Fires at Indonesia’s Komodo dragon reserve spark fears over ‘Jurassic Park’ tourism revamp
- Conservationists worry renovations to create a ‘super-priority’ tourism destination at Komodo National Park will harm its namesake endangered giant lizards
- Authorities have sought to play down ‘Jurassic Park’ labels as a misconception – but Unesco is concerned enough that it’s called for work on the project to stop
The latest blaze on November 2 took a team of 32 park rangers and 11 residents of Rinca Island – one of three main islands that make up the park in East Nusa Tenggara Province – to put out. The source of the fire is still under investigation, according to park authorities.
On August 8, a fire on the west side of Komodo Island raged for 12 hours before it was extinguished, with another large fire recorded on the island of Gili Lawa in 2018.
“Fires like this happen almost every year and the Komodo National Park Authority never gives a full explanation about the cause,” said Venan Haryanto, a researcher at Sunspirit, a civil society organisation that works for social justice and sustainable development in Indonesia.
“They just say something like ‘lightning’ or ‘hot weather’ when asked what happened. For us at Sunspirit, this lack of clarity only amplifies our concerns about the extent to which the government is taking conservation at the park seriously.”
Here be dragons
More than 250,000 people visited Labuan Bajo in 2019 according to the Indonesian Bureau of Statistics, with at least 10,000 going to the Komodo National Park to see its namesake dragons every month of that year. The park was temporarily closed last year to focus on “restoration plans” and has yet to reopen.
Local environmentalists are concerned these plans, which include building new resorts, cafes and other infrastructure at the park such as observation decks to view the Komodo dragons, could do more harm than good.
In October 2020, a photo of a Komodo dragon in front of a truck at a construction site in the park went viral. The truck was reportedly involved in building an elevated deck to connect parts of the island with the Loh Buaya port area. At the time, local authorities said that the truck had “broken down” and that the lizard was “just curious”.
“We assess that the Komodo National Park Agency has not been optimal in protecting the Komodo ecosystem and the livelihoods of the people on the islands,” said Umbu Wulang Tanaamah Paranggi, director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment of East Nusa Tenggara.
“The management of the Komodo National Park must be re-evaluated, both the system and human resources. This ‘Jurassic Park’ was created to accommodate mass tourism interests, whereas Komodo National Park should be focused on the protection of the Komodo ecosystem and community economic empowerment based on environmentally friendly practices.”
Luhut Panjaitan, Indonesia’s coordinating minister for maritime affairs and investment, came up with the “Jurassic Park” moniker in 2019 while quashing rumours that the park was going to close, saying instead that the government planned to open a research centre there and “organise it so that it is not in chaos”, with promises of African-style safaris.
The 1993 film Jurassic Park, based on an earlier novel by Michael Crichton, famously tells the story of a rich businessman’s attempt to open a theme park populated by dinosaurs, only for chaos to ensue when the previously extinct lizards break loose.
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Komodo National Park spans the three main islands of Komodo, Rinca and Padar, and 26 smaller ones, for a total surface area of 1,817 sq km according to its official website. Proposed extensions to the park would bring the total surface area up to an estimated 2,321 sq km.
It was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1991, but concerns over the planned infrastructure projects’ potential destruction of the Komodo dragon’s natural habitat spurred the UN heritage body to call in July this year for work to stop.
According to Venan of Sunspirit, park authorities and the central government ran a series of crisis management simulations to demonstrate the preparedness of Komodo National Park as a “super-priority” tourism destination back in November 2020 using helicopters, boats and other rescue equipment.
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An earthquake and tsunami, a tourist having a heart attack, and a boat catching fire and sinking were among the crises simulated, with proceedings streamed live to the Presidential Palace in Jakarta for the viewing pleasure of Widodo, who is also known as Jokowi.
“The simulations painted an extremely positive picture that the authorities had a handle on things,” Venan said. “They gave the impression that the government was going to spend time and money making sure that Komodo National Park was safe, even bringing in rescue helicopters as Jokowi looked on. We never saw the helicopters again. Where are they now?”
Aside from fires, the park has to combat wildlife traffickers who attempt to poach or capture the Komodo dragons and other flora and fauna as well as dealing with other issues such as boats sinking.
“It is all well and good to say that Komodo National Park is a ‘super-priority tourism destination’ but we need to know how the government is going to mitigate all the problems the park faces,” Venan said.
“There needs to be a clear evaluation that takes place and the government needs to be conscious of the consequences of turning the park into a massive tourism project.”
‘No Jurassic Park’
However, according to Shana Fatina, director of implementation at Labuan Bajo Flores Tourism Authority, such concerns are only the result of misconceptions surrounding the renovation of existing facilities, which should be completed by next month.
“There is no such thing as Jurassic Park,” she told This Week In Asia. “Tourism development in Komodo National Park in the future will focus on special interest tourism and quality tourism, which not only provides an element of leisure but also a strong educational component as an added value.”
Fatina said that there was no correlation between the park’s suitability as a tourism destination and the recurring fires, which she said were caused by “extreme weather”.
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“In the context of tourism, we are committed to realising safety, health and security standards in Labuan Bajo and this continues to be improved in collaboration with other relevant agencies.”
Stressing that “again, there is no Jurassic Park”, she said the future for the resident Komodo dragon population and their natural habitat looked brighter than ever.
“The development of tourism at Komodo National Park will be much better than before because it will not be oriented to the quantity of visits, but to the quality of benefits and education for both tourists and conservation,” she said. “This can be measured by preserving biodiversity, providing added value for community welfare and sustainable tourism.”
