Indonesia, Korea To Develop "Sister Park"

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - The Government of Indonesia, through the Forestry Ministry and with the Korea National Park agency, are developing "Sister Parks" as part of their cooperative effort to manage national parks in both countries.

Darori Wonodipuro, the Forestry Ministry's Director General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation (PHKA), said here on Friday that putting in place the national parks management systems between the two countries would be a great advantage for the community.

The agreement on the Sister Park development program was signed by Wonodiporo and Korea National Park Service leader Chung Kwang Soo on Friday.

"The cooperation is expected to speed up the improvement of the management of the national parks in the two countries," Wonodipuro noted.

He added that the cooperation would also develop techniques for national park management, natural tourism, restoration of endangered species, and human resources capacity building through trainings, mutual visits and an internship training period for staff in the field.

The site of the cooperation that has been agreed upon is in Gunung Gede Panggrango National Park in Indonesia and Jirisan National Park in Korea, which have similar ecological and ecosystems. (*/T007)