Town of Amaluza (downstream) with upstream watershed in background

A week or so after returning from visiting our China campaign managers in Kunming, I was back in the air again, this time heading west to Ecuador, a country of geological and geographic contrasts. From the offshore islands of the Galapagos (where Rare has a campaign) to the Amazon rainforests; from the Pacific to the towering Andes. It is also a country made up of great human and biological diversity. This nation is not only one of 17 mega-diverse in the world according to Conservation International, but has more biodiversity per square kilometer than any other nation on the planet.

After an overnight in the capital of Quito, I headed south to Loja close to the Peruvian border where I met up with Rare’s Pride Program Manager, Alan Hesse. Alan has been with Rare a little over a year and is responsible for over-seeing the campaign that I was to visit. However, I first met Alan years earlier at a Parrot Conference in the Canary Islands and our paths crossed again when he kindly helped produce a suite of cartoons for our Pride curriculum. From Loja we drove further south to Espíndola, site of a Pride campaign being run by Maritza Azanza and the Ecology Foundation, “Arcoiris.” Maritza is a member of Rare’s first thematic cohort, a group of dedicated campaign managers all working in the Andes on watershed threats, with the solution being so-called “reciprocal agreements”.

Agreements based on the principle that users and beneficiaries of a natural resource should compensate those who safeguard the resource. Lowland farmers, who depend on stewardship of highland watershed habitats, contribute to a conservation fund. [This] fund provides “payments” to the highland landowners as an incentive to maintain healthy forests. Pride campaigns accelerate and deepen community support for this approach (1/2).

Another shared attribute of the “Guad 8” cohort – so called this because the campaign mangers that comprise this group are the 8^th cohort to train at our Mexican university node in Guadalajara, Mexico – is that they are all working to conserve habitat for “AZE species”.

The Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) is a global initiative of biodiversity conservation organizations, that aims to prevent extinctions by identifying and safeguarding key sites where species are in imminent danger of disappearing (3).

Maritza’s campaign has its flagship species the Andean Spectacled Bear which she is using to draw attention to the upper watersheds of her site, a habitat also frequented by a little known and likely endangered frog with the nearly unpronounceable name of  Eleutherodactylus balionotus. Helpfully it is also known as Pristimantis balionotus! Without a common or local name and known only from the type locality, 13.5km east of Loja, at the crest of the Cordillera (Abra de Zamora) between Loja Province and Zamora-Chinchipe Province, it is (like many other AZE species) something of an enigma (4).

Maritza was born in the Ecuadorian city of Loja, on December 27, 1984, and studied Environmental Engineering at the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja. Her thesis focused on  environmental education and as a result of it she gained experience in working with local authorities, children, teachers and community leaders. After graduating and before joining Fundación Ecológica Arcoiris, Maritza coordinated the construction of several self-guided trails including one in the forests of Colambo Yacuri. She joined Arcoiris, as the technician responsible Environmental Education.

I spent the week working with Maritza and Alan reviewing the progress she was making with the campaign, meeting key stakeholders, visiting the areas where reciprocal agreements were planned, and helping with Pride collateral development.

Maritza (r) Marybelle (campaign assistant) and Alan (l)

You can read more about Maritza’s Pride campaign here.

 References:

1: http://rareconservation.org/program-aze-habitat-and-watershed-protection-andes

2: http://www.rareconservation.org/blog/2011/01/28/protecting-cloud-forests-with-reciprocal-watershed-agreements/

3: http://www.zeroextinction.org/AZE_report.pdf

4: http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/56450/0

Related posts:

1. Assuring water for the long term in Espíndola Canton, Ecuador Note: This blog post originated on RarePlanet, our online community...
2. Eco club “Guardians of Nature” help respect and protect cloud forest in Ecuador After the opening of the Rare Pride campaign in Zumba,...
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I sometimes feel like a disembodied soul in Jimmy Buffet’s classic song “Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude,” for he writes:

Reading departure signs in some big airport
Reminds me of the places I’ve been
Visions of good times that brought so much pleasure
Makes me want to go back again
If it suddenly ended tomorrow
I could somehow adjust to the fall
Good times and riches and son of a bitches
I’ve seen more than I can recall

Returning from four weeks in Indonesia and the Philippines, I immediately turned around and flew to the Finnish-Russian border to spend the weekend with my daughter trying to see European Bears in their habitat. I was tired, especially since we had to stay up all night in a hide, but thrilled when we got to see a total of nine of these magnificent beasts.

