Indonesia's urban green spaces dilemma: Balancing law,ecology,and public space,highlighting Jakarta

Abstract

This article intervenes in debates on how law, ecology, and urban governance produce the idea of “green space.” Using Indonesia's 30% Green Open Space (GOS) mandate as a critical case, it argues that the legal abstraction of ecology into measurable quotas transforms environmental care into bureaucratic representation. In Jakarta, where land scarcity and political competition make the target unattainable, compliance is performed through the counting of roadside strips, cemeteries, and ornamental medians as green space. Drawing on Lefebvre's concept of the production of space, Harvey's spatial justice, and Jacobs's notion of lived urban vitality, the article shows how this abstraction privileges visibility and legitimacy over ecological function. Jakarta exemplifies a global urban condition in which sustainability becomes esthetic, green space becomes arithmetic, and law becomes landscape. The debates call for a redefinition of GOS as spatial care—a relational practice that distinguishes but connects ecological integrity and public accessibility. Moving beyond green quotas toward spatial care, it invites urban geography to reconsider how space is known, governed, and lived in the name of sustainability.