[De Tom]

Trees and greenery along streets here in the southern parts are generally treated very bad. I know the subject of this thread sounds abit amusing.. 'Abused trees'.. but there's no other way i can put it. They are being cut, groomed (in ways that don't make them prettier but entangled), nailed with 'land for sale' signs and other advertising. The southern parts of Bali has turned against the trees. Little do people care for themselves as without the trees we get no shade and cool air, more or more severe floods, less clean air and oxygen and less 'dust traps'. The role trees play in urban areas is a very important one but somehow in the midst of development they fall behind. Many think their roots will ruin the sidewalks or streets. Since all wireing is above ground here, next to the streets, trees fight for space with electrical and phone wires. They often get wrongly groomed and cut just because they will outgrow the height of cables. Nothing wrong in a good grooming, but it has to be done by people who understand how tree's grow and what it will do to them.

I dedicate this topic to a severely abused guava tree at Jln.Batu Bolong in Canggu. I know, it sounds funny , but there is a point to all this.

[Ubudian]

One can get a profound understanding of the Balinese respect for trees from a mask (topeng) maker. I learned all I know from several of them, and some even took me out to find just the right piece of wood most appropriate for the topeng they were asked to make.

While not elaborate, there is a ceremony, an asking of permission so to speak of the tree before any mask carver would even think of carving out a chunk of a living tree, and of course, all topeng asli must be made from a living tree. Of course I'm speaking of ceremonial masks and barongs.

Then I think about the Banyan trees and their incredible status, particularly at temples. No Balinese would dare harm a Banyan at pura...even if suicidal.

[De Tom]

This tree problem is, as many things are here in Bali, of double nature. Trees can be on one hand worshipped and even feared in some places, but as developments and roads widen little consideration or thought is given to trees unless they are situated within holy areas, graveyards or are really old and to be feared. I've been writing before on the subject of why people fear certain tree types in southern bali while in another areas of Bali that particular type of tree is just a tree which can be cut down and used for furniture.

The trees that are not feared are the ones in the hot seat. Trees along roads, regular leaf tree types like Acasia, Lantoro, Guava, Intaran, Flamboyan get almost zero respect and are sometimes cut or severely groomed by people who think they will pose a problem. Tree planting along roads in general is pretty messed up in the southern parts and i'm not really sure who's in charge of it. The people in charge of grooming or cutting do not seem entirely fit for the job as well. The whole point with roadside trees are to get cleaner and cooler air, more oxygen, perhaps some shade and an aesthetically natural and pleasing look that will lift the spirit of everyone.

A good example of tree planting along main roads is in parts of Tabanan. I believe it was somewhere around Baturiti where they have planted Monkeypods or Rain Trees (Pohon Suar) along the main road creating a very cool and shaded ride through this area. I did however spot a few severely cut rain trees, probably someone didn't like it in front of his compound, or other for other reasons, and many severely wrongly groomed rain trees. It's free for all it seems when it comes to cutting and grooming roadside trees and this is the main reason why some areas are completely treeless or only have a few abused stumps standing around.

The general fear people have when it comes to roadside trees is 'it will grow to big or tall and pose a problem for wiring', 'it's roots with ruins the road, gutter or wall'. Planting trees that won't grow large or provide any kind of shade along roads is abit pointless if you ask me, but, if it's this or the tree i pictured above.. i accept whatever people see fit for Bali. One thing for sure is that we definitely need more greenery in the urban areas of Bali or villages undergoing developments.

If there's any way you can assist so that your village doesn't become another Kuta or Denpasar where adding trees to the equation is now a big costly change considered too difficult to integrate into the current infrastructure... then now is the time to start doing something.

What we see now are some, but not many, initiatives to plant trees along certain roads. It is a mixture of planting the wrong trees (no shade or coolness) but organised and planting too many random trees and very disorganised. Maintenance and understanding of how to groom the trees are severely lacking or is it just that the maintenance has fallen into the wrong hands?

The benefits of trees and other greenery are immensely important to our well-being and the well-being of creatures around us for now and future generations.

Here's a little quote i picked up from another website:

Quote

The environmental, social, health, and financial benefits of urban trees has been thoroughly studied. The benefits of trees go far beyond their emotional or "subjective" value, which in itself is significant. It seems the more you know about the actual benefits of trees, the less likely you are to allow them to be needlessly destroyed during development.

I think the main hurdle in Bali is information. People do not fully understand or know what the benefits are with greenery or roadside trees in developed or urban areas and many are still worried about the negative sides of trees (either roots or size of trees). If information of the benefits can get through to the public i think Bali has a good shot of repairing some of the damage caused by out-of-control urbanization or development. It's all about making people understand that this is for everyone of us and compromising in finding different trees that are suitable for different villages or areas.

[gunn parker]

I think a lot of it comes down to dollars or rupiah. If there is enough of it on offer then the trees will go and development will go ahead. It's a sad thought but I think Bali will slowly over many years become more and more developed. The population will get bigger, plus the ex pats will add to that and everyone will need a place to live.
Have a read of the story below about a man in Perth who does not want his tree cut down, he has now been living in it for about 60 days. He is trying to protect it from the local council. This article is from the 9th of December.

Tree Man

[De Tom]

Not entirely true that the roadside tree-problem is related to developments or dollar / rupiah. At least 1 meter, almost everywhere, on each side of any road is 'government/village property' and dedicated for any future government installments. It can be a sidewalk, space for electric/phone poles, making a bigger gutter, widening the road or planting greenery. The main problem is that there isn't much coordination in the greenery quite yet and where there has been some planting the choice of trees and maintenance is far from optimal. In some areas the village itself take responsibility to plant roadside trees and greenery. In other areas it's up to the regency or local government to address and coordinate this. Developments will stay on their plot and have to respect a certain distance from the road. The roadside greenery isn't really up to them unless they want their entrance to look pretty.

Development is inevitable so i don't really see it as a setback, but it is very important that we get a healthy discussion and exposure going on Good Healthy Developments that benefit everyone in some way. It can be that they're cooperating with the village and contributing in some way or that they're focusing on making it as environmentally or aesthetically friendly as possible. The optimal development has both of these ingredients in their business plan. There are many ways for developments to go ahead and not become a burden for Bali so it's not hopeless.

True that Bali's Population will get bigger unless the local government can enforce some sort of 'limit'. Not sure how that would look like but somewhere down the line this will be necessary. Bali won't be overcrowded so much by foreigners or expats but Indonesians from Java, Lombok, Sulawesi and other parts of Indonesia. Again i have to mention the immense pressure on Bali from 160 million population neighbouring island Java. Foreigners or Expats are the tiny tip of a big Indonesian iceberg in comparison.

I like that tree man. Risk for falling branches sounds bad though but there should be a way to avoid that with proper grooming.