The Rinjani [Rubbish] Trail
photo by Angela Richardson
The naturalist John Muir is usually credited which has a quote most mountain climbers have memorised along with tend to recite after a few beers or moments of beauty along with sheer awe. Climb to the top of Rinjani in Lombok along with you might hear a few of the brave souls who left camp at 2am to make the sunrise summit mumble the item to themselves during the euphoria in which comes with the 3,726-metre accomplishment.
“Society speaks along with all men listen, mountains speak along with wise men listen.”
If Rinjani herself could speak, she would likely beg for help.
If only the men in charge of caring for her would likely listen.
With tens of thousands of locals along with foreigners alike flocking to Lombok every year bent on conquering the brutal three-day trek up the 3,726-metre summit, officials, trek organisers along with skeleton clean-up crews can’t seem to keep up with the purple packs of empty Kukubima forgotten along the trails along with the streamers of used toilet paper strewn like tinsel through the high grass mere metres off the beaten path.
One of Indonesia’s most well-liked tourist attractions is usually quickly becoming the country’s tallest cesspool.
“Right currently we have clean-up teams going out twice a month to take care of the rubbish, nevertheless with all the tourists along with locals coming through there is usually no way to pick everything up,” says Pak Pahe, a stocky, soft-spoken guide who has been leading expeditions up along with down Indonesia’s second-highest volcanic mountain for the last 15 years. “Sure, I get tired of all the tourists complaining about the trash along with toilet paper, nevertheless what can I do?”
According to Rinjani Trek Management Board officials, regular clean up patrols make the rounds once a month, ten times a year. along with twice a month during July along with August, the peak season, two teams (one entering by the Senaru gate on the east end of the park along with another one by Sembalun gate on the west end), consisting of eleven porters along with two rangers make an effort to collect all the rubbish along with human waste along the pathways. This specific process costs an estimated Rp 5,500,000 each time the team goes out.
So the item all comes down to math. Can officials afford to send out more clean-up crews?
the item’s not Pak Pahe’s job to do the math. the item’s not his job to pick up the trash. the item’s his job to lead the expeditions. the item’s not in which he’s passing the buck. He just doesn’t have time to organise crews along with kick things into gear. The 29-year-old incorporates a family. They come first. He climbs Rinjani to put food on the table along with clothes on his son’s back. He could care less about a picturesque sunrise or a breathtaking view of Gunung Baru, the fast-growing volcano situated inside middle of Danau Segar Anak.
nevertheless what happens when the tourists stop coming? What happens when the trash becomes too much along with people stop saying, “Oh, Mt. Rinjani is usually amazing, you have to see the sunrise by the summit,” along with start saying things like, “Well, Rinjani was amazing, nevertheless there’s so much trash along with toilet paper everywhere the item’s just not worth the item. Go see Kinabulu in Malaysia, there’s no trash along with they have working toilets.”
Tourism is usually a word-of-mouth business. the item’s as simple as in which. along with when people stop talking about the views along with start talking about the miasma in which comes with dropping your pack at the Segara Anak camp sight, things for Pak Pahe along with various other guides begin to look grim.
“the item is usually very interesting to compare Indonesian mountain experiences with those had in nearby countries,” says Dan Quinn, the editor of Indonesia’s own Gunung Bagging. “Have you climbed Kinabalu, in Malaysia? At every post you can get drinking water along with there are toilets in which are cleaned regularly along with litter bins in which are emptied more than once a day. the item’s strange in which the relevant authorities in Indonesia seem unable to provide similar facilities along with do something to clean up places like Rinjani. the item wouldn’t require a lot of extra staff to keep the mountain clean. the item’s not difficult, is usually the item? The National Park fees aren’t insubstantial so you’d expect they would likely be spending some of in which money to keep the place clean. If they are, they obviously aren’t spending anywhere near enough. the item is usually interesting to note in which most Western tourists are much more conscious of the harm in which littering does, nevertheless ironically they are charged much higher entrance fees! This specific seems incredibly unfair.”
