BRIN adopts private partnership model for managing four botanical gardens
Bogor (ANTARA) - The National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) has adopted partnerships with the private sector as the management model for four Botanical Gardens in order to strengthen conservation, research, education and public services.
BRIN Chairman Arif Satria, in a statement issued in Bogor, West Java, on Friday, said strengthening public-private partnerships (PPP) is one strategy for confronting global change while promoting 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, whose public service and tourism management involves PT Mitra Natura Raya (MNR).
“One of the main strategies for facing massive global change is strengthening public-private partnership. The private sector has a crucial role in advancing the national industry,” Arif said.
Under the partnership scheme, BRIN continues to carry out its core functions in research, biodiversity conservation and environmental research, while MNR handles public services and tourism.
Management by the private party covers visitor management, hospitality services, creative tourism product diversification, cleanliness, digital marketing and the upkeep of public facilities.
The scheme also allows BRIN’s researcher civil servants to focus on their core duties of research and conservation, without being burdened by the daily operational demands of the gardens’ tourism functions.
Since the partnership began in 2020, at least 13 thematic parks across the four Botanical Gardens have been revitalised and officially opened, as part of efforts to optimise assets while supporting conservation functions.
Modernisation has also been pursued through the Kultura and Immerzoa programmes. Kultura presents Indonesian cultural education on a rotating basis across the Botanical Gardens, while Immerzoa uses immersive visual technology to convey education about the life cycles of plants and animals.
PT Mitra Natura Raya Managing Director Marga Anggrianto said the partnership proves that creative innovation from the private sector can go hand in hand with research and conservation interests.
“The success of this Botanical Gardens partnership has a balanced proportion between asset optimisation, creative tourism business development, and preserving the dignity of the Botanical Gardens, which is closely tied to the academic community and environmental issues,” Marga said.
According to him, under the scheme, the Botanical Gardens remain state-owned assets, research activities continue, and their management also delivers economic and educational benefits to the public.
The partnership model has also received recognition from the Ministry of Finance, with MNR registered as a Management Institution Partner (MIP) in the management of state assets.
In addition, the PPP scheme for managing Indonesia’s Botanical Gardens was presented at the International Congress on Education in Botanical Gardens (ICEBG) 2025 in Seoul, South Korea.
The management model also became the subject of research in a paper entitled 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 show that government-private partnership can serve as a model of collaborative governance in optimising state assets without neglecting conservation, research, education, scientific tourism and environmental services functions.