BRIN adopts private partnership model for managing four botanical gardens

The National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) is making partnerships with the private sector a management model for four botanical gardens to strengthen conservation, research, education, and public services. Head of BRIN Arif Satria stated in Bogor, West Java, on Friday that strengthening public-private partnerships (PPP) is one strategy for facing global change while encouraging innovation-based development. The four ex-situ plant conservation areas are the Bogor Botanical Gardens, Cibodas Botanical Gardens, Purwodadi Botanical Gardens, and Bali Botanical Gardens, where public service and tourism management involves PT Mitra Natura Raya (MNR). “One of the main strategies in facing massive global change is strengthening public-private partnerships. The private sector has a crucial role in advancing the national industry,” said Arif. Through this partnership scheme, BRIN continues to carry out its main functions in research, biodiversity conservation, and environmental research, while MNR handles aspects of public service and tourism. Private sector management covers visitor management, hospitality services, diversification of creative tourism products, cleanliness, digital marketing, and maintenance of public facilities. Since the partnership began in 2020, at least 13 thematic gardens across the four botanical gardens have been revitalised and inaugurated as part of efforts to optimise assets while supporting conservation functions. Modernisation has also been carried out through the development of the Kultura and Immerzoa programmes. Kultura packages Indonesian cultural education alternately within the botanical garden areas, while Immerzoa utilises immersive visual technology to deliver education about the life cycles of plants and animals. Managing Director of PT Mitra Natura Raya Marga Anggrianto said the partnership proves that creative innovation from the private sector can run in tandem with research and conservation interests. “The success of this botanical garden partnership has a balanced proportion between asset optimisation, creative tourism business development, and maintaining the dignity of the botanical gardens, which are closely tied to the academic community and environmental issues,” said Marga. According to him, through this scheme, the botanical garden assets remain state property, research activities continue, while the management also provides economic and educational benefits for the community. This partnership model has also received recognition from the Ministry of Finance with the registration of MNR as an Asset Management Partner Institution in the management of state assets. In addition, the PPP scheme for managing Indonesian botanical gardens was presented at the International Congress on Education in Botanical Gardens (ICEBG) 2025 in Seoul, South Korea. The management model also became a research object in a paper titled Evaluating Public-Private Partnerships in Indonesian Botanical Gardens: Implications for Conservation and Edu-tourism, published in the Proceedings of the 9th Asia Euro Conference 2026. In 2026, the Indonesian Botanical Gardens under MNR’s operational management also received a tourism award at the ASEAN Tourism Awards 2026 in the Philippines. Marga assessed that these various recognitions demonstrate that government-private partnerships can serve as a collaborative governance model for optimising state assets without neglecting the functions of conservation, research, education, scientific tourism, and environmental services.