Basic facts about Rinjani and Lombok

The Rinjani trek operates in Gunung Rinjani National Park on the island of Lombok. It is a 41330 hectares park established in 1997 that features Mount Rinjani (3726m), the second highest volcanic peak in Indonesia, and Mount Baru (2363m), the active volcano within the crater lake of Segara Anak below Mount Rinjani. The slopes of Mount Rinjani consist of primary rainforest, monsoon forest and dry savannah. It is also home to various species of wildlife that include the black or silvered leaf monkey (lutung), long-tailed grey macaque (kera), rusa deer, barking deer (kijang), wild pig (babi hutan), leopard cat (bodok alas), palm civet (ujat), porcupine (landak) and the sulphur crested cockatoo.

Like other villagers in Indonesia, the local people on Lombok revere Mount Rinjani as a sacred place. Balinese and Sasak pilgrims often visit the crater lake of Segara Anak to place offerings in the water and bathe in the nearby hot springs. There are 20 Sasak villages around Mt Rinjani. The main visitor access points are in the village of Senaru in the north and in the village of Sembalun Lawang in the east. It is a 3-day trek between the two villages. The route includes going to the crater rim and the summit of Mount Rinjani, a volcanic crater lake and to hot springs. Trekking campsites are located at freshwater springs around the summit of Mount Rinjani.

The Rinjani Trek Centre

It is located in Senaru and where trekkers pay park fees and hired local guides or porters. The trek centre includes displays on Sasak culture, the National Park, cultural guidelines, trekking and visitor activities in Senaru. Before embarking on the hike, all guides will conduct a mandatory briefing about proper methods of waste disposal and a list of things trekkers should and should not do during the hike. This is to ensure that each tour has as little an impact on the environment as possible.

Organizational support

The governmental support for the ecotourism practices does not seem to be apparent in the literature on Rinjani’s Ecotourism. However, there seems to be more mention about the support they received from Non-government Organisations (NGOs). Rinjani’s ecoguide training programme for local men at Senaru was initially funded by a foreign NGO but it left in 1998 and funding ceased. The Rinjani Trek ecotourism programme was later funded by New Zealand International aid and Development Agency (NZAID) in 1999 and has since been under their support. With the support of NZAID, the programme flourished and developed with national park staff, tour operators and community groups from local Sasak Villages.

Management of trekking ecotourism at Rinjani is part of a wider NZAID programme for the poorer eastern islands of Indonesia. Some 7% of NZAID’s $8.2 million budget for Indonesia was dedicated to ecotourism development and poverty alleviation, by supporting community based ecotourism in new protected areas (NZAID, 2004). This programme has clearly been successful in promoting ecotourism ideals as in 2004; the Rinjani Trek won the World Legacy Destination Stewardship Award for protecting the cultural and natural heritage of Lombok.

Involvement of Local Communities

Perhaps the most successful aspect of Rinjani’s ecotourism programme is their community involvement.  The programme has effectively empowered the local communities while safeguarding their unique culture and heritage. At Mount Rinjani, local Sasak people, including women, are trained as trekking guides to protect the volcanic landscape. They are provided with the knowledge of sustainable practices and play a part in mapping out the hiking trails that are safe for tourist to trek. In addition, locals are also given the opportunity to showcase and sell local handicrafts at the Trek Centres. Community-run cooperatives coordinate trekking and tourist activities at the Rinjani Information Centre in Sembalun Lawang and the Rinjani Trek Centre in Senaru. A roster system was used for local guides and porters, village tours and handicraft sales.

As part of the effort to conserve and educate visitors about the Sasak culture, both the Senaru and Sembalun Lawang villages offer homestay accommodation that give visitors a chance to stay in a traditional cultural village, take hill walks by waterfalls and observe cultural perfumers and local weavers at work. Income from the park fees, village entry fees and other visitor activities are used to fund maintenance of the trails, conservation works and tourism training and management activities in the Mount Rinjani area.

In 2004, the Rinjani Trek Management Board was established. It is made up of local people from Sasak villages, park staff, tourism associations and key personnel from central and local government bodies. The board is a first for Indonesia and has provided a model for community ecotourism as it reflects the joint effort and active involvement of all the stakeholders that make this ecotourism programme possible. The Rinjani Trek programme has fulfills all the goals of ecotourism for sustainable local livelihoods in a protected area in northern Lombok.

Trekker’s testimonies

The success of the Rinjani Trek programme has not only benefitted the local communities and protected the natural site of Mount Rinjani, it has also left an indelible mark on tourist and visitors to the island. All over the internet are countless reviews and reflections of people who have been on a Rinjani trek. Every one of them expresses awe and wonderment at the breath-taking views from the summit of Mount Rinjani and has nothing but praises for their knowledgeable guides and helpful porters on their trip.

My friend, Ruth Gan, made the decision to join a tour to hike up Mount Rinjani just this past summer holiday in June 2015. She did not book the tour as a conscious effort to participate in ecotourism but simply because she likes the adrenaline of going on a climb and the solitude and peace of being surrounded by nature. She describes her experience on the hike as,

“It was a calming and pleasant during the initial ascent. The summit push was exhausting; what seemed like an endless trudge up a slippery scree slope was finally rewarded by the achievement of reaching the top. The most memorable moment was watching the sunset at the crater; indescribable moment, really.”

I think the majority of the visitors to Rinjani and other ecotourism destinations are not those actively seeking to make for eco-friendly choices in the travel options. Most are just everyday people who are looking for an escape from their urban environments to a more natural setting. Hence, the education aspect of ecotourism is sometimes not always in the concrete learning of explicit facts. Sometimes, it is in the positive affective and sensory experiences of the tour that plants the seed of conservation-based values and attitudes. When I asked Ruth if she knew beforehand about the conservation aspect of her trip to Rinjani, would it have made her decision easier? She said yes. Then I asked her, now that she is equipped with the knowledge of ecotourism practices, if she would factor sustainable practices into her search for tour packages. She also said yes.