WWF upbeat on future of Lorentz National Park

JAKARTA (JP): The World Wild Fund (WWF) expressed on Tuesday its confidence that the government would not exploit the Lorentz National Park in Irian Jaya, which is rich in gold and copper deposits in addition to biodiversity.

Frank Momberg, a WWF executive, said the government had shown its strong commitment to conserving the 2.5-million-hectare park. The commitment was reflected in existing rulings on the park, he said.

"The government and UNESCO have agreed to declare the national park a World Heritage Site and the agreement was cosigned last Saturday by President B.J. Habibie and four ministers," he said in a media briefing here.

Momberg said the national park's protection was also guaranteed by the 1990 national resources conservation law and the joint ministerial decree on national park protection, signed by the minister of forestry and minister of mines and energy in 1989.

Lorentz is the third national park in Indonesia which UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has declared a World Heritage Site. The first two were the Ujung Kulon National Park in West Java and the Komodo National Park in East Nusa Tenggara.

WWF explained the park was Southeast Asia's most outstanding natural treasure trove. It goes from near-impenetrable swamps on the Arafura Sea through lush tropical rainforest to the tropical glacier of the 5,039-meter-high Puncak Jaya mountain.

Between the extremes of this tropical glacier and mangrove forests in the swampy areas lies a complete ecological spectrum of alpine, subalpine, lowland and wetland vegetation provides habitats for approximately 70 percent of birds and mammals in the province.

Besides an abundance of gold and copper deposits, as many as 34 species of endemic flora and fauna and 45 species of rare birds have been found in the park.

Momberg said that WWF had also helped the government conduct a spatial zoning for the park and reached an agreement on border lines with gold and copper mining company PT Freeport which operates on the western boundary of the park.

"As an international company, Freeport will face international pressures if it breaches the agreement by expanding its operations inside the national park," he said.

He added the company would also have to face tribespeople living in the park if it was found guilty of damaging the environment.

Benja Mambai, the head of the WWF conservation project in the national park, said that his organization was developing a sustainable development program with tribes living in the area.

"The program will be based on the tribes' environmentally friendly traditional practices and beliefs," he said.

He said that UNESCO would provide US$3 million in assistance in the next three years while WWF has pledged $250,000 annually to finance the conservation project in the national park. (rms)