IFC supports Komodo park

IFC supports Komodo park

JAKARTA: The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has
pledged to provide US$5 million in grants aimed at ensuring
effective long-term management and sustainable financing of the
Komodo National Park, home to some of the world's richest
diversity at sea and on land.

"IFC is pleased to be participating in this innovative and
exciting business venture that will identify and apply ways of
increasing sustainable revenues for the local communities and
improving the unique local ecology," IFC environmental and social
department director Rachel Kyte said on Monday.

Kyte said the grant from the IFC, the private sector arm of
the World Bank Group, to PT Putri Naga Komodo (PNK), a company
jointly owned by the Nature Conservancy and tourist firm PT
Jaytasha Putrindo Utama.

In a public-private partnership with the government and the
local communities, PNK will promote the park on Flores Island as
a tourist destination and increase the net benefits to
conservation and local development, the statement said. --JP