The role of local people in Komodo National Park

The role of local people in Komodo National Park

Louisa Tuhatu, Jakarta

The opinion piece by Henning Borchers of New Zealand (Aug. 12)
touched on many important issues relating to the future of the
Komodo National Park.

Unfortunately, the article contained many misstatements
regarding the project to ensure effective management of the park
and grossly distorted the roles of the National Parks Authority,
local communities, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and the
International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank, which
are working together to ensure the preservation of the park's
natural resources and create a better future for local
communities.

The most objectionable of the many distortions put forward by
Borchers is his misleading account of a tragic incident in 2002
that he claims involved two fisherman allegedly shot and killed
by a park patrol when they were trying to catch lobster.

Borchers is well aware that this incident actually involved
members of an organized group of poachers shot while resisting
arrest when an Indonesian Navy patrol boat interdicted an
attempted pickup of hunters from Komodo Island.

Park rangers had requested assistance from the Indonesian Navy
to detain the escape boat, but were not otherwise involved in the
incident. None of the poachers were local residents.

As Borchers noted, the National Commission on Human Rights
investigated the incident. This led to the prosecution of the two
officers in command. The court decided their action was taken in
self-defense after the poachers' boat attempted to ram the patrol
craft, and acquitted them of all charges.

The Komodo National Park was established twenty-five years ago in
1980, and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986. Komodo
is one of 50 national parks in the country gazetted as
conservation areas in order to preserve their natural resources
for all Indonesians.

As a marine reserve, the park provides a refuge for breeding
populations of commercially valuable fishes to replenish
collapsed fisheries through export and the spillover of adults
and juveniles. Without viable marine protected areas (MPAs), the
prospects of local populations dependent on fishing for their
livelihoods would be much worse.

At the invitation of the government of Indonesia, TNC has been
active in Komodo since 1996, helping map natural resources;
develop alternative livelihood programs (mariculture, seaweed
culture, and pelagic fisheries); rehabilitate damaged reefs, and
helping develop a long-term plan for management of the park.

According to Borchers, "restrictions on resource use"
represent the clash between "an international conservation
agenda" and the livelihood needs of local residents.

In reality, the government's policy has never been to prohibit
utilization of these resources, but simply to regulate their use
within sustainable limits for the benefit of all, including
future generations.

Fishing, particularly lift-net fishing for squid, is the
mainstay of local residents and will remain so. Gear limitations
to protect against overexploitation are in force, but that hardly
constitutes a ban.

TNC has provided patrol boats and other logistical assistance
to park rangers and other local law enforcement agencies to
conduct patrols in the park. This has resulted in the successful
halting of dynamite fishing and other destructive fishing
practices that ultimately represent the most important long-term
threat to local fishing communities.

With the possible exception of Borchers, nobody has ever
suggested that local residents engaged in dynamiting reefs in
Komodo.

In the future, carefully delimited no-take zones will be
established under a zoning plan based on village consultations,
distribution of resource use and ecological assessments. But this
new system also establishes traditional zones and pelagic zones
where fishing will still be allowed.

What is new is that traditional user communities in the park
and the surrounding areas will enjoy exclusive fishing rights in
the Park. The distorted picture Borchers has painted does not
remotely resemble the current reality in the park, nor future
plans.

Over the last few years, TNC worked to help lay the groundwork
to make the park financially self-sustaining through eco-tourism
revenues. The Komodo Collaborative Management Initiative, slated
to begin later this year, will be supported by a US$5 million
grant from the World Bank and $4.8 million in matching funds from
TNC.

Borchers claims that he cannot see how local communities, who
still rely on the area to survive, will benefit from the project.

In fact, of the total $9.8 million funding over the next seven
years, $2.5 million (25.5 percent) is dedicated to direct
assistance to local communities, including developing alternative
livelihoods ($1.3 million), Community Development Grants
($300,000), and a Sustainable Enterprise Fund to provide micro-
credit loans to local enterprises ($900,000).

Borchers' statement that local stakeholders have to be
involved in decisions pertaining to park management, conservation
and economic development is superfluous -- plans for this project
have always incorporated extensive provisions for participation
in decision-making by local stakeholders, including a public
forum, the Kelompok Konsultatif Masyarakat (Community
Consultative Group) representing all stakeholders, and a higher-
level body, the Komite Pengelolaan Kolaboratif (Collaborative
Management Committee), both to be established by government
decrees later this year.

Borchers, in fact, has received copies of project-planning
documents regarding all the issues raised in his article on
numerous occasions, most recently in July 2005.

With the support of the government, communities, and other
stakeholders, Komodo National Park can become a national model
for achieving critical biodiversity conservation goals while
ensuring broad local participation in decision-making and
enabling residents to receive a full share of the benefits
generated by the project. Together with our partners, we welcome
a continuing dialogue with all other interested parties as we
move forward toward that objective.

Louisa Tuhatu is Communications Director with The Nature
Conservancy-Indonesia Program. She can be reached at
ltuhatu@tnc.org.