Bunaken Park, a model of dialog

Bunaken Park, a model of dialog

MANADO, North Sulawesi (JP): Fifteen miles from Manado, off Sulawesi's northern coast, lies the Bunaken National Park -- an 80,000-hectare expanse of ocean, islands, mangroves, and some of Indonesia's most dramatic coral reefs. What makes Bunaken unique, though, is not so much its striking physical features, but its innovative approach to park management. An approach that bids fair to become a model for all of Indonesia as well as other Asian countries.

Developing a national park is an intricate balancing act. Inevitably, several groups hold an interest in the proposed park area, each with a different idea of how the park should be developed.

In Indonesia, the interested groups typically include the Ministry of Forestry, the local government and the people living in the area designated to become park land. The Ministry of Forestry generally sees conservation as the primary role of a park, while local government tends to emphasize tourism and natural resources use.

Local residents think the park should protect their right to traditional extraction practices (hunting, fishing, farming). Trouble arises when, as is usually the case, the goals are seen as mutually exclusive.

This perceived incompatibility makes cooperation between the various parties difficult, and the Ministry of Forestry must often shoulder the full burden of the park's development, with minimal input from the local government and residents.

This approach can entail a host of problems, as it imposes an undue financial strain on the Ministry, while depriving it of valuable local partners.

Park management plans developed unilaterally by the Ministry of Forestry tend to promote conservation, primarily by designating large areas of the park off limits to tourism and extraction by local residents.

The Ministry must then employ a sizable security force to enforce these restrictions in the designated areas, resulting in still greater financial and institutional burdens.

In Bunaken, the stage was set for the same complications. Over 10,000 people reside on Bunaken's five islands and another 10,000 on the mainland coastline, drawing their livelihood largely from farming and from the sea, while the area's rich coral reefs support a growing diving and tourism industry based in nearby Manado.

When the area was declared a marine nature reserve in 1986, anxiety soared over how this would affect the local parties. Local communities and tourism operations alike feared they would lose their access to the park's waters, as had happened with other national parks in the region.

Different

Bunaken, though, was different. Park planners quickly realized that Bunaken's large indigenous population, coupled with its proximity to Manado, made management by exclusion virtually impossible.

The planners set to work on an innovative strategy, that would take into account all parties affected by the park's development.

The first step in this ambitious undertaking was to determine the role each group played in the Bunaken area. Use patterns of the park area were studied. Dialog was facilitated between local communities, dive operators, and government officials to determine the needs, hopes, and concerns of each group.

This discourse provided crucial information, and perhaps more importantly, dispelled a number of misconceptions. For example, government officials learned that less than half of the local residents relied on fishing as their primary source of livelihood.

With this revelation, conservation and extraction suddenly seemed less in conflict.

This knowledge, garnered from dialog, was augmented by a series of aerial photographs taken of the park area depicting the location of different habitats, villages, dive spots, fishing grounds, etc. These photos were fed into a computer and combined through a process called Geographic Information Systeming, to provide a complete picture of the various activities and interactions occurring within the park, as well as a very accurate map of the park area.

Though time consuming and labor-intensive, these efforts provided an essential understanding of the groups using the park and how they interact. The park planners were now in a position to develop a management that would address the needs of all groups. They realized, though, that the plan would ultimately fail if it lacked the input and support of all players.

Planners, therefore, continued the dialog process in developing the management plan.

The planners identified key figures among each of the groups having an interest in the park. These people, which included village heads, dive shop owners, and government officials, provided the planners with crucial information on each group's needs, concerns, and desires regarding park management.

This flow of information went both ways; successive drafts of the management plan were passed on to the interested groups for their comments, criticism and recommendations.

Meetings were held so that the various groups could meet face- to-face and discuss the best arrangements for the park. Most importantly, the management plan was not considered complete until it had achieved the approval of every group that would be affected by the park's development.

The result of this arduous process was a management plan accepted by all groups in the Bunaken area. Naturally, each group had to give up some rights and privileges in exchange for others. But the current plan is a model of cooperation, in which each sacrifices somewhat, so that all may profit.

Under the plan, for example, local communities receive exclusive extraction rights in certain areas in exchange for accepting limited access to zones designated for dive tourism. Dive operators, in turn, restrict their operations to certain areas and have installed mooring stations in order to prevent the damage that boat anchors had previously done to the reefs.

Villagers and divers both agree to recognize certain "saving zones", which are protected areas designed to help maintain fish stocks. Such cooperative husbandry of marine resources serves the Ministry of Forestry's goal of conservation, while at the same time benefiting local fishers and divers.

Profit

There is room for synergy here as well. It is hoped that in time the local communities will be able to profit from tourism by providing home stays and selling handicrafts. Similarly, the continuation of traditional activities in the area increases its value as a tourist destination.

A final virtue of the Bunaken strategy is that it actively engages all groups in the park's management. Local communities, for example, have responsibility for policing their extraction zones. Dive operations monitor each other and report infractions to the local government.

By imbuing all groups with a sense of ownership and commitment to the park, this participatory approach motivates all groups to preserve and protect the park's resources. It also lightens the financial and institutional burdens born by the Ministry of Forestry for the park's management.

The Bunaken National Park is an example of how communication and participatory planning can overcome seemingly irreconcilable interests. The park's 25-year management plan has achieved the support of all local groups in the Bunaken area and is now pending approval from the Ministry of Forestry while some problems remain to be worked out.

Passage of this historic plan will allow the Bunaken area to be used and enjoyed by tourists and local communities for generations to come. It is further hoped that it will become a model for other national parks in Indonesia and throughout the world.

-- Dean Carignan