Time for North Maluku to become tourist destination

TheMinistry of Culture and Tourism will promote North Maluku as a touristdestination besides the already existing ten, an promotion official of theministry said.

Deputy Director for Promotion of Destination Area V of the Ministry of Cultureand Tourism Diah Widiati said here on Sunday that ten tourist destinationsregistered by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) are Bali, West Java,Central Java, East Java, Jakarta, North Sumatra, Lampung, South Sulawesi, SouthSumatra, Banten and West Sumatra.

Actually, East Indonesian province has the potential of cultural and tourismwhich can lure a great number of local and foreign tourists if it is introducedproperly, Diah Widiati.
"Thus, we promoted North Maluku, in the hope of attracting moretourists," she said.

Apart from intensifying tourism promotion, Diah said that her office alsorequired the provincial administration to prepare proper transportation andaccommodation facilities for the tourists.

Data obtained from the provincial administration showed that only 1,500tourists visited North Maluku in the January-April, 2011, period.

According to her, a similar problem is also facing Papua province which was notregistered by the Central Statistics Agency as one of Indonesia`s touristdestinations although Papua has fascinating undersea wealth.

One of the tourism potentials which can attract tourists to Papua province is "PulauRaja Empat". a beautiful island with fascinating undersea wealth.

Garudapassengers to enjoy special Maluku cuisine

Eastbound passengers of national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will soon be servedwith typical Maluku foods.

In a bid to make Garuda Indonesia passengers have a pleasant flight whileenjoying special foods from Maluku, the company is currently exploring thepossibility of cooperating with the province`s culinary entrepreneurs, capableof supplying local foods to be served on Garuda flights.

On June 3, 2010 Garuda resumed its Jakarta-Ambon route with a stopover inMakassar, South Sulawesi.

The Jakarta-Makassar-Ambon route is being served with aircraft having acapacity for 14 to 16 business-class seats and 120 economy-class seats.

Garuda Ambon branch manager Hendra Sumarno said in Maluku provincial city ofAmbon on Tuesday that the possibility of cooperation with the province`sculinary entrepreneurs was being explored.

"We are currently exploring the possibility of cooperation with culinaryentrepreneurs who can produce traditional Maluku dishes for Garudapassengers," Hendra Sumarno said.

Hendra admitted that since Garuda resumed its Jakarta-Ambon route in July lastyear, he had been thinking about a concept of serving regional typical foods topassengers of the national flag carrier during its flights.

"For several domestic and overseas destinations we serve passengers withsome regional typical foods, and for Jakarta-Amsterdam flights we serve themwith Javanese typical food namely `nasi tumpeng` or rice cone," Hendrasaid.

In October 2010, Garuda Indonesia in cooperation with the Maluku Culture andTourism Office also realized Ambon-Amsterdam route by making use of"Family Trip" program.

"The most important thing is the public awareness to maintain the naturalbeauty of Ambon and its supporting facility to make foreign tourists feel athome," Hendra said.

While for Jakarta-Ambon flights, he said the Garuda passengers were served withMakassar typical food so they wanted to replace it with special cuisine fromMaluku.

"We are at present incessantly doing business transformation to easternIndonesian regions with special service and presentation of regional typicalfoods," he added.

According to him, a team of selectors from Jakarta would go to Ambon forsurveying which culinary entrepreneurs were eligible to serve their typicalfoods to Garuda passengers.

"If we find eligible culinary entrepreneurs who can meet the standard ofGaruda to serve the passengers with Maluku typical foods, we will cooperatewith them," Hendra said.

He added that reasonable service and foods with regional characteristics wouldmake Garuda`s Ambon bound passengers enjoy a comfortable flight.

Nicknamed "Ambon Manise" (Sweet Ambon), the island has views whichare never boring, because wherever one may go, he or she can see the clear bluesea, fused with the green mountains in the distance.

