UCS tries to combine business with conservation

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The approach in which businesspeople build a tourist haven, usually restricted to wealthy tourists only while disregarding the poor condition of locals, is on the way out.

The owner of Umang Island Resort and Spa, near Ujung Kulon, Banten, invited locals and people within the area of Ujung Kulon National Park to join the Ujung Kulon Conservation Society (UCS), which plans to develop local tourism, agriculture, fisheries and conservation.

Former forestry minister Marzuki Usman was appointed president of the society.

"Most locals there rely on the sea where fish are dwindling or land that is not very fertile. Spa and resort owner Christian Halim thought to assist locals by providing jobs and also setting up small business ventures to help the economy," Marzuki said recently.

For example, he said, the UCS would buy the catch of local fishermen and use it most effectively.

"Not all the catch can be sold in the fish auction, so we will buy fish and set up a cottage industries that can produce cat food," he said.

The owner of the spa did not wish to establish a luxury resort and spa to welcome rich tourists while locals could only watch and did not receive any benefit at all, Marzuki added.

The room rate for staying at the resort ranges from US$88 (Rp 800,000) to US$150.

It takes a 1.5-hour journey by speedboat from the island to reach Ujung Kulon National Park, where the endemic and rare single-horn Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sundaicus) dwells.

Because Umang resort will provide a program to visit the national park, the owner has also invited the park management to join UCS.

"We want to introduce the park to more people. We also have program to help raise funds for the park," Marzuki said.

For example, in cooperation with the park, they would auction the opportunity to name a rhino.

"For instance, Bill Gates could have a rhino named after him by donating US$1 million. The money would be used for supporting the park," Marzuki explained.

Ujung Kulon National Park, a world heritage site, receives an average 5,000 visitors annually, of which some 30 to 40 percent are foreigners.

The park, which occupies 76,214 hectares of land and a marine area of 44,337 hectares, has all the estimated 60 rhinos in the world and about 800 banteng (buffalo).