Mayor Eri Sets Strategy For Surabaya Zoo Restructuring, But Hasn't Calculated The Cost

Mayor of Surabaya Eri Cahyadi (Photo via City Government)

JAKARTA - The Surabaya City Government will reorganize the Surabaya Zoo (KBS) to remain a conservation institution with conservation, education, and recreation functions. What are the strategies?

Mayor of Surabaya Eri Cahyadi said, KBS always strives to preserve wild animals outside their habitat (ex-situ) by breeding and saving plants or animals while maintaining the purity of the species.

To support this, Mayor Eri will digitize payment services (E-Ticketing) and cooperate with the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universitas Airlangga (Unair) in order to increase protection and mental health.

"Then, animal development through branding loans, collaborating with other Conservation Institutions in the context of animal protection measures, releasing surplus animals, and arranging parking in the KBS area by connecting KBS with TJ/tunnel," said Mayor Eri, quoted from the City Government website, Thursday. January 20.

Regarding the current condition of KBS, Mayor Eri also admitted that he received a lot of input from the community, the Surabaya City DPRD, and observers, that KBS must remain an attraction for the City of Surabaya. This is because KBS is one of the largest zoos in Southeast Asia.

"With the progress of the times, everything has been cleaned up. But KBS is still the same as before, although today it looks cleaner and more comfortable, there are no significant changes, "he said.

Therefore, Mayor Eri wants KBS to become an icon that remains in the center of Surabaya. The plan, KBS is designed to adapt to the times, because Mayor Eri sees new tourism opportunities for eastern Indonesia.

“If later the capital city moves to Kalimantan, then Surabaya must have an interesting place. I was wondering if it would be possible for this zoo to be like a bridge, so people would see it from above and the animals would be free below (divided by area),” he wanted.

He hopes that the plan will be carried out by professional people, especially the great people in the city of Surabaya. In fact, in the near future, Mayor Eri will invite the Surabaya City DPRD, the public, environmentalists, and animal observers to conduct FGDs.

For the Mayor, Eri KBS, he must become a very powerful magnet for change. Including the processing side, which must be professional, so that BUMD can cooperate with investors or other parties to change a zoo that is more modern and does not leave its history as a tourist spot.

"The plan is for the end of January 2022 and God willing, in February we will be able to provide an overview of the zoo so that investors are confident and understand, because not everything can be done by the government. Our APBD budget is also limited, when making very large changes it will be difficult if we only rely on the capabilities of the city government itself," he explained.