JakartaGlobe-Jan 26
Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq said the conversion of forest land into vegetable farms in Cisarua, West Bandung, contributed to a deadly landslide over the weekend. The landslide buried residential areas in Pasirlangu village, killing at least 17 people, while dozens of others remain missing.
During a site visit on Sunday afternoon, Hanif said some of the vegetables grown in the area were ill-suited to local environmental conditions, including potatoes, cabbage, and paprika. “These are crops typically grown in subtropical regions at elevations of 800 to 2,000 meters above sea level,” Hanif said. “These vegetables are not native to Indonesia. Most of the varieties being planted today originate from subtropical regions of South America, such as Chile and Peru,” he added. Hanif said changing consumption patterns had driven demand for such crops, encouraging residents to open farmland on hillsides at the expense of forest cover, increasing environmental vulnerability. He said the ministry would soon deploy expert teams to conduct a detailed scientific assessment of land-use change in the area to serve as the basis for future policy decisions. Geology expert Imam Achmad Sadisun from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) said the West Bandung landslide was not a typical slope failure but was triggered by the collapse of a natural dam upstream, raising the risk of similar incidents recurring. Read more at: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/vegetable-farming-in-former-forest-areas-cited-in-west-bandung-landslide#goog_rewarded
