GOVT TO DEVELOP TOURIST SITES IN CONSERVATION AREAS

The Culture and Tourism Ministry will concentrate on development of tourist sites in conservation areas which have not been developed maximally, a Cabinet Minister said. Accordingly, Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik and Forestry Minister MS Kaban signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the promotion of tourist sites in conservation areas.

"The conservation and the tourism (sectors) should be merged," Wacik said after signing the MoU in West Java`s town of Bogor, some 60 kilometers south of Jakarta. In such a way, he said, people could earn additional income from the tourism sector while conservation programs could continue to run at the same time.

The MoU also involved the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) which was tasked to study development of natural tourist sites without disrupting conservation programs. In 2008, the Culture and Tourism Ministry set a target of drawing seven million foreign tourists to Indonesia and they were expected to spend US$6.7 billion in the country. Meanwhile, Forestry Minister MS Kaban said Indonesia had a lot of national marine parks and forests but conservation areas in the country were not well-known and thus they should be developed to make people more aware of their existence.

"We now tend to be conservative in dealing with conservation areas and do not allow (people) to touch them," Kaban said. The Indonesian people should introduce the country`s conservation areas to the international community by considering the principles of tourism and conservation, he said.

Conservation areas where tourist sites are allowed to be developed are those called utilization zones, Kaban said, adding that every conservation area consisted of main zones and utilization zones among others. In some countries, Kaban said, construction of villas was even allowed in such sensitive areas but the investment cost for the business would be high so that the business would be very exclusive. "It is only certain investors with good environmental concepts who can enter conservation areas," he said.

Indonesia has 20 national parks which can be developed into tourist sites, like the National Leuser Park, Kerinci Seblat Park and Mount Gede Pangrango, the minister said, adding that those areas could be offered to investors. Director General for Forest Protection and Nature Conservation, Darori, said of 210 marine and forest panoramas in Indonesia, only about 25 percent were allowed to be developed.

He pointed out that uninteresting regulations to investors, inadequate promotion, facilities and infrastructures as well as negative impacts of the regional autonomy euphoria were among factors hampering development of tourist sites in conservation areas. (Antara)