Fears for park as Trump town rises
GUNUNG GEDE PANGRANGO, Indonesia — Shrouded in mist and cloud, the twin volcanoes of the lushly forested Gunung Gede Pangrango National Park are the brooding guardians of nature’s last stand on teeming Java island. Indonesia’s overflowing, polluted capital is a couple of hours north, and with Trump-branded properties being built next to this protected area, Jakarta may soon feel even closer.
Over the next four years, a sprawling “Trump Community” will be built in this pocket of Indonesia’s most densely populated island, with a new road leading to it. It’s part of broader plans, including a massive theme park, that have alarmed conservationists who fear development will overwhelm a refuge for some of the archipelago’s most threatened species.
The 11.6-square-mile project is the brainchild of President Trump’s Indonesian partner, billionaire and presidential hopeful Hary Tanoe.
Gunung Gede Pangrango is one of the last virgin tropical forests in Java, where only 2 percent of original forest remains. It nurtures a dazzling variety of flora and fauna: more than 2,000 species of ferns, mosses and flowering plants and 250 species of birds. Endangered species include the Javan slow loris (the world’s only venomous primate), the Javan leaf monkey, the Javan leopard (whose total population numbers less than 250), and the Javan hawk-eagle and Javan silvery gibbon.
The park has a rehabilitation center for silvery gibbons that have been rescued from the illegal wildlife trade. The gibbons, known for practicing lifelong monogamy and their distinctively small, intense faces, number fewer than 4,000 in the wild.
Tanoe’s MNC Group will build a six-star Trump hotel along with a golf course, country club, luxury condominiums, mansions and villas — billed in its promotional material as a “Trump Community.”
Together with a theme park, hotels, shops, homes and a dining and entertainment district that MNC is developing on its own, this first stage of “Lido City” will occupy between 1,976 acres and 2,471 acres.
A visualization on the company’s website shows a valley filled with a manmade lake and a fantastical theme park. Tanoe plans to fill out the remaining 4,942 acres and says he wants to expand further.
The Lido City project does not require an environmental impact assessment, though some parts such as the theme park will, according to Tanoe.
Park officials worry construction will cause wildlife to flee and that the mini-city MNC touts as “fulfilling the dream of the people of Indonesia for world-class entertainment” will bring an uncontrollable influx of people and rubbish.
Anton Ario, a program manager for Conservation International, said the park cannot withstand an influx of people and needs a substantial buffer zone between it and the development, especially the theme park.