Indonesia-Japan Explore Sister Park Cooperation to Create World-Class National Parks

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Indonesian government and Japan are exploring cooperation in managing conservation areas through an initiative to develop a sister park between Japan’s Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park and several alternative national parks (TN) in Indonesia to achieve world-class status. “This initiative is aimed at strengthening the position of Indonesian national parks to become increasingly known at the global level,” said Forestry Minister (Menhut) Raja Juli Antoni in his statement in Jakarta on Monday. Furthermore, he mentioned several alternative Indonesian national parks with similar ecosystem characteristics, including Kerinci Seblat National Park, Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, and Gunung Rinjani National Park. “This sister park cooperation is expected to be a strategic step in improving the quality of national park management through the exchange of knowledge, experience, and best practices in conservation and ecotourism development,” said the Forestry Minister. The Japanese Ministry of the Environment has welcomed the proposal and encouraged concrete follow-up through the organisation of a technical workshop to discuss the technical aspects of the cooperation in greater depth. This workshop is expected to serve as an initial forum to formulate an implementable and sustainable cooperation framework. “The development of sister park cooperation with Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park and the MoU for Komodo breeding loan is a programme of the Ministry of Forestry to help strengthen Indonesia-Japan relations, which is part of the series of state visits by President Prabowo Subianto to Japan,” said the Forestry Minister.