Representatives of 157 countries to visit Paniai Lake, Papua

Jayapura, Papua province (ANTARA News) - Representatives of 157 countries which have lakes will visit Paniai Lake in Papua Province which they consider to be the world`s most beautiful and preserved lake, a local official said.

The interest to visit Paniai Lake was expressed during the 12th World Lake Conference in India last November 2007, Paniai District Head Naftali Yogi, who attended the conference, said here on Monday.

The conference`s participants considered Paniai Lake in Papua to be the world`s most beautiful and best preserved lake, he said.

Situated 7,500 meters above sea-level, Paniai Lake still had pristine natural beauty and its water was still unpolluted, he said.

Therefore, the conference`s participants were interested in visiting the lake and agreed to jointly help preserve Paniai Lake as the world`s best and beautiful lake, he said without mentioning when they would make the visit.

The Paniai administration was currently constructing roads surrounding the lake and a number of inns as part of preparations to receive the foreign visitors, he said.

In addition to infrastructure development, the local administration had also been making efforts to preserve the traditional culture and arts of the Mee and Moni tribes which constitute Paniai region`s indigenous population, Yogi said.

The conference taking place in Jaipur from 29 October to 2 November, 2007, ended with a call for governments and organisations to adopt appropriate research methodologies to set up and prepare data banks to facilitate execution of management and action plans to preserve lakes and wetlands.

Over 600 delegates who participated in the five-day deliberations, adopted a `Draft Jaipur Declaration` which acknowledges the importance of lakes and wetlands for domestic, agricultural and recreational uses and of improving habitats for conserving biodiversity.

Wuhan in China will host the 13th World Lake Conference in 2009.(*) END

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