The Gunung Pancar (Taman Wisata Alam Gunung Pancar) is my favorite trail running location. It is close to Jakarta, with lots of great trails covered with trees - running in the shade of pine trees in tropical Indonesia feels great. This afternoon I ran on my old trail around Gunung Pancar and discovered significant deforestation at
the area. Also, when I got there, two trees surrounded by the new plantation were set on fire:
Meanwhile, beside setting trees on fire, this guy was busy chopping down nearby trees - you can see his face clearly on zoom:
He didn't like that I put out the fire, so I fled before he showed up near me with his machete:
This area is owned by Forestry Department (Departemen Kehutanan) and this activity is illegal, but nobody seems to bother. The trees visible on Google Earth are no longer there and it looks like pine trees at Gunung Pancar will soon be gone, replaced with illegal plantations. Meanwhile, people responsible for guarding this area do not appear to be doing much beside collecting the money for entrance to the park.
But, not everything is lost. Few kilometers from the place with burning trees, I found Eco Edu Forest that appears to be sponsored by PT Astra International with 130 trees planted:
This Eco Edu Forest is located
here. They also installed warning sign informing about potential 10 years jail time for chopping down trees:
Big thank you Astra International! Here you can
read more about their CSR
project. As you can see on my photos, this project is real and really important. I really appreciate this eco contribution from Astra International.
