Indonesia Must Protect World Heritage Sites

The sustainability of world heritage sites, including those in Indonesia, demand commitment from all stakeholders in conservation management.

KOMPAS/P RADITYA MAHENDRA YASA

Buddha statues among the stupa buildings that encircle the top of Borobudur Temple in Magelang Regency, Central Java, Tuesday (7/6/2022).

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The commitment to protect world heritage sites is enshrined in the 1972 World Heritage Convention, which encourages the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural treasures throughout the world that are considered to have extraordinary value for humanity.

The designation of a world heritage status is given by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). A cultural or natural national-heritage site can be recognized as a world heritage site if it has outstanding universal value (OUV) for human civilization.

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International Council for Monuments and Sites (Icomos) Indonesia’s executive committee chairman Soehardi Hartono said the world’s recognition of a national heritage site would increase the prestige of the site, thus helping in tourism development. “The problem is that we often forget to manage visitors and what happens is overexploitation. The site turns into a gold or coal mine. On the other hand, the responsibility to maintain world heritage is ignored," Soehardi said on Thursday (23/6/2022).

According to him, not all heritage sites necessarily need to be commercialized into mass tourism. When they are developed into a tourism site, he said, the authorities tend to ignore services that would lure the visitors to come to cherish the site and absorb the values of the world heritage.

Serious threat

While helping the economy to pick up, the increasing trend in the number of visits is also viewed as posing potentially serious threat to world heritage sites in Indonesia if visitors are not educated. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Borobudur Temple in Magelang, Central Java, took in an average of 10,000 visitors per day. The influx of tourists has been blamed for causing the temple’s stone steps to wear out quickly due to the resultant stress.

The Borobudur management office has complained about the visiting crowds being difficult to control, which results in acts of vandalism and littering.

FRANSISKUS PATI HERIN

A number of tourists left Padar Island, West Manggarai Regency, NTT, on Friday (6/24/2022). They sailed to other tourist locations such as Komodo Island.

Meanwhile, the Komodo National Park authorization of expansion of the natural heritage site, which is located in West Manggarai regency, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), has drawn scrutiny for fear of degrading the site. The expansion plan, which will reportedly see the development of Rinca Island into a "Jurassic Park", is feared to bring about a negative impact on the outstanding universal value of the heritage site.

“In developing an iconic tourism site, such as the Komodo National Park, the goal is not simply to satisfy visitors. What needs to be considered is the sustainability of the Komodo dragon ecosystem. It would be unthinkable if the Komodo dragons became extinct because of overcrowding," Environment and Forestry Deputy Minister Alue Dohong said at a recent press conference on "Study of Ecosystem-Based Carrying Capacity in Komodo National Park," in Jakarta on Monday (27/6).

He said tourism development in Komodo National Park should ideally not only be anthropocentric, but also care for the eco-centric aspect. In other words, the pursuit of economic value should not override ecosystem sustainability, he said.

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"If we lean on mass tourism, it will disturb the nature. The study of carrying and supporting capacity is important to the formulation of future policies," he said.

The Environment and Forestry Ministry, together with the NTT provincial government, has been stepping up the conservation program by strengthening the function of the Komodo National Park in order to maintain the ecosystem for the site’s sustainability. Based on the study, it is recommended that the ideal number of visitors to Komodo Island is around 219,000 people and to Padar Island 39,420 people per year, respectively.

Doni Parera, a local tourism activist in Labuan Bajo, expressed his hope that the government's commitment to protecting the Komodo dragon ecosystem was not just rhetoric. Referring to the local government’s permit issuance for three companies to invest in the area, he raised objections about profit-oriented investment that would violate the conservation principles.

If we lean on mass tourism, it will disturb the nature.

According to Indonesian Association of Archaeologists (IAAI) chairman Marsis Sutopo, the conservation campaign and tourism promotion of a world heritage site must be balanced by well-managed visitors. The management includes setting the ideal benchmark of visit intake based on the carrying capacity of the site, educating the visitors and regulating the circulation of the on-tour visitors.

Itje Chodidjah, executive chairman of the Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO, said a designated world heritage site required the whole world to protect it. “What often happens [in Indonesia] is that local governments or the ministries and institutions have other interests. They are often uninformed about the site and the obligation to maintain it. As a result, there is a misconception. [They will argue] this is our area, why can’t we develop it? This is our collective homework. We shoulder an obligation [together] to protect world heritage," she said. (SKA/FRN/TAM/EGI/ELN/JOL/HRS/ABK)

This article was translated by Musthofid.