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Lombok to showcase disaster preparedness at Asia Pacific Geoparks event
The Indonesian island of Lombok hosts the 6th Asia Pacific Geoparks Network later this month and aims to showcase its disaster resiliency credentials one year after a series of devastating earthquakes.
The 6th biennial APGN event, taking place from August 31 to September 6, is expecting more than 800 delegates from the UNESCO geoparks community for a series of meetings, a symposium, and sharing ideas on natural heritage, capacity building activities and geohazard mitigation.
It will be officially opened by Indonesian President Jokowi.
Events involve government agencies, national parks, conservation centres, the scientific community and tourism stakeholders themed around empowering local socio-economic sustainable development, and geohazard risk and recovery particularly for tourism-reliant economies like Lombok.
Lombok’s Mount Rinjani National Park was selected as a UNESCO geopark last year.
"This event will involve the participation of the community. This is a provincial government event, but there is an empowerment side so that the community will get a positive impact," said Latief Nurbana, deputy assistant for the Maritime Innovation Network, Indonesia ministry of maritime affairs.
He said the APGN event is a platform for Lombok to show the world it is back in business and better prepared with effective disaster mitigation procedures.
The Mount Rinjana volcano was at the heart of last year’s series of earthquakes with communities close to the Rinjani national park among the hardest hit.
"This is an effective means to promote Indonesia and NTB (province) at national and international levels," said Anton Setyo Nugroho, head of the Maritime Innovation Network Department.
APGN also hosts a programme of entertainment and cultural activities for delegates, including the Lombok-Sumbawa Carnival.
The role of APGN is to escalate sustainable economic development of geopark areas with a focus on enhancing geotourism and nature tourism activities.
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