TNGGP Lowers 1 Ton Of Garbage From The Peak Of Mount Gede Pangrango

Relawan Basecamp Sauyunan Gunung Gede-Pangrango, Cianjur, melakukan operasi bersih sampah dari jalur penjakit hingga puncak gunung. (ANTARA/Ahmad Fikri)

JAKARTA - The Gunung Gede Pangrango National Park Center (TNGGP) together with the Basecamp Sauyunan volunteers lowered 1 ton of garbage from the top of the mountain left by climbers.

Head of the TNGGP Center, Adhi Nurul Hadi, said that his party had implemented various ways to overcome the waste problem, starting from the hiking trail to the top of Mount Gede, but there was still a lot of garbage left by climbers.

"Various ways are being carried out, starting to tighten the inspection of luggage when going up and down to ensure that goods that have the potential to become garbage must be brought back, including providing temporary trash cans (TPS)," he said when contacted, Monday, September 30, was confiscated by Antara.

According to him, awareness and compliance are standard operations and procedures (SOP) when climbing, so this is a challenge for his party in reducing the amount of waste in the top area as well as along the hiking trail.

"Back again to the climbers, if they have high awareness, of course they will make it a habit to carry garbage when going down, so there is no garbage on the hiking trail to the top," he said.

As a solution, his party embraces the Basecamp Sauyunan volunteers in Cibodas, Gunung Putri, and Salabintana to regulate climbers, evacuate, and handle waste, because so far these volunteers have helped carry out waste operations.

"TNGGP together with the Basecamp Sauyunan volunteers carry out their task of securing zoning. The volunteers have experience and knowledge to help us maintain zoning," he said.

Basecamp Coordinator Sauyunan Niko Rastagil, said that routine waste operations not only brought 1 ton of garbage down, but also found several dead edelweis trees allegedly due to piles of garbage.

"We also found 11 dead edelweis trees during a waste-clean operation last week. We routinely carry out this waste net activity every three months," he said.

The waste net operation was carried out by around 90 volunteers combing along the hiking trail, Suryakancana square to the top of Mount Gede. According to him, there is still a lot of garbage that accumulates due to the lack of awareness of climbers.

"It is necessary to make maximum efforts to establish climbers' awareness not to let abandoned waste threaten the ecosystem and affect the survival of protected endangered animals to be threatened," he said.