Regency, BKSDA fight over fees

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

Bogor regency has terminated its work agreement with the Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), which manages the Telaga Warna tourism park, after the agency refused to share funds collected from visitors.

Bogor Tourism Agency head Robhi Kosasih also accused the BKSDA of failing to develop the tourist attraction even though it had the full support of the government.

Telaga Warna, located in Cisarua, about a 30-minute drive from Bogor, is both a conservation area and a tourist park.

It is also an important water reservoir for the area. However, the 373.25 hectare site -- consisting of 368.5 hectares of conservation park and five hectares of tourism park -- has not been well maintained. The lake is shallowing out and public facilities like toilets look abandoned.

Robhi said the BKSDA had made no effort to combat the shallowing of the lake.

"We suggest the regency take over the operation of the Telaga Warna tourism park because it is an asset," he said, adding that it would still be the BKSDA's obligation to protect the conservation area.

Robhi told The Jakarta Post his office signed an agreement with the BKSDA on the operation of the Telaga Warna conservation park in 1998.

After signing the agreement, the municipality helped construct and reorganize roads leading to the park.

"We expected to receive some visitor fees but the agency refused, saying that it already paid taxes," Robhi said.

The head of the West Java BKSDA office overseeing Bogor, Noor Rakhmat, said his office was entitled to operate the park under Law No. 22/1999 on conservation tourism.

"However, we do not have the authority to make it profitable," he said, explaining that visitors were only required to pay Rp 1,000 to enter the park. "The fee is based on a ministerial decree and applies for all protected forests, parks and marine areas."

The same decree says collected entrance fees should be divided between the provincial administration (30 percent), the regency administration (40 percent), the central government (15 percent) and the forestry ministry (15 percent).

Telaga Warna has between 200 and 300 visitors each month.

"We did submit a portion of the fees to the regency," he said. "But we did not like it when the regency administration put up another booth to collect fees from visitors when there is already one at the entrance. A lot of people complained they had to pay two entrance fees."

Caption

JP/Theresia Sufa

Ukar, an officer from the Natural Resources Conservation Agency, feeds monkeys at the Telaga Warna conservation park. Some 40 long-tailed monkeys make the park home.