The Finnish Large Carnivore Research Project website writes about the brown bear in Europe:

“The brown bear [Ursus arctos] is the biggest terrestrial mammal in Europe. Once it was spread all over Europe and today only a few populations of brown bears are left. In Finland there are currently about 800 to 900 brown bears and they distributed all over the country. Despite this, population density varies and is still rather low in western and southern Finland. Core area of the Finnish population is in the southeast of the country.”

Less than 24 hours after returning from that brief trip and with “barely” enough time to re-pack, I was on the road again. This time flying to Beijing, China to meet up with Rare’s COO Dale Galvin. We would also be joining one of China’s most famous citizens to help him as he thinks through developing a foundation to promote China’s youth, its sports and environment.

Dale and I spent a full day with Yao Ming and some of his friends and board members helping to think through a strategic plan for the foundation. Dale described the strategic planning process that Rare used to develop its 5-year plan and a series of sessions were then held to begin work to help Yao and his team put their vision into action.

Dale and I used a range of tools to help flesh out these elements including focused discussions, concept modeling, sticky walls and consensus work-shopping — all techniques that we teach our own campaign managers as they develop strategies and project plans for their campaigns.

Since joining Rare, I have had the opportunity to meet a number of stars in the sports and entertainment world, but I can say that Yao stands out as one of the most genuine, down-to-earth individuals that I have met. He was really engaged in the discussions and participated fully. I greatly enjoyed our day together and believe that it was mutually beneficial. I very much hope that Rare and Yao Ming can work together in the future.

From Shanghai, I flew on the Kunming to spend 48 hours with our current China cohort who are working on over-fishing in some of China’s most important wetlands. The cohort is approaching the final week of their second university phase. They are learning about material design and how to develop collateral that can be used to reach their campaign’s target audience efficiently and effectively. The China team has brought in local experts to teach the seven campaign managers how to develop posters, printed materials and songs.

I joined them on how to use puppets to motivate children and adults alike. The cohort broke into two groups, one re-produced a show that we include in Rare’s handbook of Pride activities, while the second group created their own puppet script that focused on over-fishing. Participants built their own stage and sewed their own puppets.

Rare Conservation Fellow Qing Baoping with his Crested Ibis puppet 

Despite having already spent four weeks immersed in lectures and practicum’s (on the back of a very intensive five weeks of project planning), the entire cohort was full of enthusiasm. It was great watching Rare’s China team teach and mentor the students and to be a member of the audience watching the show.

The week in China flew by and soon it was back to the airport departure hall for my trip home. I would not be there long. In a week I leave again, this time to Latin America, to visit several of our Watershed and Reciprocal Agreement campaigns in Ecuador and Peru.

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Note: This is Rare’s Senior Vice President of Global Programs Paul Butler’s sixth and final blog post in a series about his recent trip to the Philippines and Indonesia to monitor Rare’s conservation work in the field. You can find his first post here, his second post here, his third post here, fourth here, and fifth here. 

I hugely enjoyed my three weeks in Indonesia, accompanying Rare’s team as they conducted support visits in Raja Ampat and Seribu.

Having designed Rare’s first campaign and undertaken more than 115 support visits myself (over my 23 years at Rare), it was fun to watch others doing it. Both Yayat Afianto and Asti Nurhidayati have clearly developed a close and genuine relationship with their Rare Conservation Fellows and other partners and it was insightful accompanying them as they worked together checking in on campaign progress, participating in collateral review and providing technical advice.

