**** 5International Herald Tribune | ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT | Friday, February 13, 2009

Feathered star: An invertebrate in Ujung Kulon.

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A lthough Indonesia’s Ujung Kulon Na-tional Park faces no major threattoday, Unesco has worked to antici-

pate future problems in this World Heritagesite. Located on the southwestern tip ofJava, Ujung Kulon (‘‘West Point’’) first re-ceived protection in 1910, when it wasmade a hunting preserve. Eleven years later,it was upgraded to a natural monument andwildlife reserve, and by 1980 it had becomeone of the first five national parks in Indone-sia. In 1991, it became the nation’s first Un-esco World Heritage site.

The protected area includes one ofJava’s last rain forests, several offshore is-lands and a rich coral-reef ecosystem. ItsWorld Heritage status helps safeguard nu-merous endangered plants and animals, ofwhich the most threatened is the Javanrhinoceros. Ujung Kulon also encompassesthe natural reserve of Krakatoa, where thefamous volcano is found; the reserve be-came part of the park in 1958.

Ujung Kulon is a popular destination forsurfers, and some years ago it faced grow-ing pressure for housing and hotel develop-ments to accommodate these tourists. Be-fore the government of Indonesia decided tobuild any amenities for them, however, itworked with Unesco to develop what the

Paris-based organization calls a Public UsePlan. This helps identify exactly what the sitecan accommodate — hotels, restaurants orroads — based on what kind of people willbe coming to use the site, and for what pur-poses. This Public Use Plan shows the WorldHeritage Centre at its most proactive.

Unesco does not try to exclude any typeof development within a World Heritage site,provided the values for which the site wasinscribed on the WorldHeritage List are notthreatened. ‘‘The PublicUse Plan studied thelinks between biodiversi-ty conservation and sus-tainable tourism in Ujung Kulon,’’ says AgusPriambudi, who became head of the UjungKulon National Park Agency (UKNPA) lastyear. The plan focused on how to meet theneeds of new tourists and called for con-sultation with park authorities and the com-munity to identify its most sensitive areas.

At the time of the plan’s drafting, UjungKulon National Park was relatively un-touched, but problems were looming on thehorizon as demand grew for a tourism infra-structure. As the number of visitors in-creased, the lack of hotels and restaurantsfor them was becoming more sorely felt.

Says Unesco’s Program Specialist MarcPatry: ‘‘Though this was only the beginning,we thought it was a good time to act — early— to put together this kind of plan and helpimplement it, before things got out of hand.We helped put together a Public Use Plan forUjung Kulon that we thought was one of ourbetter jobs there.’’

When a serious threat came to the site,however, it came not from tourists, but from

within. ‘‘Unfortunately,’’Patry recalls, ‘‘we soonnoted — thanks to infor-mation we received fromtourists — that the parkdirector himself had au-

thorized a hotel concession on the landsthat had been earmarked as the most sen-sitive on the site.’’

Explains Priambudi: ‘‘In 2004, a touristguide was interested in managing surfing ac-tivities on Panaitan Island. This was wel-comed by the UKNPA. An agreement, like amemorandum of understanding, was signedbetween the head of the park and the tour-ism agency. This agreement was not a fullylegal concession for the tourism agency inmanaging the activity in the field. But thepark management allowed the agency tobuild several facilities on the island.’’

Notes Patry: ‘‘It can happen that the parkmanagement, which is semiautonomous inthe way it works, may receive, let’s say,some incentives to bend the rules, to suitsome private investor who would like to puta particular infrastructure project on a par-ticular place.’’ Unesco heard about it andalerted the Indonesian authorities.

This alert made a difference becausesites like Ujung Kulon are often remote,communications difficult and authoritiessometimes unaware of what’s going on incertain parts of the park. Adds Patry,‘‘Thanks to this communication between Un-esco, the tourists at the site and the nation-al authorities — who were 100 percent co-operative — this concession wascanceled.’’ The previous site manager is, ofcourse, gone.

Unesco had similar input from the publicat another World Heritage site, the Belize

Barrier Reef Reserve System, and thishelped put a stop to new buildings thatwould have destroyed part of that Carib-bean site.

Both examples show how Unesco reliesheavily on local or volunteer participation be-cause it cannot monitor all sites on its own.‘‘There are over 850 World Heritage sites,’’says Patry. ‘‘And the staff of the World Her-itage Centre is limited — we may have 10 to15 people working on these kinds of issueshere. There is no way we can keep track ofall that’s going on in each site. We rely tre-mendously on the support and help fromanybody who’s out there.’’ This assistancecan come from tourists, local communities,conservation organizations working at thesites or governments that have been led tosuspect that something untoward is goingon. They all can report to Unesco. It’s an on-going campaign, Patry says.

In 1972, when Unesco adopted theWorld Heritage Convention toprotect the world’s natural andcultural patrimony, it also set up aspecial World Heritage Fund to helpgovernments with the nomination offuture World Heritage sites and theupkeep of existing sites. Funds arealso used for training programs,educational activities, technicalassistance, promotional activitiesand emergency aid. Most of thefunding comes from compulsorycontributions from states that havesigned the Convention, but Unescoaccepts voluntary donations aswell. The World Heritage Fundreceives about $4 million each year,to cover more than 850 sitesworldwide. To make a contribution,visit http://whc.unesco.org

On Feb. 16, the Swiss luxurywatchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre willbegin an online auction on its Web site(www.jaeger-lecoultre.com) of aprototype of its new watch, theMaster Compressor Extreme W-AlarmTides of Time. The model has beenspecially created for the ‘‘Tides ofTime’’ partnership among Jaeger-LeCoultre, Unesco’s World HeritageCentre and the International HeraldTribune. The auction begins at noon,Central European Time, and ends onFeb. 20 at noon, C.E.T.

