To choose nature or profit?
Development and conservation clash at Komodo National Park
On a dirt path, a member of the world’s largest lizard species lazes on an island in eastern Indonesia’s Komodo national Park as tourists snap photos. And about 30km away on another park island that harbours Komodo dragons, trees have been removed and concrete poured for new tourist facilities that have aroused the ire of residents and activists.
The construction is part of an ambitious Indonesian effort that has stirred tensions between a government that wants to develop natural attractions for luxury tourism and conservationists who fear the habitat for the endangered Komodo dragon will be irreparably harmed.
Because of its biodiversity and beauty, the park became a United nations educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation World heritage Site in 1991. And it’s one of Indonesia’s crown jewels for tourism, typically drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
For years the government has been trying to figure out how to best capitalise on the park, most recently designating it part of the country’s “10 new Balis” initiative – an effort to draw more tourists, as Bali did before border restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We are embarking on a new era of tourism in Indonesia based on nature and culture, focusing on sustainability and quality tourism,” Minister of Tourism and Creative economy Sandiaga Uno said.
Part of that multimillion dollar tourism development is a project on Rinca Island, where more than onethird of the park’s dragons are estimated to live.
The project worries local environmental activists and residents within park boundaries who say their livelihoods as tour guides, boat drivers and souvenir sellers depend on the draw of the area’s natural beauty.
“When we talk about the development in the conservation area, we have to think ... whether this is a wisely considered economic effect for the local people – or the environmental effect,” said Gregorius Afioma, a member of the local non-governmental organisation Sun Spirit for Justice and Peace.
“The situation now is like collective suicide.
“We think that this kind of business will eventually kill others’ businesses and even themselves because they destroyed the environment,” Afioma said.