Written by I Nyoman Budi Satriya
Introduction
Coral Triangle Center (CTC) is a
nonprofit-governmental organization (NGO) whose aim to provide training to the
MPA managers and fishers group in the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) region
area. Formed in early 2000 as a training division of The Nature Conservancy,
CTC has conducted 100 training sessions which involved around 2000 participants
until 2011. CTC has a vision of a healthy marine environment which can
encourage local people in order to maintain the sustainability of coastal and
marine resources.
Furthermore, Nusa Penida MPA is an appropriate location as the area
of learning and training for national and international government agencies,
including sponsoring and training organizations due to their size of
conservation area and unique community-based ecotourism. By socializing the
importance of marine protected area, TNC-CTC also conduct study about local
behavior community in order to gain local community understanding, so that they
could take part actively in maintaining their natural existence.
Social Aspect
Social
and cultural traditions of Balinese people throughout their local wisdom
support the establishment and management of marine protected area. Balinese traditional
societies are guided by the unique philosophy called “Nyegara gunung”
(downstream-upstream) which means the inseparable relationship between the sea
and the mountain; therefore, any destruction on the mountain or land will have
an impact on the ocean. Referring to this philosophy, if we want to save the
sea, then we must save the land first. According to this philosophy, marine
protected area was built also to accommodate local society needs. CTC has
initiated several public meetings with local community due to an establishment
of marine protected area, mangrove rehabilitation and
zoning area. Consequently, there are several community groups which are supported by CTC and local government, maintaining and
protecting mangrove area of Nusa Penida. Each of the group has their own
purposes and activity such as conservation group that concerned with mangrove
rehabilitation and plantation programs, ecotourism group for mangrove tour
including boat operators, and local marine ranger group that responsible for
monitoring and surveillance activities. Every month regular meeting will be
conducted between community groups in order to discuss about daily problems
such as sanitary, promotion, and income allocation.
Ecotourism
Coral Triangle Center (CTC), local government and environmental
activists have jointly initiated ecotourism region program in Nusa Penida by cultivating
seaweed and conserving mangrove forests. Seaweed farming and mangrove forest are part of 20,057 hectares of protected zone in order to
support the government's national target in the arrangement of 20 million
hectares integrated region of ecotourism and MPA by 2020. The long term plan of
this region is to continue the development of protection zone areas for a
variety of social and economic activities such as fishing, mangrove ecotourism
and sea farming. Ecotourism activity such as mangrove trip and
traditional seaweed farming are growing every year covering all the northern
waters of Nusa Penida and Nusa Lembongan. Ecotourism also mixed with traditional law called
"awig awig" applied by local fishermen in regulating the method of
planting and the ownership of agricultural location. This customary law was inherited from generation to generation. It then
concluded some important rules associated with planting, harvest, profit
sharing and a list of dos and don'ts together with sanctions for infringement.
In practical ecotourism, travellers can get around for 30 minutes using the
boat. There are 1-4 trips each day, where in one boat can
accommodate up to 4 tourists. Consequently, mangrove forest cleaning activities
carried out once a month along with increasing tourist traffic.
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| Mangrove tourism |
Economic benefits
Nusa
Penida marine protected area has both short term and long term benefits that
contribute to the welfare of local community. Short term benefits such as
increasing revenue of local residents throughout mangrove eco-tourism and
seaweed farming. While the long term benefit including the increase of fish
catching capacity and the improvement of community health system, which will be
felt in the future. As an example, during the harvest time (every 30-35 days)
farmers might gain an average weight between 40 and 50 tons of spinosum (Euchema
spinosum) and cotonii (Euchema cotonii). If the average price of
spinosum ranges between 20 cents and 30 cents per kilogram, and cotonii between
40 cents and 50
cents per kilogram, then in each harvest, farmers might generate approximately
$30 per 100 square meters. Meanwhile, in ecotourism, there is an average of 2-3
boat trips every day, while the fee for each trip is $ 7.5. Around 90 % of
income is allocated for cooperation, and the rest 10 % is for villagers and
operator. In addition, tourism activities near the protected mangrove area play
an important role as a preservation agent since promoting green campaign and
improving local economic growth. It provides job opportunities and also pays
attention to the environmental protection which has been set up in local
regulations.
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| Seaweed farming in Nusa Penida |
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