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Govt defends authority over Komodo Park
While all interested stakeholders are welcome to cooperate in the preservation of national parks, the central government should maintain its authority over the management of these protected areas, Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar has stated
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span>While all interested stakeholders are welcome to cooperate in the preservation of national parks, the central government should maintain its authority over the management of these protected areas, Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar has stated.
The minister’s statement follows a proposal by the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) governor for the Environment and Forestry Ministry to hand over the development rights for Komodo National Park. The minister described the proposal as groundless.
“The conservation of national parks, such as Komodo National Park, is completely under the authority of the central government and cannot be decentralized to a lower level of government,” Siti Nurbaya told The Jakarta Post in a recent written interview.
Calls for the handover of development rights for Komodo National Park were raised by NTT Governor Viktor B. Laiskodat amid recent reports of crime and disturbances around the world-famous destination.
NTT administration spokesman Marius A. Jelamu said the rights transfer would allow the regional administration to increase security measures around the park.
“NTT governor [Viktor] urged the central government to hand over the authority to the regional administration so Komodo National Park could be more closely guarded,” Marius said recently in Kupang, NTT.
He cited disconcerting reports about a fire on the Gili Lawa hills in the park, as well as the smuggling of komodo dragons as reasons the regional administration was seeking a more active role in ensuring the park’s safety. On March 27, the East Java Police busted a criminal network that allegedly attempted to smuggle 41 komodo dragons out of the country.
Natural Resources and Ecosystem Conservation Director General Wiratno maintained that the management of Komodo National Park should remain under the central government’s authority, as stipulated in Law No. 5/1990 on natural resources and ecosystem conservation.
“Should it be considered necessary to delegate the authority for the management of a national park to a provincial administration, the law must be reviewed and changed first,” Wiratno said separately in a recent interview.
However, he suggested that the NTT administration could participate in managing Komodo National Park by helping ensure the security of the park and providing necessities for the park’s operational activities.
Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) executive director Nur “Yaya” Hidayati said the government should not maintain a rigid approach to national park management.
“By law, it is the central government’s authority to manage conservation areas, such as Komodo National Park. But, it is perhaps time to adopt a comanagement system there, involving the local administration and people living in the national park itself,” she told the Post on Sunday.
She cited the failure of the current management system to involve local people in the preservation of the Komodo National Park ecosystem and also in finding ways that their involvement could support their livelihoods. “What has been happening so far is that they [local people] are mere spectators because all tourism services have been provided by the incoming tourism organizers without involving the locals.”
Furthermore, Yaya called for the establishment of a quota on visitors in the park to prevent massive inflows of tourists, which, she argued, was not only stressful for the komodo dragons, but also created sanitary problems, including piles of garbage and pollution.
