Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
I caught the last ten minutes of a BBC news special feature today about Komodo and it's Dragons.
Two bits stuck out to me, the proposal to charge up to $1K to visit the islands and the idea of genetically modifying the Dragons to make them bigger!
There was also a suggestion of rounding up all the Dragons from nearby Islands to keep them all on Komodo, why I didn't catch.
When I went about twenty years ago, the permit to land on Komodo was about $10 and I chartered a boat for two days, alone, just me, the skipper and his mate, for less than $100.
Edit: I've now managed to see the whole programme and was shocked at how tourism has exploded in the region. I was there in 2001 I think when a visit to Komodo was still seen as a bit of an adventure. In 2010, c50K people visited the Islands, last year, over 300K and the development in Labuan Bajo on the Island of Flores from where you set off for Komodo, is shocking to see.
The local governor has big plans to close the National Park for a year for wildlife to recover and evict the islanders from Komodo. He plans to charge big money to visit the Islands and limit the number of visitors.
I have mixed feelings on this, it will obviously be better for the environment to limit the number of visitors but I don't believe in making experiences such as this, out of bounds for all but the wealthy. There's also the jobs that come with tourism and many of the people here are dirt poor but it's sad for me to see the concrete jetty that's been built on Komodo since I was there, for the huge cruise ships that now visit.
Two bits stuck out to me, the proposal to charge up to $1K to visit the islands and the idea of genetically modifying the Dragons to make them bigger!
There was also a suggestion of rounding up all the Dragons from nearby Islands to keep them all on Komodo, why I didn't catch.
When I went about twenty years ago, the permit to land on Komodo was about $10 and I chartered a boat for two days, alone, just me, the skipper and his mate, for less than $100.
Edit: I've now managed to see the whole programme and was shocked at how tourism has exploded in the region. I was there in 2001 I think when a visit to Komodo was still seen as a bit of an adventure. In 2010, c50K people visited the Islands, last year, over 300K and the development in Labuan Bajo on the Island of Flores from where you set off for Komodo, is shocking to see.
The local governor has big plans to close the National Park for a year for wildlife to recover and evict the islanders from Komodo. He plans to charge big money to visit the Islands and limit the number of visitors.
I have mixed feelings on this, it will obviously be better for the environment to limit the number of visitors but I don't believe in making experiences such as this, out of bounds for all but the wealthy. There's also the jobs that come with tourism and many of the people here are dirt poor but it's sad for me to see the concrete jetty that's been built on Komodo since I was there, for the huge cruise ships that now visit.
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