One of Indonesia’s most popular travel destinations, Komodo Island, will be closed for 12 months come January 2020.
This move comes after a reported 41 precious Komodo dragons were looted from the island’s population of around 5, 700 and subsequently sold on Facebook.
Komodo National Park
The Komodo National Park comprises 29 islands, of which Komodo, Padar and Rinca are the largest three.
According to statistics, the park itself received 10,250 visitors a month in 2018, of which 95% were foreigners.
Only Komodo Island will be closed while the rest of the Unesco-listed national park is to remain open.
Looting Afoot
The closure comes after a series of alleged theft by a smuggling ring.
A total of 41 Komodo dragons were reportedly stolen and sold for $35,000 USD each, in a case uncovered by the East Java Police.
According to The Jakarta Post, the smuggling ring had intended to ship the animals to three countries in Southeast Asia through Singapore.
So far, nine suspects have been apprehended by the police in several East and Central Java cities with one suspect still on the run.
The report shared that five Komodo dragon babies were also rescued from the Surabaya-based group of alleged smugglers.
Habitat Restoration
According to The Jakarta Post, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Tourism Agency head Marius Ardu Jelamu, said the closure was aimed at restoring Komodo Island’s natural habitat.
“Marius said that both regional and central governments had been working on the restoration plans together, and a team of relevant stakeholders had been formed in order to make a joint assessment of the closure, with the results expected to be submitted to the ministry by July.”
As part of the assessment, “the team will conduct studies to determine the direction of the park’s management as an exclusive area, including the elimination of negative impacts from tourism, as well as preservation efforts”.
They’ll also be looking at new policies which will “seek to improve monitoring and control over visitors to the area, starting with the organization of boat arrivals and ticket sales for the park, with only one point of entry from Labuan Bajo Port.”
Just one in the line of many tourist attractions initiating changes
Komodo Island isn’t the first, nor will it be the last of tourist destinations to effect changes.
Since 1 January 2019, tourists to the hugely popular Unesco World Heritage Site, Machu Picchu, are required to select specific time slots and arrive within one hour of them or risk being turned away.
This came after a surge in the number of tourists to Machu Picchu “prompted Unesco to threaten to put the attraction on its list of world heritage sites in danger.”
Closer to home, Thailand’s Maya Bay -made popular by Leonardo DiCaprio’s 2000 movie, The Beach, remains indefinitely closed after its popularity caused a surge in tourist arrivals that decimated its coral reefs.
The Philippines’ famed Boracay island just recently reopened in October 2018 after a 6-month closure, albeit with strictly-restricted tourists intake.
Let’s hope these places will still be around for our children and grandchildren in years to come.
Else, there’s always Disneyland right?
Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:
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