Rhino research station to be built
Rhino research station to be built
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Serang
As part of the effort to empower local people that live in and
around Ujung Kulon National Park on the western tip of Java, the
park management plans to build a rhinoceros research station.
"We hope the park can improve the park's image, which in turn,
will improve the economy in the area," said the park's chief Puja
Utama in a discussion held at the Tirtayasa University in Serang
on Thursday.
It was poverty, according to Puja, which was main reason of at
least nine foiled attempts by local people to damage the world
heritage site since 2004.
"The latest cases involved people bombing (for fishing
purposes) a coral reef along the 44,337 hectares of marine area
and illegal hunting of wild animals," he said.
Puja said the park is in dire need of cooperation from any
institution that shares the same intention of protecting the
ecological conservation area and empowering the people living
around it.
"We welcome any kind of protective attempts, which will
prevent illegal hunting, deforestation and other damage to the
76,214 hectares of forest and the 44,337 hectares of marine areas
from irresponsible people," he said.
Six hectares of the conservation area have been occupied by
local people since 1992 and they have exploited some 4,000
hectares of the forest.
The park, where the endangered single-horn Java
rhinoceros makes its habitat, occupies a total of some 120,000
hectares of land. An estimated 60 rhinos and 800 buffaloes,
including 360 species of plants, can be found in the park.
The park receives an average of 5,000 visitors annually, of
which, some 30 to 40 percent are tourists from overseas.
Another speaker during Thursday's seminar, Danoe Winoto of the
Indonesian Wildlife Fund, said that all stakeholders, including
the Ministry of Forestry and state timber company PT Perhutani
should work hand-in-hand to help in the establishment of the
rhinoceros research station.
"Moreover, the area around Mount Honje in the park,
horticultural trees can be planted, which can be an alternative
for locals to earn a living so they won't touch the conservation
area anymore," he suggested.