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.