Delinquent Visitors Threatening World Heritage Sites

While encouraging tourism sector, UNESCO world heritage sites in Indonesia are at risk of deterioration due to the uncontrolled behavior of delinquent visitors.

KOMPAS/REGINA RUKMORINI

An officer sprays essential oil on the rocks of Borobudur Temple, Magelang Regency, Central Java, Tuesday (21/6/2022). Essential oils are an innovation of natural ingredients as an effective substitute for gerbicides that are used to clean moss and fungus.

MAGELANG, KOMPAS — Indonesia’s world cultural and natural heritage sites are an extraordinary magnet for tourists. While they help boost the economy, however, the influx of visitors has caused concern about the preservation of the sites, as with the Borobudur Temple.

Located in Magelang regency, Central Java, the Borobudur Temple complex, a world cultural heritage site, has begun to show a large amount of damage, including worn-out stone steps.

This deterioration has been caused by, among other things, visitors' inappropriate footwear when ascending and descending the steps, which is clearly visible in the concave surface of the steps from repeated treading.

Wiwit Kasiyati, the head of the Borobudur Heritage Center (BKB), said that not only did the footwear treads wear out the stone steps, but damage to the temple structure had also resulted from acts of vandalism and littering by delinquent visitors.

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Some tourists recklessly climbed to the top of a stupa to get their desired angle for taking photographs from the peak of the temple. She deplored the visitors’ general lack of awareness about the need to preserve a cultural site. “They come in throngs, rushing up to the top of the stupa, just to take photos," she said in Magelang on Friday (6/24/2022).

Wiwit recalled that she saw the worst acts of vandalism committed by visitors in 2000, when the temple’s stone structure was found with graffiti made with markers or spray paint, while garbage littered the temple compound. She said some visitors had caused irreparable damage to Borobudur.

Junus Satrio Atmodjo, who heads the National Cultural Heritage Office’s expert team, said the problems surrounding the Borobudur Temple raised concerns about visitor behavior. Some visitors vandalized the structure not only by drawing graffiti on the structure or littering the temple compound, but also urinated on the grounds.

"On the higher levels of Borobudur Temple, which should be respected as a sacred place, some parents just let their children urinate on the temple floor," he said.

Terraces 1, 2, and 3 are the areas most prone to damage, as the three terraces are also the most popular areas for visitors, especially those who want to take selfies.

Some visitors were also suspected of committing disgraceful acts at the site, including one visitor who was alleged of sexually assaulting a female visitor.

Based on field monitoring and surveys carried out from 1984 to 2021, the Borobudur Temple complex has subsided as much as 2 centimeters below the surface due to stress and load from the uncontrolled number of visitors.

Urgent extra care is needed for all three terraces of the temple structure, because the reliefs in these areas are not reinforced with concrete.

"Terraces 1, 2, and 3 are the areas most prone to damage, as the three terraces are also the most popular areas for visitors, especially those who want to take selfies," said Bramantara, coordinator of the BKB maintenance team.

KOMPAS/REGINA RUKMORINI

Stupa at the Borobudur Temple building, Tuesday (14/6/2022)

Borobudur Temple has undoubtedly become one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country. Before the pandemic, notably since 2016, visitor arrivals reached more than 3.7 million people per year. In 2019, a total of 3.9 million people visited the temple in 2019.

While dealing with the impacts of aging, given the fact that the temple was built in the 8th and 9th centuries, the heritage site management sees an urgent need to address the human impacts with preventive and anticipatory measures.

Responding to the site’s current condition, Wiwit said the BKB had formulated a standard operating procedure (SOP) that visitors must follow when Borobudur Temple was reopened to the public.

The SOP restricts the number of daily visitors to the temple to 1,259 people. Visitors who want to climb to the top of the temple are required to wear the upanat sandals, made from woven pandan leaves, that are provided by the management, and must be accompanied by a certified tour guide.

Selfie with Komodo dragons

Besides the cultural heritage site of the Borobudur Temple complex, Indonesia also has a UNESCO world natural heritage site, Komodo National Park in East Nusa Tenggara. On the namesake island, visitors are given a chance to walk the trails of the Komodo dragon and observe the rare reptilian species in their natural habitat. They can take pictures and selfies with a Komodo dragon in the background.

To provide a small spectacle for visitors, an animal handler sometimes uses a tree trunk to try and block the Komodo dragons’ path back into the forest.

"Poor dragon. Don't hold it there too long, please. Komodo dragons can become stressed,” said Tasya (35), one visitor who reacted to such an action.

A tourist guide said they felt obliged to do so to allow visitors ample time to enjoy watching the Komodo dragons and posing with them.

"It would a missed opportunity for [visitors] who have come all the way to see the dragons, only to find the dragons slipping away into the forest too early. We do it for the visitors’ satisfaction," the guide said.

In 2019, Komodo National Park recorded 221,703 visitors, more than double the 109,243 visitors recorded in 2018.

FRANSISKUS PATI HERIN

Komodo dragons on Komodo Island, West Manggarai Regency, NTT, on Friday (6/24/2022).

Komodo National Park head Lukita Awang Nistyantara said visitor numbers had shown an increasing trend since 2010. The park management had limited visitor intake for fear that an uncontrolled number of visitors could potentially interfere with the ancient reptile’s natural habitat.

In 2016, the park management observed the behavior of the Komodo dragons towards visitors.

"It turned out that the dragons’ behavior had changed. They have become less alert and tend to be permissive towards human beings. Meanwhile, in non-tourist areas, they will move away when they see human beings," Lukita said during a press conference on "Study on the Carrying Capacity of the Komodo National Park Ecosystem " in Jakarta on Monday (27/6).

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He said the conservation of Komodo dragons depended highly on the natural environment. With adult Komodo dragons often killing baby Komodo dragons, an environment with shady trees was very important to provide them with shelter from potential threats.

“In the 1960s, the forest was still dense and ideal for the dragons. Newly hatched komodo dragons could live and climb trees freely. However, they are now having a hard time finding trees," said East Nusa Tenggara Deputy Governor Josef Nae Soi.

Irman Firmansyah, the head of the expert team tasked with studying the carrying capacity of Komodo Island and Padar Island, including the islands’ marine environment, said that limiting visitors to Komodo National Park could help stem the rapidly dwindling resources of the areas as well as socioeconomic losses. If visitors were not restricted, potential resource losses would be the equivalent of an estimated Rp 11.1 trillion.

Facing delisting

The tropical rain forests of Sumatra, which were designated as a natural world heritage site by UNESCO in 2004, are also reportedly under threat. The causes believed to be endangering the forest’s sustainability include the construction of roads that pass through the forests or national parks, uncontrolled expansion of agricultural land, illegal logging, poaching and hunting, and weak institutional and government regulations.

The 2.5 million-hectare forest area has been included on the world heritage red list, or the endangered category, for the last 10 years. If no serious effort is made to maintain its sustainability, the tropical rain forests of Sumatra will be removed from the list of natural world heritage sites. (EGI/TAM/FRN/SKA/JOL/HRS/ELN/ABK)

This article was translated by Musthofid.