TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Jatimekar village turns into monkey conservation area
Purwakarta regent Dedi Mulyadi recently launched a program that designated Jatimekar village as a conservation area for monkeys to keep the animal from disturbing locals.
Change Size
Photos courtesy of the Purwakarta regency (-/-)
P
urwakarta regent Dedi Mulyadi recently launched a program that designated Jatimekar village as a conservation area for monkeys to keep the animal from disturbing locals. The regent took the step in response to complaints from Jatiluhur and Sukasari residents in Purwakarta regency, West Java, about monkeys from the hilly areas intruding their neighborhoods.
Depleting food reserves in the monkeys’ habitat is allegedly the reason why they have started to invade local villages and disturb their activities. One of the locals, Indra, 32, said the monkeys came in different sizes, big and small.
“We are scared of them, especially, when they start to attack people, especially women,” he said. To guard themselves against the invading animals, Indra said locals erected steel fences in front of their homes.
During his visit to Jatimekar village to address the problem, the regent, whom locals affectionately call kang (older brother) Dedi, announced his plan to turn the place into what he called “monkey village”, a conservation area specifically dedicated as the animals’ habitat, where their livelihoods and food reserves would be looked after, keeping them from intruding into neighborhoods and attacking people.
It is apparent that the primary reason why the monkeys have started to invade human settlements is because humans have started to encroach their habitat, according to Dedi.
He said a shift in the village’s function from a monkey habitat into a plantation area had been one of the reasons why the animals were venturing out of their environment and coming into contact with humans.
Therefore, in order to respond to the change in the area’s function, the local administration needs to designate a specific place to become a conservation area for the monkeys.
To maximize the function of the conservation area, the regency will also develop it into a tourist destination, with the monkeys as its main attraction.
The actions will be integrated into a long-term program currently being designed by the Purwakarta regency. Under the program, 18 hectares of forestland, which has been turned into a plantation area will be redeveloped into a conservation area to protect the sustainability of the monkeys’ habitat.
“The 18-hectare area is currently cultivated by locals for both farming and plantation activities. Therefore, we have to restore the land into its previous function as the habitat of the monkeys in order to allow them to live comfortably there, thereby keeping them away from human intrusion,” he said.
As one of the first actions taken to turn the village into both a conservation area for monkeys and a biodiversity tourist area, members of the regency’s administration have started to train locals to become monkey trainers. A number of skilled locals have already been sent to a number of other regions with similar tourist attractions, like the Monkey Forest in Bali.
“We involve locals and are training them how to manage their environment. We have chosen [the Monkey Forest in] Bali because its management is excellent. We are using the local budget to send people to learn there,” said the regent, who is currently serving his second term in Purwakarta.
Not only that, infrastructure, including makeshift bamboo huts and fruit trees as food reserve for the monkeys, is being constructed by the local administration to facilitate the conservation area.