Ambon also has charming and very impressive beaches such as Tanjung beach atLeitimur Peninsula that boats captivating sunset views, Namalatu beach withbeautiful sea gardens at Latuhalat village, white sandy Natsepa beach near thevillage of Suli, and Liang beach at Liang village.

No wonder, Hendra Sumarno said Garuda Indonesia continued to promote the islandcity of Ambon in its cabin magazine with photos and data about tourism.

He said the cover of the magazine displayed Ambon`s marine tourism enchantmentwith "Oh, the Beauty of Ambon Manise" on it.

The magazine is made available on every seat of Garuda aircraft on domestic andoverseas routes.

"The Garuda magazine promoting Ambon tourism is bilingual, Indonesian andEnglish, in an effort to facilitate English speaking passengers to know moreabout Ambon with its hospitable people," Hendra said.

The magazine also displays photos of and data on Ambon`s marine tourism,Waisalaka egg-eating giant eels at Waai village, Amsterdam fort, old mosquesand churches, as well as typical Pantai Natsepa fruit salad of Suli village.

"We are part of Ambon tourism component and therefore, since resuming itsroute to Pattimura airport in June this year Garuda Indonesia has been tryingto make local government program in tourism sector here a success," Hendrasaid.

Airport management company PT Angkasapura-I General Manager Reggynald Kronesthas said Pattimura International Airport in Ambon was also ready to serveinternational flights from Seoul, South Korea.

Reginald has ever said that Pattimura airport had an international standardwith adequate supporting facilities, and therefore it was set to serveinternational flights from other countries including South Korea for businesspurposes.

That is the reason why the Pattimura branch of PT Angkasapura-I has preparedadequate facilities to support Pattimura as an international airport in easternIndonesia.

Reggynald said that even good coordination has been made with relatedinstitutions to support the airport`s services.

"The airport has adequate facilities because we have made a goodcoordination with related institutions such as the immigration to occupy aspace which has been made available at the airport," Reggynald said at thetime.

"So far international flights have yet to be scheduled, and if thishappened, the immigration will occupy the room prepared for it," he said.

Reggynald admitted that Dutch people of Maluku origin were also looking forwardto Amsterdam-Ambon straight flights.

"We are also ready to serve direct flights from and to Amsterdam, theNetherlands, because most of the passengers wanted to visit Maluku to meet withtheir relatives," he said.

Waterbirds in mangrove forests under threat

Thenumber of species and the populations of waterbirds in Muara Angke naturalconservation area, North Jakarta, have decreased because of water pollution andhuman encroachment into the area, an environmental organization says.

During its annual survey on Saturday, volunteers of Jakarta Green Monster (JGM)found 206 waterbirds, down from 333 last year, with only 18 species identified,down from last year’s 23.

JGM reported that the missing species were the Little Cormorant (Phalacrocoraxsulcirostris), Great-billed Heron (Ardea sumatrana), White-browed Crake(Porzanna cinerea), Purple Swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio) and Black-naped Tern(Sterna sumatrana).

However, a very rare species, the Oriental Darter (Anhinga melanogaster) andtwo endangered non waterbird species, Sunda Coucal (Centropus nigrorufus) andBlack-winged Starling (Acridotheres melanopterus), were spotted on Saturday.

JGM has been studying the Waterbirds in the area each year since 2006, inrecognition of World Wetland Day on Feb. 2, which marks the anniversary of thesigning of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance in 1971.

JGM volunteer Ady Kristianto said water pollution and human encroachment werethe main causes of the decline in bird numbers. The darkened water in the areahad been heavily polluted because of an accumulation of plastics and styrofoamfrom the Angke River, he said.

Liquid waste from nearby housing complexes and makeshift houses was also dumpedthere.

“Water pollution has slowed the growth of mangrove trees, which provide shelterto the birds, and has also caused a decline of fish stocks, the main foodsource for waterbirds. Some species are unable to adapt and had flown away toless polluted areas,” he said.