It was clear from our partners (whether they be staff at Conservation International or the Forestry Department or local Government) that our campaigns were seen as important for their overall strategies and key in changing fisher’s behavior. In every site, the objective is to change social norms, reduce incursions into no-take zones (NTZ) and increase community patrolling and reporting. Our Pride campaigns would be complemented by improved no-take zone boundary marking, establishing or strengthening patrols and improving reporting.

In the past our monitoring was limited pre-post KAP (knowledge, attitude and practice) surveys — today we continue to do these,  but we have now added cohort level comparison sites, threat reduction and biological monitoring to track on-the ground conservation results.

In all three sites visited, this was confirmed. Though each of the campaigns visited were a few weeks behind in collateral production and distribution, it was clear that they were being thoughtful in designing materials and making sure to test these with their target audiences.

I shifted focus and rather than flying directly back to the UK, I flew on to Manila in the Philippines, over-nighting there before catching a connecting flight to Bohol. Bohol is “home” to Rare’s Philippine office and to several Pride campaigns, which have just concluded their second university phase. We currently have twelve active campaigns in the Philippines, all of which form part of a marine thematic cohort and which share similar objectives to the campaigns I had just visited in Indonesia.

Rare is in the process of a major thrust into the marine realm and has recently launched a suite of similar campaigns in Mexico and Central America. Yet further campaigns are planned next year in the Coral Triangle.

These twelve fellows were completing their second university phase, and I was thrilled to join them for their last day when they brought in their supervisors to explain to them their work plan. These 150+ page documents articulate the threats facing their sites and the people and behaviors that lie behind them. Each target audience has been subjected to extensive research to understand their prevailing levels of knowledge, attitude and practice and what might motivate (or constrain) them to change their current unsustainable behaviors.

Target audience media preferences, trusted sources and access to information were also ascertained. Using this audience profile our fellows produce a creative brief, and a series of SMART objectives for their campaign along its Theory of Change and a comprehensive work plan including time lines, budgets, RACI charts and how success will be monitored and evaluated.

Under the tutelage of Associate Director of Training Ariela Rosenstein and the PEP (Pride English Program) team each fellow had to hone their project plan into a two minute pitch and a five slide Power Point deck that explained the rationale for their campaign, its key audiences, flag ship species and the objectives that the campaign set out to accomplish. These presentations were crafted in the classroom and then presented to Rare’s Vice President for PEP, Steve Watkins, Cohort Director Stuart Green and myself. We provided feedback, and later that day (and after practicing several more times) our brave CF’s presented again, this time to their supervisors.

With each practice they became more confident in articulating what they hope their campaign would achieve. Nerves turned to smiles! I had met these individuals when they had first joined Rare on its Pride program. I could not help but feel impressed (and proud) at how they had grown. While there were a few giggles and a few stammers, each presented their work really well!

What impressed me still more was watching the fellows and their supervisors working together, reviewing their plans, and revising them where necessary. Supervisors were genuinely engaged. It was clear that the campaign was important to them and that they were serious about supporting it and ensuring its success! It was clear that while everyone (fellows and staff) were tired after a very hard six weeks or so, everyone was leaving on a high, committed to the next phase — implementation — of their campaign. What was also heartening was that they understood that this phase would not be easy.

Shifting societal norms and fisher behavior would require all the skills they had garnered, together with local government support and a measure of luck.  In order to ensure that such support was forthcoming, the PEP team had called a two day training for both supervisors and local government officials from each of the fellow’s sites.

For two days, more than 70 people — mayors, supervisors, invited guests, and fellows –joined Rare staff to learn more about social marketing and the campaigns that we were about to launch. Stuart gave an introductory talk that outlined the prevailing state of fishery resources in the Philippines. Much of his talk was given in the local dialect and the content combined with flashes of humor had the group riveted. It was a moving presentation and one of the best I have seen in a long while.

On the second day, participants broke into groups. Fellows presented their campaigns to their mayors using the powerpoints and pitches created earlier. Time was taken for questions before each mayor and his/her team were asked to pledge and sign support for their campaign. A formal endorsement ceremony was held witnessed by their peers, members of the donor community and Rare staff. Wow, what a highlight to the week and trip. The evening was rounded off by a celebratory dinner, numerous speeches and a band.

