Talise Island: A lesson in stakeholders and sustainability<\/p>\n
By Lisa Rogers<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): There are plenty of buzzwords in the development
\nworld, few more potent than \"stakeholders\" and \"sustainability\".
\nAt its island site in North Sulawesi, Proyek Pesisir learned
\nfirsthand how hard it is to reach the second until you have the
\nfirst.<\/p>\n
There is no shortage of pressing environmental issues facing
\nthe island of Talise, a long boat ride around the tip of North
\nSulawesi from Manado: deforestation in the hills threatens the
\nfreshwater aquifers and disappearing mangroves on the shore means
\nfewer fish and widespread beach erosion. Commercial interests
\nfrom outside the community have harvested the village's land and
\nmarine resources for years but returned little to the people who
\nlive there.<\/p>\n
Surely, thought the coastal management specialists of Proyek
\nPesisir, here is a location ripe for environmental development's
\nbest efforts.<\/p>\n
Proyek Pesisir was set up in 1997 as a cooperative venture
\nbetween the U.S. Agency for International Development and the
\ngovernment of Indonesia. It works at both local and national
\nlevels to decentralize and strengthen natural resources
\nmanagement.<\/p>\n
So, in 1997 Proyek Pesisir went to Talise. Its 2,000 residents
\nlive on the eastern half of the 6km by 2km island. Meetings with
\nlocal people were arranged, but the project ran into the worst
\npossible problem -- lack of interest. It wasn't that the
\nresidents did not know about the environmental problems. Just the
\nopposite, in fact.<\/p>\n
And they had plenty of ideas about how to fix them. The
\nproject team quickly discovered the roadblock: in development
\njargon, Talise's residents were not \"stakeholders\". They didn't
\nown the land they lived on, so they were unwilling to invest
\ntheir time and effort in a something that might be taken from
\nthem at any time. Without the cooperation and commitment of the
\nresidents, there would not be much \"sustainability\" in the
\nproject's efforts.<\/p>\n
It all goes back to Talise's unusual social history. In the
\nyears after the New Order government came to power, suspected
\ncommunist sympathizers were rounded up all across Indonesia. Some
\nfrom Minahasa and the Sangir islands of North Sulawesi found
\nthemselves exiled to Talise, where they were forced to resettle,
\nlandless and friendless.<\/p>\n
Lucrative permit<\/p>\n
Here they lived with that most powerful of absentee landlords
\n-- the government. Even the village head was appointed from
\noutside by the regent. Businesses from outside the community and
\neven outside the country received lucrative permits from the New
\nOrder government to use the area's resources. Talise residents
\nlived their lives in an official world that cared little about
\ntheir needs, let alone their opinions.<\/p>\n
A chance to improve the situation appeared in 1994 with the
\ngovernment's policy to award land ownership certificates to
\nqualified residents around the country. The process was not easy
\nor cheap.<\/p>\n
The fee was Rp 150,000, about US$60 at that time. Despite the
\nhigh cost, more than 200 Talise residents filled in their forms,
\npaid their fees, and waited for their land certificates.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, all but 47 families waited in vain. The rest of
\nthe money disappeared and the applications lapsed after a year.
\nThe political upheavals of the past had left them without their
\nland titles, without their money, and without local and regional
\nofficials willing to look into their claims.<\/p>\n
The debacle still rankled in 1997 when Proyek Pesisir team
\nmembers first came to Talise to help with its environmental
\nproblems. Instead of a community ready to tackle the issues
\ntogether, the team found disinterested tenants who believed their
\nlandlord stole their money.<\/p>\n
\"At first people were still angry about the loss,\" explained
\nJ. Johannes Tulungen, Proyek Pesisir's field program manager for
\nNorth Sulawesi. But early in 1998 the regent replaced the old
\nvillage head.<\/p>\n
\"Then we made some progress. I said to the community, 'Just
\nforget about the past. We must start from the beginning.' At
\nfirst they didn't believe we could do it. They were afraid their
\nmoney would be lost again.\"<\/p>\n
To overcome this roadblock, Tulungen and his team engaged in
\nsome creative negotiations with government officials at local and
\nregional levels, and particularly at the land office in Tondano,
\nwhere most of the land title work is done. \"Instead of hiring
\nconsultants to manage the application process, we saved a lot of
\nmoney by doing business directly with the land office.\"<\/p>\n
The project team also convinced land office officials that
\nseveral steps in the usual year-long process could be
\nforeshortened or even eliminated. For example, because the
\nundisputed landowner was the government, there was no need to
\nspend time and money looking for other owners. A new attitude at
\nlocal and district levels moved the process along at record
\nspeed.<\/p>\n
As a way to help Talise families reapply for their
\ncertificates, the project agreed to assist with the application
\nfees for the first 200 square meters of land (Rp 117,000, about
\nUS$14.50), enough for a house and garden. The families agreed to
\npay the administrative costs and fees for plots larger than 200
\nsquare meters.<\/p>\n
The average payment per family was Rp 75,000 (about US$9.50).
