TEMPO.CO, Bengkulu - The Bengkulu provincial administration will hold a sports tourism event called "Tour de Rafflesia" in 2018 to promote tourism in the province known as the habitat of the giant flower Rafflesia arnoldii.

"The event also aims to support the Visit Wonderful Bengkulu 2020 program," Rohidin Mersyah, the acting governor of Bengkulu, said on Wednesday.

During the Tour de Rafflesia event, participants and foreign tourists will be invited to visit several forests, such as those in Central Bengkulu, Kepahiang, and North Bengkulu, including Kaur," he remarked.

The acting governor had recently visited a habitat of the Rafflesia arnoldii flower in the Bukit Daun protected forest in North Bengkulu.

Mersyah found two Rafflesia arnoldii flowers in full bloom during the visit.

The rare and unique Rafflesia arnoldii flower is known internationally and is an icon for the province's tourism, he noted.

Bengkulu has four species of Rafflesia: Rafflesia arnoldii discovered in 1818 by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles and Dr Joseph Arnold, Rafflesia gadutensis, Rafflesia bengkuluensis, and Rafflesia hasselti.

In 1978, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature categorized Rafflesia as "vulnerable, endangered, and interminate."

Of the 32 Rafflesia species, 17 species are found in Indonesia, particularly on the islands of Java and Sumatra, 10 in the Philippines, and eight in Malaysia.

ANTARA