Another highlight of my Philippine trip was reconnecting with our first fellow in the Philippines – Indira Widmann, who conducted a very successful campaign on Palawan where she successfully garnered community and local government support for the establishment of two new protected areas for the endangered and endemic Philippine Cockatoo.

On my final day, I had a few hours to spare before beginning the long journey home, so the PEP staff kindly arranged a taxi, and I visited the famed chocolate hills (photo at top of post) and saw one of Bohol’s unique residents – the Tarsier. Tired but inspired from my month long trip, and full of stories, new friends and fond memories I headed on the long journey home….

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After two weeks in Raja Ampat it was time to return to the hustle and bustle of Indonesia’s capital city of Jakarta.

Established in the fourth century, the city became an important trading port for the Kingdom of Sunda. It was the de facto capital of the Dutch East Indies and continued being the capital city of Indonesia, after its independence in 1945. Today, including its suburbs, it is a metropolis of more than 30 million, about half of the total population of the United Kingdom.

It is a city of contrasts, with skyscrapers and shopping malls, lying adjacent to open sewers, and squalid slums. Arriving there in late June, I found myself too sick to see the sites and spent a couple of days curled (fetal position) in my hotel room. At times sweating so profusely that I wondered if I had any body fluids left and on others shivering uncontrollably.

I was glad that whatever disease I had, had waited until I was in the capital city before striking. I managed to call up a dear friend (Don Bason) who has lived in Jakarta for much of the past decade and he kindly drove me to the local hospital, where I was tested for malaria, typhoid and dengue fever. As Don hovered over me, the doctor was full of questions. Where had I spent the past couple of weeks?

West Papua, I replied. To which he “tutted” ominously, adding that 90 percent of people get malaria there. Had I eaten? No, I responded. More “tutting” and shaking of his head.  He sent for a nurse, who found it impossible to find a suitable vein from which to extract a blood sample. More shaking of heads and “tutting” made me wonder if I would survive the night or ever get to see the third site I had intended visiting.

At long last, a vein was found and several pints of blood (a slight exaggeration) extracted. I waited an hour (in England it would have been several days) and the doctor returned with my results. I had been cleared for malaria, dengue and typhoid, but I had something, although it was unclear what.  My score for hs-CRP was very high, he noted gravely, adding that the normal range is 0.00-3.00 and mine exceeded 9.4. He did not explain what this test was, but I have subsequently found it to be a test for determining the potential risk level for cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, and strokes.

I’m not sure why he decided to test me for this, nor why he pumped me full of antibiotics, but whatever he did seemed to have the right effect. By the following morning I was on the road to recovery and able to join the rest of Rare’s team in a trip to Pulau Seribu.

Located in the bay of Jakarta, a mere 45 kilometers and 1-2 hour boat ride from the capital, this archipelago is a world away from the noise and chaos of the city. Pulau Seribu which means a “Thousand Islands” may be a slight exaggeration– In reality, there are anywhere from 70-300 islands, islets and rocks — each a miniature piece of paradise. While some of the islands are inhabited and others privately owned, many remain void of people and several (including Panjaliran Barat and Panjaliran Timur) are “off limits” to the public. The islands are also home to 144 species of fish, two species of giant clam, and 17 species of coastal birds.

Originally given protected area status in 1982, an area of 107,489 hectares of land and sea was subsequently declared by a Forestry Ministerial Decree in 2002 as the Taman Nasional Kepulauan Seribu (Thousand Islands National Park). Today this area is managed by the Forestry department and is the site of a Pride campaign run by Yuniar Ardianti.

Her campaign will strengthen the boundary marking for at least one of the no-take zones found within the marine protected area, enhance patrolling by greater engaging communities, as well as reduce incursions and facilitate improved reporting.

Her campaign will focus on the region’s fishers which make up about 10 percent of the archipelago’s population, as well as the wider community (to create new social norms) and community leaders. While the area as a whole faces multiple threats, in part due to its proximity to Jakarta, her campaign will focus on over-fishing, as a starting point for what will, it is hoped, become a broader campaign over time.

