Trekking at Gunung Rinjani

The gigantic Rinjani volcano dominates the small island of Lombok. It reaches to the hight of 3726m and is the second largest volcano in all of Indonesia. Tourists, Travelers, and pilgrims climb this holy mountain, which usually takes four to five days of intense hiking. However, not me!

It’s true, I really hate climbing mountains, even if this is a good example of well managed community-based tourism. So instead, I will leisurely sip my coffee at a pleasant café, where I can see and appreciate Gunung Rinjani, while still being able to write this entry from the comfiness of civilization :)

(Here's a pic provided by Wikipedia)

Besides reading that Rinjani is a good form of community based tourism in a guidebook and hearing positive word of mouth recommendations, I also discovered that the APEIS (Asia-Pacific Environmental Innovation Strategies) lists the Rinjani program in their summary of best tourism practices. The community based tourism management program at Gunung Rinjani was implemented through the funding of New Zealand Aid, the Indonesian National Park Service, and the West Lombok Tourism Office.

Most trekkers follow a route that takes them from the town of Senaru (West) to Sembalun Lawang (East). There are two information centers set up where visitors can arrange treks, the Rinjani Trek Center-RTC in Senaru and the Rinjani Information Center-RIC in Sembalun Lawang. The centers use a rotation system so that all qualified trekking guides get their turn, and the same trek packages at the same fixed prices are offered at both.

Behind the scenes, to develop the tourism at Rinjani the different participating communities were given a needs assessment survey. The results of this survey were used for developing capacity building programs in obvious activities like guide training, cooking, and improving English, but also for related tourism aspects like screen printing for souvenir tee-shirts, training for cultural performances, women’s weaving, handicraft production, and general management/bookkeeping ideas. A Rinjani Trek Newsletter was developed to share information with all the various stakeholders, and updates on how the revenue generated from the trekking is being channeled back into education and conservation programs to help the local environment and communities – thus sustaining tourism for the long term.

www.info2lombok.com