Human encroachment had disrupted the habitat, Ady said.

Temulawak: Herbal remedy with a modern touch

Justas ginseng is synonymous with Korea, temulawak or Java turmeric is a naturalmedical treasure native to Indonesia.

As part of Indonesia’s centuries-old traditional healing practices, temulawakhas long been used as an anti-inflammatory and antibacterial agent in treatingmany ailments, including swelling, gastric and digestive problems, stiffmuscles, coughs and runny nose.

“As far as we know, temulawak can only be found in Indonesia,” says Gunawan T.,managing director of Helmigs Prima Sejahtera, a pharmaceutical and curcuminproducts manufacturer.

“There are some individuals in several countries, like Malaysia, who have doneresearch on their own varieties of temulawak at Yonsei University in SouthKorea, but the results show these plants are nothing like temulawak.”

So even if the Java turmeric exists elsewhere, Gunawan says, “I can confidentlysay the best temulawak comes from Indonesia.”

Having the best variety is one thing, but Indonesia can also churn out thestuff by the truckload.
Central Java and East Java, for instance, are just two of several provincesthat farm temulawak on a large scale.

East Java alone produces up to 9 million kilograms of ready-to-sell temulawakeach year. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s hometown of Pacitanin the province is the country’s temulawak hub, recording harvests of 5 millionkilograms of the tuber each year.

Gunawan’s company, Helmigs Prima Sejahtera, in the East Java capital Surabaya,is one of a handful of such manufacturers. Established in 1993, the companymarkets a range of products, including curcumin sugar-free effervescent,curcumin tablets, curcumin candy with Xylitol, and curcumin health drinks.

Factory manager Sutarko Tantra says the company processes several tons oftemulawak extract into ready-to-consume products each day, combiningtraditional and modern methods.

The modern methods include the measurement of the properties contained intemulawak and the packaging of the curcumin extract into tablets and sachetsusing a machine imported from China.

“We follow high standards with high quality control because we don’t onlymarket our products in Indonesia, but also overseas,” Sutarko says, adding theexport markets include Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, Canada,the Netherlands, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates.

Deep-sea images reveal colorful life off Indonesia

Scientistsusing cutting-edge technology to explore waters off Indonesia were wowed bycolorful and diverse images of marine life on the ocean floor - includingplate-sized sea spiders and flower-like sponges that appear to be carnivorous.

They predicted Thursday that as many as 40 new plant and animal species mayhave been discovered during the three-week expedition that ended Aug. 14.

More than 100 hours of video and 100,000 photographs, captured using a roboticvehicle with high-definition cameras, were piped to shore in real-time bysatellite and high-speed Internet.

Verena Tunnicliffe, a professor at the University of Victoria in Canada, saidthe images provided an extraordinary glimpse into one of the globe's mostcomplex and little-known marine ecosystems.

"Stalked sea lilies once covered the ocean, shallow and deep, but now arerare," she said in a written statement. "I've only seen a few in mycareer. But on this expedition, I was amazed to see them in greatdiversity."

Likewise, Tunnicliffe has also seen sea spiders before, but those were tiny incomparison, all around one-inch (2.5 centimeters) long: "The sea spiders... on this mission were huge. Eight-inches (20-centimeters) or moreacross."

One animal captured on video looks like a flower, covered with glasslikeneedles, but scientists think it is probably a carnivorous sponge. The spikes,covered with sticky tissue, appear to capture food as it passes by.

Scientists used powerful sonar mapping system and the robotic vehicle toexplore nearly 21,000 square miles (54,000 sq. kilometers) of sea floor offnorthern Indonesia, at depths ranging from 800 feet (240 meters) to over twomiles (1.6 kilometers).

The mission was carried out by the U.S. National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration's ship, the Okeanos Explorer. An Indonesian vessel, the BarunaJaya IV, also took part, collecting specimens that, together with all rightsfor future use, will remain in the country.