By Karen Bong and Ashley Sim
KUCHING, April 10: The Sarawak government is investing significantly in the maintenance of national parks, including their amenities, across the region, as most if not all them are not financially self-sustainable due to the relatively low number of visitors and their spending.
For example, Bako National Park welcomes around 50,000 visitors a year, but Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Urban Development Datuk Len Talif Salleh explained that 70 per cent of them comprised local visitors, while the remaining 30 per cent or 15,000 visitors are foreigners.
“Looking into this figure alongside the current park charges for entrance and accommodation, it is evident that our national parks are not self-sustainable or are able to break even to cover their operational costs.
“These challenges apply to other parks as well like Semenggok (in Kuching), Mulu and Lambir (in Miri), and Similajau (in Bintulu),” he told DayakDaily in an exclusive interview on Tuesday (April 9).
He highlighted that Sabah’s parks also rely heavily on funding from the Federal and Sabah governments as well, unlike the Kruger Park in South Africa, which is self-sustainable, due to high fees and its ability to cater to a large amount of visitors.
Under the Sarawak Budget 2024, it was mentioned that RM16.5 million has been approved under the 12th Malaysia Plan, of which RM3 million is set aside in 2024 to develop and upgrade facilities at selected totally protected area (TPA), and RM1 million for effective management and protection of TPA.
To address the hospitality issues observed in Sarawak’s national parks, particularly concerning poorly maintained accommodations, Len Talif mentioned that the Ministry and Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) are considering engaging experienced operators to manage these facilities and provide hospitality services.
“SFC is the guardian of national parks and its biodiversity, but lacks experience in hospitality or managing and running these assets.
“Perhaps, we could lease these assets (accommodations) to be run and managed by operators like what they do for hotel. We have been looking into this for a while and now we are in the midst of finalising the scope,” he explained.
He also pointed out concerns about operators’ sustainability considering that only a small percentage of the three to four million arrivals in Sarawak makes up the real visitors to national parks.
“In fact for Mulu National Park, the government provides financial support for the operator to run the hotel outside the national park,” he said.
Regarding potential fee increases, Len Talif emphasised that any adjustments would need approval from the Cabinet, in accordance with Section 25(1) of the National Parks and Nature Reserves Ordinance.
“We must assess each park’s capacity versus the fees required to at least break even.
“However, we must carefully consider political, conservation, social, and economic factors to strike a balance. So we are crunching the numbers to see how to make this work in a win-win situation,” he added. — DayakDaily
