday.

Ali emphasized that it is time for Central Sulawesi to have a botanical garden, which can be utilized by all circles of society.

Moreover, the botanical garden can have an impact on the development of tourism in Central Sulawesi.

According to Ali, the extensive land area in Central Sulawesi is deemed to be more beneficial to the community for developing a botanical garden rather than offering it to third parties for investment purposes.

The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) plans to establish botanical gardens in several regions, especially in eastern Indonesia.

To build these local botanical gardens, LIPI will develop the capacity of human resources, manage collections, conduct exploration and documentation, manage plant propagation, and cultivate plants for collections.

Development of the botanical garden is supported by the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing, which will assist in the preparation of a detailed engineering design and supporting infrastructure.

LIPI has set a target to build 47 botanical gardens by 2025.

Currently, Indonesia has 30 botanical gardens, of which five are managed by LIPI, 24 by the local administrations and one botanical garden is managed by a university.

In future, areas in Indonesia will increasingly require green open spaces in various forms; hence, botanical gardens can be one of the solutions to realize access to environment-friendly spaces.