Hornbills (Family Bucerotidae) Tourism Plan at Harapan Rainforest Batanghari Regency, Jambi Province

Abstract

Harapan Rainforest is forest ecosystem restoration in areas of former production forest which still has biodiversity and potential to be used as objects and tourist attractions which could give ecotourism opportunities as an alternative economic income. Hornbills (Bucerotidae Family) could be the object for tourist attraction. This study was aimed to develop hornbills tourism plan at the site level. Activities undertaken to develop a tourism plan were to inventory the distribution of hornbills area (distribution of nests, feeding places and flying path) and other animals as additional tourist attraction. Behavior of hornbills at the time of eating, flying and nesting was also studied. The expected result were recommendations to develop tourism plan at the site focusing on hornbills, alternative solutions for Harapan Rainforest’s and the local community’s income, and conservation of habitat and population of hornbills. Data were collected in the form of primary and secondary data. Primary data included wildlife data and the descriptions related to the site. Data parameters included the wildlife species, activities, time and date of the activities, location, weather, number of individuals, natural nests and artificial nests of hornbills. The site description included the accessibility of the area, infrastructure and management of ecotourism. Secondary data included tourism management data which included organizational structure, general work plan for tourism planning division, and management systems of habitat and hornbills population. Tourism was developed based on the existing hornbill species, hornbill behavior, management plan, and input from various stakeholders the parties. Tourism plan was divided into two categories: casual tourism and special interest tourism. Casual tourism was observing hornbills flying and other wildlife attractions, whereas special interest tourism was observing feeding and nesting behavior. Casual toursim could be done in June – September for a minimum visit of three days. Special interest tourism of flying and eating attraction could be done in September – December for a minimum visit of four days, whereas. Special interest tourism of nesting behavior could be done in January – Mei for a minimum visit of four days. The duration of observation time would be four hours, 2 – 3 visitors for every observation. Technical matters which need to be considered by tour operator were the distance from visitor to avoid disturbance, quota of visitors, standard operating procedures of visitor’s ethic codes, the guide’s ethic codes and the equipment used at the time of observation.