Komodo National
Park
The Komodo National Park is a nasional
park in Indonesia located near the Lesser Sunda Islands in the border region
bettween the provinces of East Nusa Tenggara and West Nusa Tenggara. The park includes
the three larger islands Komodo, Rinca and Padar, as well as numoreus smaller
ones, and total area of 1817 km2 ( 603 km2 of it land ). The
national park was founded in 1980 in order to protect the komodo dragon. Later it
was dedicated to protecting other species, including marine species. The islands
of the national park are of volcanic origin. About 4000 people life within the
park. In 1986 the national park was named a UNESCO world Heritage Site.
Scuba diving is popular komodo
national park because of its high marine biodifersity, including whalle shark,
ocean sunfish, mantra rays, eagle rays, pygmy seahorse, false pipefish, clown
froggfish, blue-ringed occtopus, sponges, tunicates, and coral.
Since 1995, the national park authority
has been supported by the nature conservacy (TNC), a American enviromental
organization. A new management plan was co-authored with TNC and implemented in
2000 to address the problem of increasing resource exploitation, both marine
and terrestrial. Most presure on marine resources originates from fishing
communities and comercial enterprises from uotside the park. However,
regulations and restritions on resource use impact mostly on park residents,
who have few options to make a living but rely on what the park has to offer. The
provision of alternative livelihoods are part of the overall management
strategy, but comunities within the park is yet to benefit from appropiate
measures addressing their needs.
The development of ecotourism is the
main strategy to make the park self-financing and generrate sufficient revenue
throuh entrance fees and tourism licenses to cover operasional and managerial
costs. To this ends, a joint venture between TNC and tourism operator were
granted a tourism concession, that also entails extensive park management
rights. This concession has generated an ongoing controversy. The joint venture
has been accused of making decisions behind closed doors, and many people in
and around komodo claim that they havent been consulated regarding decisions
that ultimately affect their lives.
Most controversi, however, was
caused by the death of seferal fisherman since 1980s. The circumstaces of the
fisherman`s deaaths are contested. While park patrol (including, at the time,
police and navy personels) claim they acted in self-defense, fishing
communities accuse park managemen of having deliberatel killed the fisherman.
Komodo National Park remains an
awe-inspiring experience for tourist and travelers, but the convlict between
park management, TNC and local comunities continues unabated.
Komodo National Park has been
nominated and made it to at least 28 finallist to become of the new 7 wonders
of the world.