\nOnce everyone agreed on the process in September 1999, things
\nwent smoothly.<\/p>\n
By early December the land titles were ready. On Dec. 16, the
\nnew minister for marine exploration and fisheries, Sarwono
\nKusumaatmadja, came to Talise with some of the local government
\nofficials who had supported the process to hand-deliver the 220
\nland certificates. Now nearly all the families in Talise own
\ntheir own property.<\/p>\n
Dramatic changes<\/p>\n
The landowners' new status has sparked some dramatic changes
\nin levels of civic participation. Now that they control their own
\nproperty, Talise residents are much more involved in the long
\nterm planning and management of their village and its
\nsurroundings. They understand the problems they face and they are
\nactively searching for solutions.<\/p>\n
Among the most pressing terrestrial issues on Talise is
\nprotecting the drinking water supply. The village's freshwater
\naquifer depends entirely on the health of the forests in the
\nwatershed above it.<\/p>\n
Although the government owns this common land, villagers know
\nthat the government lacks the resources to protect it. Over time,
\npeople have moved into the area, unwisely cutting trees and
\nopening up the forest. Now the watershed suffers from erosion and
\nthe plague of alang-alang grass, which inhibits the natural
\nregrowth of trees.<\/p>\n
At the water's edge, Talise residents are worried about some
\nof the same problems faced by many coastal communities around
\nIndonesia: the disappearance of mangroves, eroding beaches,
\ndamaged corals and declining fish stocks.<\/p>\n
Now that they have a long-term interest in their surroundings,
\nTalise residents are not waiting for the government or outside
\nmoney to fix their problems. The village has set up its own
\nenvironmental management committee to find local solutions backed
\nby the local community.<\/p>\n
It is already discouraging people from going into the forests
\nto cut trees. As part of an aggressive regreening project,
\nresidents are working with a Proyek Pesisir agroforestry team to
\nlearn how to collect seeds locally and raise seedlings themselves
\nto replant critical land.<\/p>\n
Other environmental rehabilitation activities around the
\nisland include replanting mangroves to slow beach erosion and
\nestablishing a marine reserve to protect coral reefs. Both will
\nalso help boost the area's fish stocks, which provide Talise's
\nresidents with food and income. In the future, the conservation
\nefforts may bring tourists, too.<\/p>\n
As it usually does, success brings imitation. With the help of
\nProyek Pesisir specialists, residents of nearby Kinabuhutan
\nisland are now busy replanting mangroves to stabilize their
\nbeaches.<\/p>\n
They know that the land office will view their title
\napplications more favorably if their properties are not likely to
\nwash away in a storm. And Talise villagers may themselves copy
\nthe marine sanctuary success of Blongko village farther west
\nalong the coast from Manado, where residents have documented an
\nincrease in their fish stocks in just a year.<\/p>\n
Even the toughest problems are getting more attention now.
\nTalise residents are working to resolve the long-standing issue
\nof access to some of the best fishing areas on the leeward side
\nof their island. These areas are off-limits to fishermen now
\nbecause the New Order government granted exclusive access to an
\ninternationally owned pearl farm. Talise's residents know that if
\nsome of the better fishing sites are reopened, pressure will ease
\non the rest of the island's limited land and sea resources. By
\nworking together toward such changes, Talise residents make the
\ngoal of environmental sustainability much easier to reach.<\/p>",
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