March 26-April 8, 2008

Wakatobi Trip Report

By Michael De Alessi

I visited Wakatobi and its environs in Indonesia as part of a grant from the Alex C. Walker Foundation to investigate the integration of marine reserves and marine tenure in the developing world.

Wakatobi is the name of a dive resort off of the island of Tomia, and also the name of a vast marine reserve off the Southeastern tip of Sulawesi created by the government of Indonesia in 1996. The Wakatobi Marine Reserve covers almost 1.4 million hectares but is not very well enforced - locals do not respect the park and destructive fishing, as well as piles of garbage from shipping traffic, are common occurrences within the reserve. The Wakatobi dive resort, however, has set up its own set of protected areas in conjunction with the local villages that, according to traditional law - hakam adat - have the right to fish on the reefs. These arrangements started at approximately the same time as the creation of the marine reserve.

The owners of the resort believe that it is their duty to their investors to "preserve the main asset, namely the healthy reefs", and so they have contracted with the villages around the nearby island to prohibit destructive fishing methods (most notably dynamite and cyanide) on all of the reefs, to prohibit fishing completely on some of the reefs, and to limit fishing methods to less-intrusive, more traditional fishing methods (such as hook and line) on other reefs. These payments depend on the size of the community and the reefs, and the scope of the protection, and range from about $125 to over $800 a month, a significant sum in a country where the average daily income is about $1 a day.

The money is paid to a community council, and part of the stipulation from the resort is that the books be open to everyone. Funds have been used for such things as bringing fresh water to villages, building roads and fences, and repairing and upgrading school facilities. To enforce these provisions, in the island complex around the resort there are four reef watch stations which are manned 24 hours a day. There are also two patrol boats that spend about 8 hours a day on the water. The resort provides binoculars and radios, and gases up the boats. They also provide gas and radios to the local police, so that anyone caught doing something they shouldn't is dealt with by the police.

The results in the water are impressive. Large predators such as sharks and big groupers are hard to come by, but in general the fish life is teeming, and many medium sized predators such as grouper and barracuda indicate that the fish are getting bigger in both numbers and size in recent years. Perhaps most impressive is the stunning health and diversity of the coral reefs. Hundreds of species of corals line the reefs, and are rapidly re-colonizing areas where anchor damage occurred in the past - but clearly does not anymore.

Of course, the change in fishing has brought some disruption to the villages, and when I was there the only fish for sale were small mackerel caught far offshore. One or two people complained that there were far fewer places to fish anymore, which is certainly true.

To get a better sense of the impact of the resort on the reefs and the local communities, much more in-depth research and time in the field is needed. These preliminary results, however, indicate that by tapping into the ecosystem services provided by the coral reefs this dive resort has benefited both the local communities and the environment.