Bonerate marine park is a tourist eden under threat
By Jupriadi
UJUNGPANDANG (JP): "What are they looking for in the sea?"
The question has been raised time and again by locals watching foreign tourists diving and playing in the clear waters of Taka Bonerate National Sea Park, about 450 kilometers south of here.
Taka Bonerate, which boasts the world's third largest atoll after Kwajifein in the Marshall Islands and Suvadiva in the Maldives, is an undersea haven for international divers and researchers on marine biota.
Falling under the administrative territory of Pasimasunggu and Pasimarannu subdistricts in Selayar regency, the sea park is famed for its abundant marine flora and fauna.
Its spectacular coral reefs have been described by fanatic divers as a "vast colorful underwater carpet."
"This is a haven that challenges divers to come and explore," exclaims a foreign tourist who had just spent his holiday in the park. Taka Bonerate consists of 21 islands, 14 of which are uninhabited. Among the park's riches are 167 of the approximately 200 known species of tropical marine fauna, 134 coral reef species and 101 mollusks.
A great variety of turtles, squids, sea slugs (tripang), octopuses and trocus roam the area. Black coral is one of the sea park's most precious species. However the undersea haven that is comparable to North Sulawesi's Bunaken Marine National Park is in grave danger and teetering on the brink of extinction.
The existence of the breathtaking coral reefs which first drew the world's nature lovers to Taka Bonerate is coming under increasing threat from fisherpeople who use methods harmful to marine biota.
The use of explosives, poison, electrocution and trawls to catch fish of all sizes, as well as coral theft are deemed the most common threats to the local underwater environment.
It is understood that the havoc has seriously affected the whole of the atoll and its environs, which are divided into three zones: nucleus, bumper and conservation.
Two researchers from Canada, Charley Cyr and Louise Perreault, who have been studying the sea park's marine biota for two years, describe the current situation as "quite appalling".
They say they are worried about the ongoing environmental destruction of the 53-hectare site, which comprises 18.3 percent of the whole of Indonesia's protected sea areas.
In fact, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) has long warned about the threat to Taka Bonerate due to the unchecked destructive fishing methods.
In 1995 LIPI told the local government that unless it did something to stop the illegal fishing methods and reef theft, an estimated 60 percent of the sea park would be destroyed in the next few years.
Reef Check, the World Wide Fund for Nature-sponsored program established to protect coral reefs, has also fired a similar warning salvo. Its team has reported that the coral reefs in Tinanja, Latondu and Ampalas island are "finished" and the seabed looks like a "sand desert".
LIPI and Reef Check's findings were confirmed by the Institute for the Ujungpandang-based Studies on Coastal Villages and Communities (LP3M). According to the institute, the environmental destruction has reached 75 percent.
"The rate will be higher if the government fails to take stern action against the perpetrators," says Kamaruddin, a researcher from the institute.
He points out that one of the most serious offenses is the theft by locals of coral to use as building materials.
"We are taking measures to save the sea park," he says.
In cooperation with the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, the Australian government's Ausaid and several non-profit organizations in Japan and Canada, the institute has begun a Coral Reef Rehabilitation and Management Project.
Although starting somewhat late in the day, the project has won applause from many quarters. Environmentalists say that the park needs 100 years to return to its original state -- and that is only if all the destructive activities stop now.