Who needs Jurassic Park ?
In Indonesia ,
giant reptiles have their own national park, but a new airport development is
bringing an influx of tourists to their domain
The Guardian, Saturday 27
February 2016
The first Komodo dragon I
saw in the wild was a gorgeous adult female, blocking the trail like a
two-metre-long sentinel in Indonesia ’s Komodo national park.
For a moment, in my awed mind, she was a mythical dragon demanding payment for
passage. But this thought was quickly scuttled as two tourists raced in front
to capture a selfie with the apex predator. The agitated dragon ran off into
the underbrush – they were lucky she didn’t run the other way and bite off one
of their legs. I’d travelled thousands of miles to see a Komodo dragon and it
had just been scared away by reckless travellers.
Now, a major upgrade of
Labuan Bajo regional airport is set to bring more tourists to the 29 islands that
make up the Unesco-protected park, potentially threatening its eponymous beast.
The airport used to handle 150,000 tourists a year; now it can accommodate 1.5
million, with its new terminal and lengthened runway. Garuda Indonesia now flies there at weekends from Bajawa and
Denpasar.
The world’s largest
lizard, the Komodo dragon is arguably Indonesia ’s
best-conserved large animal. Protected under Indonesian law, the population is
relatively stable with around 2,500 animals in the park and another 2,000 on
larger Flores
island, though this population faces habitat loss. Meanwhile, Indonesia ’s
populations of orangutans, tigers, elephants and rhinos continue to plummet as
rainforest is destroyed for palm oil, mining, timber and paper industries.
People here truly
appreciate the dragon, my guide, Arman Rikardus, told me. He said increasing
tourism meant that locals like him didn’t have to move to Bali to find work, although they have
witnessed a sudden rise in inflation as the number of people moving to Labuan
Bajo pushed up the cost of food and housing.
He also warned that if
tourism gets out of control, the demand for new infrastructure could cut into
the dragon’s already limited habitat. At present, less than 10% of the national
park is actually open to the public, so many of the dragons are able to live
out their lives without ever running into a selfie-snapper.
The government hopes to
mitigate the impact of more tourists: entrance fees for foreigners were
recently increased sharply – a day pass with tax now costs between £10 and £15,
plus an extra £5 for a guide – in a bid to raise more revenue. The park has
also stopped the practice of feeding goats to dragons for tourist
entertainment.
Currently, the biggest
threat to the dragons is the poaching of deer which is their prey, and the rise
of human populations. The species shares the park with nearly 4,000 people,
many of whom supplement their incomes by selling curios and snacks to tourists.
The dragon dominates the food chain and underpins the local economy.
The local government
hopes that tourists will start venturing beyond dragons: Flores is home to
several stunning volcanoes, rare birds, and the cave where scientists
discovered homo floresiensis – Flores man, also known as the hobbit of Indonesia .
The region has some of the best diving and snorkelling on the planet. For all
that, the Komodo dragon is still the star attraction: outside the new airport
sits a massive statue of the area’s favourite resident. You can take a selfie
with this one without the risk of losing a limb.
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