Writing on the threats facing  Taman Nasional Kepulauan Seribu, the World Resources Institute notes:

Domestic sewage, industrial effluent, and urban runoff from Jakarta threaten the southernmost portion of this area. Floating garbage is a problem, depending on prevailing winds. Ballast water discharges from boats result in tar being washed up on local beaches. Blast fishing, although outlawed nationally since 1920, still occurs as well as heavy ornamental fish collecting and major subsistence exploitation of marine resources. The islands are under pressure from developers seeking more tourism and recreational facilities to service greater Jakarta. There is no strategy to promote environmentally and economically sound expansion of this industry. Boat anchoring and diving have already damaged coral reefs. To encourage protection of the area, local residents, few of whom currently benefit from existing recreational development, need more economic options and increased participation in park activities (such as employment servicing the resorts). Oil and gas exploration, taking place within kilometers of the park, could pose a potential future threat.

Reefbase adds that the effect of El Nino and coral bleaching due to rises in the ocean’s temperature also threaten the area’s reefs:

 In the El Nino of 1997-98 …In the Seribu Islands northwest of Jakarta, 90 to 95 percent of the coral reef from the reef flat down to 25 m died. Two years later, the Seribu Islands had significant recovery, with live coral cover of 20–30 percent in 2000.

 Yuniar Ardianti and Asti Nurhidayati.

During my five day visit to Seribu, I would be accompanied not only by Yuniar, but also by Asti Nurhidayati (Yuniar’s mentor and Pride Program manager), as well as with Cohort Director, Eleanor Carter; and Rare’s new Vice President for Indonesia (Taufiq Alimi). We were to see first-hand some of the threats mentioned and able to spend time with the fishers themselves. By ferry, hired speedboat, park patrol vessel and even raft (!) we covered the islands from the far south to the very north – a distance of about 150 kms.

As with Mona and Valend, (cohort peers), Yuniar is several weeks behind schedule in the actual production and distribution of materials to promote the desired behavior change in her target audience and to rally them to the cause. Nevertheless, she has made real progress in their design. Over the course of the next several months Yuniar has billboards, posters, songs, sermon sheets and community visits planned. She has already drafted much of this collateral. I was particularly impressed at her draft “sermon” based upon texts in the Holy Quran. These would be used by Imams in the run up to the month of Ramadan.

We had the pleasure of accompanying Yuniar to several focus group meetings where she brought together fishers to review her slogan and poster drafts. Over several hours these groups provided fantastic input, which should really help ensure that the posters are relevant, easily comprehended and align with the stage of behavior change that the audience is at. While in Seribu a visit was made to a remote patrol post, where we heard first-hand the challenges facing those tasked with helping to enforce the rules and regulations (a lack of patrol vessels to cover the large area under their jurisdiction, limited supplies of fuel, limited communications and support). We also met with members of local communities who were committed to helping the official patrol officers and saw some of the recent reports of incursions.

A final highlight was seeing the mangrove re-forestation efforts being made, some of the best I have seen in my travels. I left amazed that so close to Jakarta are little fragments of Paradise lost in time….

Follow Rare on Twitter.

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Note: This is Rare’s Senior Vice President of Global Programs Paul Butler’s fourth blog post in a series about his recent trip to the Philippines and Indonesia to monitor Rare’s conservation work in the field. You can find his first post here, his second post here and his third post here.

While much of my Indonesia trip was spent visiting the islands, in discussions with Rare staff and our fellows, as well as meeting our partner agencies, we did get a wonderful opportunity to see some of the pristine islands that make up the Raja Ampat archipelago. We also got to see some of the weird and wonderful wildlife that call the island’s “home.” Since I do not swim and therefore don’t snorkel and dive, (I know… sad for someone who has spent half his life in the Caribbean) I could only wonder at the magnificent reefs and marine biodiversity that I caught tantalizing glimpses of as our boat glided over them..

According to Matador, Indonesia ranks No. 1 as a dive destination and their website specifically names Raja Ampat as one of “the world’s best live-aboard destinations.”

