CONSTRAINTS AND OPPORTUNITIES OF PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ECOTOURISM IN INDONESIA’S NATIONAL PARK: CASE STUDIES OF THE GUNUNG MERBABU NATIONAL PARK AND THE AKETAJAWE LOLOBATA NATIONAL PARK Jarot Trihatmoko Master Student of Environmental Systems Course, Department of Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, University of Miyazaki (1-1, Gakuen Kibanadainishi 1-1, Miyazaki 1-1, 889-2192, Japan) Although Indonesia’s national parks have several functions, including accommodating ecotourism activities, the development of ecotourism is challenging due mainly to insufficient funding. The Public Private Partnership (PPP) concept is expected to meet this challenge, but in practice PPP has not become the main strategy of ecotourism development in Indonesia’s national parks. The general aim of this research is to provide valuable information to improve ecotourism development in Indonesia’s National Park through PPP implementation. The specific objectives are (1) to overview the implementation of a PPP project for ecotourism development in the Gunung Merbabu National Park (GMbNP); (2) to identify the constraints of PPP implementation in the GMbNP; (3) to investigate the existing condition of ecotourism development in the Aketajawe Lolobata National Park (ALNP); and (4) to analyze the opportunities of PPP implementation for ecotourism development in the ALNP. This study is a qualitative approach in which descriptive analysis techniques are employed to analyze the primary data gathered through field observation and interviews with representative informants and secondary data collected from official documents, planning-evaluation reports, related regulations and literature. The results reveal that Kopeng Alam Semesta, Ltd, a private sector business, has a business license to manage an area of 37.10 hectares for 55 years from 2016 to 2071 with an investment of US$944,881 and a payback period estimated to be 8.6 years in the GMbNP. Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) and self-support accounting type projects are introduced, and the private sector finances the whole cost of project activities, recovers costs directly from users (user payments) during the concession period and transfers the facilities to the public at the end of project. The PPP project will be comprised of four major phases, namely initial, planning, execution and close-out. The execution phase will involve nine project activities, namely, arrangement of the concession area; protection and maintenance of the concession area; construction and maintenance of ecotourism facilities; visitor management; environmental management; human resource development; community engagement; business administration and marketing. Four prominent stakeholders are involved in the PPP project, namely the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF), local government, local community and the private sector. MoEF and the private sector are categorized as key players, because they have a high interest and influence on the success of the project that should be actively collaborated by the project managers. The constraints of PPP implementation in the GMbNP are the lack of support from experienced government institutions, the long bureaucratic path for permits and the absence of a stakeholder management model. The ALNP has prepared ecotourism planning that outlines the potential and development priorities of ecotourism, including a description of the ecotourism facilities type and estimated cost requirements. Although the ALNP’s budget and human resources capacity for ecotourism development is limited, the implementation of PPP will have a legal basis in the form of policies and regulations. By considering the existing condition and the experience of other Indonesian national parks, including the GMbNP, which share some similarities, there will be ample opportunities to improve the development of ecotourism in the ALNP through the PPP concept. Key Words: Public Private Partnership, Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT), Business License, Ecotourism Development 1. Introduction 1.1 Indonesia’s National Park System A national park is categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as one of six categories in the management of protected areas. Moreover, the IUCN defines “national park” as a large natural or near-natural area that protects large-scale ecological processes with characteristic species and ecosystems and that has environmentally and culturally compatible spiritual, scientific, educational, recreational and visitor opportunities[1]. In Indonesia, there are 53 national parks that are spread across diverse ecosystems in terms of land, sea and coastal areas. Based on Indonesia’s national laws, these national park areas are managed by the zoning system and