Nusakambangan Island, off Cilacap, Central Java, is notorious as a dreaded prison island where hard-core prisoners are locked up.

With some 1,000 inmates from across the country and abroad, and with 562 of them on death row, it deserves the image. The three Bali bombers Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas were sent there before being executed last week by firing squad.

Nusakambangan is also a potential tourism asset, especially with its magnificent white sanded Permisan Beach, which has been opened to the public but is left neglected due to a conflict of interests between different government offices.

The Cilacap administration has planned to develop the area into a tourist resort given its regional autonomy, but has been held back during the past few years by the prevailing regulations of the Justice and Human Rights Ministry.

Conservation efforts, similarly, have not been carried out as they should have been because the Cilacap Natural Resources Conservation Center (BKSDA) has also been at loggerheads with the ministry over jurisdiction.

"We have designed a good tourist package but always come to disagreement with the Justice and Human Rights Ministry," Cilacap regency spokesman Ansor Basuki told The Jakarta Post recently.

He said intervention from central government was needed to sort these issues out.

He added that the island also had the potential to be developed into a more spiritual tourist destination, given the presence of 10 natural caves rarely touched or visited by people.

"Those who believe in the mystical world are usually in search of such caves in Nusakambangan to meditate. I often meet them inside the caves," BKSDA's forest ranger chief, Dedy Supriyanto, said.

Dedy's work as a forest ranger often brings him to the island to protect the forest from all sorts of threats.

"I always come across people meditating the caves and they mostly come from outside Cilacap," he said.

Nusakambangan, according to Dedy, was also home to diverse flora and fauna whose populations were on the brink of extinction due to the extent of environmental damage to the forest.

"Around 400 species of rare flora can be found here, including the plarar tree which is endemic to the area," Dedy said.

However, he added, the island's rich natural resources were at grave risk of depletion due to uncontrolled logging.

Some 5,000 out of the total 16,000 hectares of forest on the island, according to Dedy, are severely damaged due to illegal logging.

That excludes 50 hectares more that are damaged as the result of commercial activities, especially because of the cement industry which operates on the island, he added.

"I once more appeal to PT Holcim to prove by its actions its promise to restore former excavation areas, because as I've noticed, it has not carried out any restoration efforts in Nusakambangan since 1999," said Dedy, referring to the cement producer.

Nusakambangan has been a focus of public attention over the past week following the executions of the three Bali bombers on Nov. 9 at Nirbaya valley.

Nusakambangan currently is not just home to convicts and around 2,000 members of its coastal community, but also to newcomers who have illegally converted forests into farmlands.

The squatters enter through the coastal villages and have engaged in illegal logging to clear forest areas, thus posing new problems on the island.

"There are indications that corrupt officials are involved," said Dedy, claiming he encountered difficulties in carrying out conservation efforts on the island due to such practices.

"I know it because I've seen them pay particular persons so they could steal the trees," he added.

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