Jokowi: Infrastructure Development Must Be Environmentally Friendly

VIVA – The Indonesian President, Joko Widodo (Jokowi), emphasizes that infrastructure development in Indonesia must pay attention to environmental sustainability and ensure the survival of wildlife. The President said this when he saw an elephant crossing at KM 12 of the Pekanbaru-Dumai toll road, Riau Province, on Thursday, January 5, 2023.

"I continue to emphasize the importance of also pay attention to the environment, as we built the Pekanbaru-Dumai Toll Road, for example, there are tunnels for elephant passes in six places," President Jokowi said.

So, the construction of this toll road does not interfere with the crossing of one of the protected animals, namely the Sumatran elephant.

Not only in Riau, the President said that these conservation efforts will also be carried out in other places so that infrastructure development does not interfere with the preservation of wildlife, "I think in some places we are building tunnels, passages for these protected animals,"

On a separate occasion, the Head of the Riau Natural Resources Conservation Center (KSDA), Genman S. Hasibuan also added that the elephant tunnel is an adaptation step for the construction of the Pekanbaru-Dumai toll road which has split the elephant habitat into two cities and two regencies with a total population of 76 elephants.

"As an adaptation of the construction of this toll road to the existence of elephants in this location, we from the Riau KSDA Center are working together with Hutama Karya to make an elephant tunnel so that the elephant's movement is not disturbed," Genman S. Hasibuan remarked.

After directly seeing the elephant crossing, the President and his entourage then continued their journey to Rokan Hilir Regency.