THE Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park Center is preparing an Edelweiss Javanica or Annaphalis special tour in Ngadisari Village, Sukapura Sub-district, Probolinggo District, East Java Province.
According the head of Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, John Kennedie, said Ngadisari Village is one of the pilot areas for the Edelweiss village tour development in Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park. Two villages will be used as experimental areas for the development of edelweiss cultivation initially, such as Ngadisari Village and Wonokitri Village in Tosari Sub-district, Pasuruan District.
“The officers from the center will accompany the community, who maintain the edelweiss tourism villages, to implement the program in the tourist village. The development of edelweiss village tourism aims to preserve the existence of the Javanese Edelweiss in the villages of the national park,” he said.
He noted that the program is expected to increase the community support and participation in edelweiss preservation and to form edelweiss tourism village, as a new tourism object in the national park. The community has prepared 6,000 seeds to be planted in Ngadisari Village, located on the slopes of Mount Bromo.
Meanwhile the chairman of Edelweiss Tour Village Group for Ngadisari, Sunarip, remarked the edelweiss seeds were obtained by drying edelweiss flowers in three days.
“We have prepared the area for edelweiss planting by clearing the land around the traditional house in Ngadisari. We have planted 150 edelweiss seeds on a trial basis,” he stressed.
The edelweiss tourism village will support the tourist attraction of Mount Bromo, located at a height of 2,329 meters from sea level. [antaranews/photo special]