Despite not seeing the fish and corals except by hanging over the side of my boat, I was thrilled to see several other species including the spotted cuscus, which I saw on my birthday – a pretty unique “present” and one that I will cherish. The cuscus is a type of opossum and a member of the Phalanger family. Below is a photo I took of one.

Other highlights included seeing the Bird of Paradise (too distant to photograph). It hung out in the trees to the rear of where we are staying. Another highlight was the Sulphur-crested Cockatoos that flew overhead most mornings.

As you can see from video above, some of the areas wildlife literally came to us!

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After spending a very pleasant week with Mona, Rare’s Dampier Strait Rare Conservation Fellow, my attention shifted to a second site within the Raja Ampat archipelago, Ayau Asia, where we helped another Rare Conservation Fellow refine his campaign materials.

We had found that Mona’s campaign was a few weeks behind schedule but that she was making steady progress both in her campaign (many materials were in the final stages of design) and in engaging communities in patrolling and other aspects of her barrier removal strategy. I was keen to see where Valend Burdam, our Ayau-Asia fellow, was with his campaign. There was some concern that he might be even further behind as there had been some communication issues. This is hardly surprising considering Valend lives and works in one of the most remote sites in which Rare has ever worked.

Encompassing two large atolls and fourteen coral cay islands, Ayau Asia lies in the far northeast of Bird’s Head Seascape where Indonesia’s territory borders that of Palau, a country that has also hosted many Pride campaigns including, Republic of Palau, Palau, Ngerukewid Islands Wildlife Preserve. The Ayau-Asia marine protected area (MPA) covers 101,440 hectares, and was established in December 2006 when five villages with tenurial rights over the islands and reefs endorsed them to be an MPA. The MPA was formally recognized by the Raja Ampat Bupati, the head of district and Indonesian Minister of Fisheries and Marine Affairs in 2007.

Valend is an employee of Conservation International where he serves as the Ayau MPA Conservation Campaign Coordinator. Sadly we were unable to join him at his site because of adverse sea conditions that prevented our boat from reaching his isolated archipelago. But (thankfully?) he too had been stuck in Sorong where he was meeting his supervisors, so he was able to meet with us in Waisai.

While camped out in CI’s field station, it was great to have Mona and Valend together, and we were thrilled when their respective supervisors joined us, as well as some of his community members who were also trying to get back to Ayau. We were equally thrilled to find that Valend was not as far behind in his campaign as we had feared. It had simply been impossible for him to get samples of his work uploaded to RarePlanet due to limited internet connectivity. To get an impression of his island see the photo below taken by Yayat Afianto, who works as Rare’s Pride Program manager overseeing and mentoring Valend’s campaign.

Valend has began drafting various pieces of campaign collateral and thankfully he had brought his computer with him, so we were able to review them. He had crafted a campaign logo, slogan, poster and begun work on a campaign song that would be recorded and broadcasted across the archipelago. Like Mona his campaign was striving to establish and/or strengthen no-take zones, improve boundary marking, reduce incursions and encourage community patrols to enhance enforcement efforts.

Valend noted that there are currently seven no-take zones  within the Ayau-Asia MPA. He thought that five of these were reasonably well protected, but that two areas were not. This was in part due to the fact that they were poorly defined and comparatively new.

It was interesting to hear that younger community members (fishers) seemed more willing than their parents to adopt the concept of no-take zones. It was also interesting to hear from a community members just how dramatically fish catches have declined. Working as a former grouper trader in Sorong, a fisher noted that in the 1990’s he could purchase 10-20 tons of fish in one load, now it was difficult to purchase 1-2 tons.

The Ayau and Asia atoll systems are home to one of the last remaining known grouper spawning aggregation sites (SPAGS) in Raja Ampat, making the site critical for sustained fishing throughout the region. The MPA and associated no-take zones were established in part to ensure protection of these “SPAGS.”

During our days together, Valend worked with Yayat and the team to review those materials currently being designed and to discuss other material such as billboards and sermon sheets that were still in the early stages of planning. Valend believes it to be critical to involve the church as these community leaders command a great deal of respect. Indeed, having the no-take zones “validated” by the Church might help them command more respect.