We all know people, not politicians are the agents of change. Individuals step up along with implement change. They teach their children to throw trash where the item belongs. They work hard to leave the park cleaner than they found the item. They are the change.
nevertheless in which takes time. along with time is usually simply something Rinjani doesn’t have.
“The heads of the park hate me,” says John Maray, who employees some 15 guides along with 200 porters along with has owned along with operated John’s Adventures since 1982. “At the last meeting with the Rinjani Trek Management Board I took all the complaint forms by the tourists along with just threw them at the board members along with walked out.”
Bureaucrats in Mataram, Lombok, who have no problem collecting their chunk of the Rp.150,000 entrance fee charged to tourists along with Rp 25,000 charged to locals, are doing little to ensure in which porters along with guides, who rely on the mountain to feed their families, will have jobs when the tourists stop coming.
The breakdown, according to the RTMB, goes like This specific: the central government, through national park services, receives 13.3 percent of the Rinjani national park entrance fees, the local government (regency level/district) sees 20 percent, the RTC (village chiefs) along with local government (village level) receive 10.7 percent along with the rest of the money, 44 percent, goes to RTMB to finance conservation, tourism along with community development programs, which maintain the trail facilities, repair or build some facilities like shelters along with signage.
Two bridges along with one toilet have been built This specific year.
the item is usually trek organisers like John who have to endure the hours of finger-wagging along with lectures by tourists on how to keep the park clean.
“We had 1,900 visitors to Rinjani in August,” says John. “We’re going to Mataram, me, the guides, the porters. We’re going to the tourism board along with the local government in Mataram. We’re going to protest.”
along with they have every right to, after all 20 percent of the Rinjani National Park entrance fee goes straight to fat cats, most of whom have never even seen the mountain let alone climbed the item.
nevertheless then there are guys like Asmuni Irpan, who has been the Executive Director of the Rinjani Trek Management Board for the last a few years. Asmuni has climbed the mountain—more than once in fact. along with he’s been to Kinabalu. He knows what the item takes to keep Rinjani clean. He’s got a plan. He just needs to push. Because everybody knows, if you don’t push, you’ll never move.
He wants to educate trekkers, require in which those climbing the mountain rent toilet tents along with fine those individuals who do not bring their rubbish down with them when they leave the mountain.
photo by Michael Bullinger
“I’ve heard some crazy stories… about how people were encouraged by guides to leave their rubbish up on the mountain instead of bringing the item back with them,” says Quinn. “the item’s a broader social problem in Indonesia – people clearly aren’t educated to see littering as being wrong. Maybe part of This specific is usually because if you do throw rubbish onto the streets inside cities, the item doesn’t create a long-term problem because poverty-stricken people will come along along with sort the item out along with sell what they can of the item for tiny sums of money. Sadly, on the truly well-liked mountain trails in Indonesia you actually start to worry if you don’t see any litter for a while because the item might mean you’ve taken a wrong turn!”
So what can individuals do to make sure in which Rinjani doesn’t go the way of various other well-liked volcanic peaks like East Java’s wildly well-liked Mt. Bromo along with Gunung Gede?
“I think the item’s a lack of communication by the government along with awareness by local people,” says Susan Tjaja, a Cirebon native along with an avid climber who made the item to the summit last September. “Most of the visitors are foreigners along with they have porters carrying their bags along with food along with taking care of their trash. nevertheless locals in which take to the mountain don’t have porters along with they haven’t been well educated about the environment along with keeping the item clean so they just leave their trash there on the mountain.”
Back to the math, education plus clean-up crews equal a beautiful mountain. nevertheless then again, why even do the math when you can simply sit back along with collect the cash?
If 1,900 tourists visited the park last month, along with we estimate in which half of them were tourists, in which’s $14,250. If you figure in which each time a clean-up crew goes up into the heart of Rinjani the item costs $644 dollars, the park service could essentially clean up the mountain 22 times a month with some cash left to spare.
the item all comes down to math.
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The Rinjani [Rubbish] Trail
The Rinjani [Rubbish] Trail