T

he administration of Samosir in North Sumatra is collaborating with universities in an effort to get the Toba Caldera Geopark recognized as a heritage site on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Global Geopark Network.

Support from universities in developing the Toba Caldera Geopark was crucial to the Samosir administration, particularly in the administration’s plan to have the area listed in the network, a top official said.

“There should be greater involvement of universities in making Toba Caldera part of the UNESCO Global Geopark Network,” Samosir Regent Rapidin Simbolon said on Saturday after the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between his administration and the University of Pembangunan Panca Budi in Medan.

Rapidin said the involvement of universities in the program was aimed at accelerating the development of both physical infrastructure and the service sector around Toba Caldera to boost the prosperity of local people.

The regent expressed his hope that universities would help synchronize the government’s development program with traditional local ways of doing business.

Panca Budi University rector M. Isa Indrawan said Toba Lake was a world heritage site blessed with abundant, invaluable natural resources in terms of geological and biological as well as cultural aspects.

Hence, the Toba Caldera area deserved to be part of the UNESCO Global Geopark Network, he went on.

Isa said the signing of the MoU between Panca Budi University and the Samosir administration was part of efforts to realize the goal. The agreement was one of the university’s commitments to help the administration carry out Toba Caldera development based on local ways.

“We will carry out mapping and research activities to synchronize the program the administration has designed with the wisdom of people living in the Toba Caldera area,” said Isa.

Involving students and lectures, the university would focus its research on several key aspects to determine whether the government’s program was suitable for the area, he added.

“This includes [the question of] whether local people are ready to accept the program and whether the program is really in line with local wisdom,” said Isa.

Attending the MoU signing, Toba Caldera Geopark expert team chairman RE Nainggolan said he appreciated the university’s willingness to take part in the development of the Lake Toba area and hoped other universities would provide similar support.

In a meeting at his office on May 9, North Sumatra Governor T. Erry Nuradi instructed the creation of a team to accelerate the process to nominate the Toba Caldera Geopark as part of the UNESCO Global Geopark Network.

Led by his deputy, Nurhajizah, Erry said, the team would follow up UNESCO’s recommendations to the North Sumatra administration.

The recommendations must be immediately fulfilled, because the administration’s earlier proposal to include Toba Caldera in the global network failed in 2015, he went on.

That failure was blamed on an assessment by a UNESCO team during its visit in 2014. The team found many things that needed improving and recommended five points to the administration. These include marketing and promotion improvements, geopark educational activities, the establishment of a geology and information educational panel, cultural development and sustainable economic activities in the Toba Caldera Geopark area.

“The team should be able to fulfill the five recommendations by August this year. After that, we will again propose Toba Caldera as a UNESCO Global Geopark Network member around October or November,” Erry said.