The prototype of MasterCompressor Extreme W-Alarm Tides ofTime was presented in January at theSalon International de la HauteHorlogerie, a top luxury-watch tradefair. The limited series of 350 is madein Grade Five titanium, but theprototype, in steel and titanium, isunique for the Tides of Time edition.

Engraved ‘‘Proto Number 1,’’ it will goto the auction winner; proceeds will bedonated to the World Heritage Centreto help protect the world’s outstandingmarine sites. The auction is an exampleof Jaeger-LeCoultre’s commitment tocorporate social responsibility. At itsheadquarters, located in a protectedvale in the Swiss mountains, themanufacture has put in place atransportation system that limits theuse of individual vehicles, reducingpollution in the Vallée de Joux. Jaeger-LeCoultre won an award, the Prix deMobilité, for the energy-saving bus linethat, morning and evening, transportsemployees between their homes andthe Jaeger-LeCoultre site.

The initiative, says JanekDeleskiewicz, the manufacture’sartistic director, is ‘‘a fine example anda big success. It corresponds perfectlyto the values of the Jaeger-LeCoultre

brand and was done naturally. We feltit was something we should be doing.’’

In addition, specially designated‘‘Ecogeste’’ employees, or greenagents, are present in everydepartment at the manufacture’s headoffice, keeping an eye on excessiveuse of paper and electricity. Jaeger-LeCoultre’s new building, which isgoing up alongside its currentheadquarters, will feature a newsustainable-energy initiative, as wellas a system that monitors the flow ofwater from the factory into the nearbylake. Both have been guaranteed topreserve a continuity of sustainableindustrial development and protect thelocal environment. ‘‘There's afundamental commitment on the partof everyone here,’’ says Deleskiewicz.‘‘I think people would feel veryuncomfortable if we didn’t have thisexample of best practice.’’

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SPOTLIGHT | Indonesia’s first World Heritage site

Ujung Kulon National Park: A remote site in Java prepared for tourists, but the threat was within

EXPLORING | Climbing and diving

Krakatoa volcano, coral reefs and the rare rhinoceros

The World Heritage Fund

From watch auction to green initiatives, Jaeger-LeCoultre champions environmental issues

The Public Use Plan showsthe World Heritage Centre

at its most proactive

A major attraction in Ujung Kulon is theKrakatoa (or Krakatau) volcano. Oneof hundreds in the Pacific ‘‘Ring of

Fire,’’ Krakatau is well known for its eruptionin 1883, which killed 36,000 people, and forHollywood’s immortalization of this event inthe 1969 film, ‘‘Krakatoa, East of Java.’’ Theeruption was recorded as the world’sbiggest explosion at the time. Heard 350miles (560 kilometers) away, in Australiaand the Philippines, it created a tsunami 40meters (130 feet) high that crashed ashoreat 60 miles per hour, flattening hundreds oftowns and villages.

The Krakatau islands are of scientific in-terest because they provide examples ofmodern island volcanic activity. Like otherrecent eruptions, such as that of Mount St.Helens in Washington state in 1980,Krakatau illustrates a natural phenomenon— what scientists call recolonization. Theeruption destroyed all existing vegetation,but within 14 years, 130 species of birdsand insects, as well as 60 species of plants,had returned to thrive there.

Visitors can approach the volcano byboat and then climb its heights. Three-daytours also visit outlying islands, so travelers

can combine swimming, snorkeling and ani-mal-watching. Other draws in Ujung Kulon in-clude Peucang Island and its white beaches,blue waters and coral reef. Snorkelers canswim the shallow waters in the reefs closeto shore, or venture out to deeper waters inthe reefs between the island and mainland.These reefs offer a wide variety of fish; bar-racuda, sailfish, tuna, skipjack and sharks

abound, as do angelfish, 15 species of but-terfly fish and four species of triggerfish.

Travelers can also go scuba diving at thereef of Batu Pitak, near Lagon Butun. UjungKulon’s park director, Agus Priambudi, re-commends Panaitan Island for surfing,swimming and snorkeling. Diving, accordingto the Ujungkulon Tour Web site, is not re-commended for beginners. Panaitan alsoboasts Hindu relics from the first centuryA.D., located at the Ganesha archaeologicalsite, which sits on top of Mount Raksa.

Forest walks and canoe river trips bringtravelers into the rain forest, where they canspot crocodiles, monkeys and perhaps therare Javan rhinoceros, an endangered spe-cies — only about 60 of them are left in theworld, with 40 to 50 of these in Ujung Kulon.Since its establishment as a protected area,much has been done in Ujung Kulon to studythe rhino population. The International RhinoFoundation says a census is taken everyfew years. The most recent one, notes Pri-ambudi, was carried out last year by 100people, including tourists. Adds Priambudi:‘‘We are trying to get more information bysetting up 20 video cameras in places be-lieved to be rhino niches.’’[

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A spotted hawkfishin front of a sea anemone.

Indonesia’s Ujung KulonNational Park, a Unesco WorldHeritage marine site,encompasses the Krakatoa reserve,outlying islands and rain forests.The site must balance growingtourism and conservation