Javan Langur Disappears From Forests: Bekasi, West Java

The Javan langur — a type of monkey — is often mentioned in Indonesian bedtime stories and fables. But many children today could tell you little about the lutung, even those living in coastal Muara Gembong in Bekasi, east of Jakarta.

Older residents still recall how, until 20 years ago, each day started with the high-pitched calls of groups of langurs (Trachypithecus auratus) from the mangrove forests bordering West Java’s Karawang regency.

The mealtime ritual of the langur, also known as the Old World Monkey, was also a common sight.

The langur usually sat in groups on the lowest branches of the trees, angling sea crabs with their long tails. They then used their tails to hit the crabs against the trees to get at the juicy white flesh inside. As the article in the Jakarta Post explains.

“What do you expect? The forests are gone, so how can you find lutung here anymore?” said Tukam, 50, a resident of Muara Bendera village.

The disappearance of the lutung has been the result of development at Jakarta’s northern fringes, said Odja Djuanda, the head of the structure and infrastructure division at the regency’s planning and development body.

“The monkeys are all gone,” he said last week.

He cited a 2002 study on the preservation of Bekasi’s mangroves by the math and science school of the University of Indonesia which revealed the forests had dwindled down to just 16.27 percent of their original area over the space of 59 years.

The forests were previously home to 32 unique animal species, most of them swamp birds such as the kuntul (Ardea alba).

The head of Bekasi Spatial Planning and Settlement, Jamari MP Tarigan, acknowledged the loss.

“The sounds of lutung and kuntul were rarely being heard by early 1990. And in 1993 they just vanished.”

He said an aerial photograph taken by the his office in 2005 showed 150 hectares of coastal mangrove had disappeared.

A spokesman from the regency’s forestry agency, Wahya, said cooperation was needed between his office, the environmental management body and the planning and development body to protect the environment.

“We all need to understand why we have to stick to the spatial plan and not change the use of any area when the loss of the ecosystem is the cost,” he said.

“With plans to reclaim North Jakarta’s coast to build a trade, business and industrial zone, conditions could get worse.”

Many experts and environmentalists have asked the Jakarta administration to cancel the development plan. They have argued development could drastically affect the ecosystem and people’s economic livelihood.

Critics also argue the development would worsen flooding in Jakarta by preventing rivers from flowing freely into the sea.