Indonesia’s Mountainous Protected Areas: National Parks and Nature-Based Tourism

Abstract

In Indonesia, state forests are divided into conservation, protected, and production forest categories according to management objectives. Contained within conservation forests are the 54 national parks, of which nine are predominantly marine, six are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and five are Ramsar wetland sites. This chapter investigates Indonesia’s mountainous national parks, which accounts for around 9% of the archipelago’s landmass. The first batch of five national parks was designated in 1980, and the number increased gradually, reaching 41 by 2003. The current crop of 54 national parks are defined as conservation areas that possess native ecosystems managed via zoning to facilitate research, education, biodiversity and tourism goals. Efforts have been made to fade out the ‘fences and fines’ approach in favour of a more participatory approach to PA management. However, ineffective conservation is revealed by the influx of tourists at popular destinations such as Mount Bromo (2,329 m), an active volcano in the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park. Unregulated nature-based tourism at Bromo and other mountainous national parks has negative environmental impacts such as air and water pollution, effects on wildlife behaviour, habitat deterioration, solid waste accumulation, erosion of the rim of the volcano, vandalism, and illegal flora harvesting. Management tools such as cost recovery mechanisms and climber permits are investigated as potential counter-strategies.