Indonesia has a variety of attractive tourist destination areas. One of them is the Sibolangit Nature Park in Deli Serdang Regency. This tourist area has a very refreshing air and of course for children it is also useful in getting various educational values such as environmental conservation education, wildlife conservation, hornbill bird watching, and forest healing.
Before becoming TWA, this agro-tourism location was called Taman Hutan Raya Sibolangit. This nature conservation was created in 1914 on the thought of Dr. JC Koningsberger who is the Director of Kebon Raya Bogor, West Java.
At that time, JA Lorzing established the Sibolangit Botanical Garden in Sibolangit as a branch of the Bogor Botanical Garden. Furthermore, on March 10, 1938, through the ZB decree number 37 / PK, the status of the Sibolangit Botanical Garden was changed to a nature reserve.
TWA Sibolangit now has supporting facilities such as walking paths around the area, rest huts / shelters, lodging / guest houses, and information centers on flora and fauna collections at the Sibolangit Natural Resources Conservation Center (KSDA) Resort Office or Deli Serdang KSDA Sub-Section. For those of you who want to study and research the vegetation in this nature tourism park, the entire collection of trees and plants has been named in plate form or affixed to the trees.
As an effort to prevent the spread of Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), since March 26, 2020, natural tourism activities in national parks (TN), natural tourism parks (TWA) and wildlife reserves (SM) have been gradually closed, including the TWA area. Sibolangit.
After being evaluated by the local government and the North Sumatra Covid-19 Handling Task Force, by implementing the health protocol, the Sibolangit TWA area was reopened on Wednesday (14/10/2020).
TWA Sibolangit is reactivated for nature tourism activities for the general public. The opening of this natural tourism activity with the adaptation of new habits (IMR) is expected to be able to encourage economic growth in the surrounding community.
Head of Sibolangit Sub-district, Febri Gurusinga, explained that most of the Sibolangit District area is a forest area so that the existence of the Sibolangit TWA plays an important role in the sustainability of human life around the forest area.
Therefore, it is hoped that all visitors and officers will comply with health protocols in natural tourism areas. “TWA Sibolangit has the potential for hash activities (exploring / sports in the forest) so that in the future, it is hoped that many tourists and hasher communities will visit TWA,” explained the Head of the Department of Youth, Sports, Tourism and Culture of Deli Serdang Regency Khoirum Rijal.
The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) of North Sumatra, on Tuesday (6/10/2020), explained that the number of foreign tourists visiting North Sumatra through four entrances in August 2020 reached 28 visits, a decrease of 80.56 percent compared to that came in July 2020 which reached 144 visits.
Likewise, when compared to the same month in 2019, the number of foreign tourists in August 2020 decreased by 99.89 percent, from 26,609 visits in August 2019 to 28 visits.
The same condition also applies to local tourists. When the AKB was implemented in June-July, there was an increase in tourist visits by an average of 1,000 people per day at several favorite tourist locations in North Sumatra. However, as soon as August began to see an increase in Covid-19 cases, there was a decline again.
Therefore, the Deli Serdang KSDA Center, Deli Serdang Regency Government, and TWA Sibolangit collaborated with the Nature Lovers Community, Forest Police Partners, Nature Conservation Cadres and the Sibolangit Tourism Awareness Group, to attract people back to visiting agro-tourism in Sibolangit. The trip to the natural tourism park Sibolangit takes about two hours by road from Medan, the capital of North Sumatra.
Natural tourism activities are a low risk category so that it is possible to be reactivated during the IMR period, especially in areas based on the unaffected zone (green) and low risk (yellow).
Based on the Covid-19 risk zone data issued by the National Task Force for the Acceleration of Covid-19 Handling on 22 June 2020, there are 21 National Parks, 75 Nature Parks and 56 Wildlife Reserves that are in the no-case / no-affected risk zone area (green zone ) and the low risk zone (zone) yellow, including TWA Sibolangit.
Since then, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) in September 2020 issued a policy for the Reactivation of Nature Tourism Visits in the Sibolangit Nature Park, Deli Serdang Regency, which essentially emphasizes the obligation to implement health protocols.
“Visitors are required to comply with the applicable health protocol while in the area, namely using a mask, washing hands in the space provided, using a hand sanitizer, checking body temperature, maintaining a distance of approximately 1.5 meters, limiting the number of visitors, and staying maintain cleanliness, “said the Head of North Sumatra KSDA Center Hotmauli Sianturi. Come on, visit Indonesia and get interesting information only from Indonesiar.com.
