The beauty of Mount Rinjani is finally beginning to be recognized in the global arena as a candidate for Global Geopark status. Mount Rinjani, which folklore says was controlled by the beautiful Princess Dewi Anjani, has been officially recognized as national park and is now in competition with a number of national parks around the world.
The rich history of Mount Rinjani, from its past erputions that could have changed the climate around the world, to the natural beauty of the caldera lakes makes it the perfect candidate for this title.
However, to ensure this history including the natural heritage, archeology, ecological diversity and cultural influences are pereserved the management of the park must be unified. To this end the committees have three main goals : conservation, education, and sustainable development.
Although Mount Rinjani has won a number of awards, the proposal for Rinjani to become a Global Geopark has been on the table for some time and was actually rejected in 2010 due to a lack of technical documentation. The proposal has now been submitted again to the Secretariat of the National Committe of the Unesco Global Geoparks Network (GGN) Unesco, which has a number of officials from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources o its committee.
One strategic move the West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) provincial government has made is to improve coordination with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy. The goal in doing this is to make sure they complete the requerments to become a Global Geopark.
To achieve the final goal of becoming a Global Geopark, a government representative said they had proposed a budget to the Indonesian Central Government to fund the promotion of the park as well as preserve the area.
He said the NTB government has asked for between 40 and 60 billion Rupiah (US $4-6 million) for the task, which would be used for structuring, economic empowerment programs and infrastructure.
Source : Enchanting Lombok Sumbawa Magazine, April 2014 Edition
