JAKARTA - The Indonesian Ministry of Forestry (Kemenhut) together with a number of related agencies permanently closed nine illegal locations located in the Megamendung Nature Tourism Park (TWA) area, Tanah Datar Regency, West Sumatra (West Sumatra).
"The closure of this area is a forest rescue effort in the context of TWA Megamendung in West Sumatra Province," said Director of Forestry Prevention and Handling at the Ministry of Forestry Yazid Nurhuda in Tanah Datar Regency, Wednesday, June 25.
The closure of nine points in the Megamendung TWA area was marked by sealing, installing information boards containing a ban on activities to blocking entrances to water parks using large rocks.
However, efforts to block roads using river rocks were stopped because the community together with Wali Nagari Singgalang and traditional leaders refused.
After negotiations that were quite tough, related parties agreed that there should be no activity, especially bathing tourism to trading at that location.
Yazid explained that the termination of all tourism activities and the like, which are located in the area of around 12 Hectares (Ha), has already referred to the laws and regulations.
"So, all activities in this TWA area are illegal or unlicensed," he said.
Apart from being illegal, Yazid said a number of buildings, especially tourist baths, were also on the banks of rivers that were very at risk of being hit by disasters. Moreover, on May 11, 2024, there was a flash flood that caused casualties at several points.
After the flash flood and cold lava of Mount Marapi, Yazid said the government had announced a notification of the ban on the construction of buildings or activities in the Megamendung TWA area.
"The Satpol PP together with the Natural Resources Conservation Center have also issued three warnings but they have not been heeded," he said.
SEE ALSO:
On that basis, the Ministry of Transportation together with the TNI/Polri, Satpol-PP and provincial and regional governments took firm action in the form of closing all activities in the Megamendung TWA area.
Meanwhile, the traditional leader of Nagari (village) Singgalang, Tanah Datar Regency as well as the administrator of Nagari Indigenous Meeting (KAN) Nagari Singgalang Yunelson Datuak Tumanggungang said the execution or closure carried out by the Ministry of Transportation without any coordination with the local community first.
"Today's execution is without government coordination, especially the governor," said Datuak Tumanggungang.
He said that after the flash flood that hit the village, no governor or regent had yet discussed it with local traditional leaders. In fact, after the incident, his party said that he had invited the governor to respond to the conditions.
"So, for today's execution problem, we will try to talk about it and of course we are upright with the law," he said.
One of the strong reasons the local community rejected the execution at TWA Megamendung was because the area was claimed to be the customary land of the community.
"This is customary land created by the Dutch government into a protected forest area. So, this protected forest area is our area," he asserted.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
