T

he Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry'€™s geological museum and geopark development department has declared Ciletuh area in Sukabumi regency, West Java, a national geopark.

The 36,000 hectare area was declared a national geopark because of its unique geological richness, formed between 100 to 65 million years ago. The area also boasts nine waterfalls and an amphitheater-shaped cliff.

Yunus Kusumahbrata, chairman of the ministry'€™s museum and geopark revitalization team, said his office had received the Ciletuh Geopark proposal on Nov. 1, 2015.

'€œWe hope Ciletuh will be declared a global geopark in 2017,'€ Yunus said in Bandung over the weekend.

Five national geoparks have previously been declared global geoparks by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). They are Mount Rinjani in West Nusa Tenggara, Toba Caldera in North Sumatra, Merangin in Jambi, Mount Batur in Bali and Mount Sewu, which is located across the three provinces of Central Java, East Java and Yogyakarta.

Mt. Batur was the 89th of UNESCO'€™s total 90 Global Geopark Network members around the world when it was declared in 2012. Mt. Batur is the first geopark in Indonesia and the second in Southeast Asia, after Malaysia'€™s Langkawi.

Yunus said the government had invited UNESCO'€™s advisory mission team to Ciletuh.

Guy Martini, a member of the team, suggested that the Indonesian government expand the Ciletuh geopark as far as Palabuhan Ratu beach, a renowned tourist destination in West Java.

'€œThe only suggestion we have is to extent the territory and integrate it with a strong recreational site such as Pelabuhan Ratu. We like working in that way. We like supporting, promoting and identifying local products,'€ said Martini in his review after spending three days in Ciletuh.

He also advised the government to involve the local people in the economy.

'€œOne of the goals of a geopark is to promote and protect the history, geology and natural and cultural heritage of the area as well as provide sustainable economic development to the local population,'€ Martini said.

UNESCO has declared over 40 global geoparks in Asia. Of them, 30 are located in China, seven in Japan, one in Vietnam and one in Malaysia. The status of each park is reevaluated every four years.

Yunus said that if the evaluation team found substandard aspects to the park and its management, the team would notify the respective governments and encourage them to improve and fix the problems.

'€œThis is a kind of yellow card. The government will be given two years to do improvements. Otherwise, the status will be revoked,'€ he said.

Martini said that UNESCO had on several occasions revoked the status of global geopark. '€œI am not going to say names, but it happened in Europe and Australia. We gave them support to change the situation,'€ he said.

He added that in most cases, revocations were brought about because of bad management and a lack of sustainable involvement of the local community.