We were working with Valend on his campaign song. It already sounds great. Below is an early version of it.

If the above embedded video does not display, click here to view it.

We also worked with Valend on his logo and poster. Each of these then had a first round of focus group testing with community members.

Working on the song was a definite highlight. The three verses help the audience to learn about the value and threats to the no-take zones, to feel a sense of ownership over them, and to understand what they can do to help. The chorus reinforces the call to action and embeds the campaign slogan, “Take some, keep some for the future, for our child and grandchild’s future, for the bright future of Ayau.”

It’s amazing what a talented fellow, a guitar and a simple drum can produce in a few hours. Once Valend gets back to his island, he will further test and refine the song as he plays it for his primary target audience, Ayau fishers. It will then be professionally recorded in Sorong and aired throughout Ayau Asia.

Valend is also planning to “blitz” the area with campaign materials (posters, billboards sermon sheets etc.) in August and September while simultaneously working on planting mooring buoys to better define marine protected area/no-take zone boundaries.

If the above embedded video does not display, click here to view it.

It was great to watch Rare’s staff working hand in hand with our fellows, while staying in one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Sadly my time in Raja Ampat was limited and it was soon time to move on to a third site in Seribu…

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Rare Conservation Fellow Mona with a poster that educates community members and fishers on how allowing fish to reach maturity results in a lot more fish.

Located in north-west Papua, Indonesia, the Bird’s Head Seascape (so-called because of its shape) sits at the epicenter of perhaps the most biodiverse marine environment on the planet – the Coral Triangle.

This is where I stayed on my monitoring trip. Such a beautiful and biodiverse place. If the above embedded video does not display, click here to view it.

Covering an area of more than 180,000 square kilometers (stretching from Cenderawasih Bay in its eastern reaches to the Raja Ampat archipelago in the west and the FakFak-Kaimana coastline to the south), this seascape is believed to have the highest coral reef biodiversity recorded for an area of its size anywhere in the world. The region known as “The Four Kings” or Raja Ampat is often cited as the “crown jewel” within in the Bird’s Head Seascape. The Bird’s Head Seascape is home to 1,606 species of fish, of which 1,397 can be found in Raja Ampat. The wider seascape is also home to:

• 35 species of endemic reef fish
• 603 species of hard coral
• 75 percent of all known coral species in the world
• 10 times the number of hard coral species found in the entire Caribbean
• 13 species of Marine mammals
• 5 species of endangered sea turtles

Because of its biodiversity, in May 2007, the Raja Ampat government declared a network of seven marine protected areas that cover some 900,000 hectares and or approximately 45 percent of Raja Ampat’s coral reefs and mangroves.

A map of these protected areas.

Lying closest to the “mainland’s” provincial city of Sorong, is KKLD Selat Dampier also known as the Dampier Strait MPA. Comprising some 302,000 ha, it is the second largest of the seven areas declared in 2007. It is also the site of one of Rare’s Indonesia sustainable fishing Pride campaigns and the destination of my June site support visit. Our campaign there is being run by a dynamic young employee of Conservation International, Rosita “Mona” Tariola.

Mona is not new to community outreach and environmental education. Prior to taking up the challenge of being a Rare Conservation Fellow, she worked on the MV Kalabia — a 34-meter former tuna long-lining vessel that is now jointly operated by Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy as a mobile “floating classroom.” Launched in 2008, the Kalabia travels around the Raja Ampat archipelago visiting villages and engaging children whom are brought aboard in small groups and introduced to the marine ecosystems that are their shared home.

Until recently, Raja Ampat’s isolation and low population density played a large part in keeping its reefs healthy and pristine. However, the region’s rich coastal and marine resources have increasingly made it a target for commercial fisheries and eco-tourism; as well as to more destructive activities including logging, nickel mining and oil exploration.

My trip to Dampier Strait begun after a lengthy flight from London to Makassar in Sulawesi via Singapore and then on to Sorong in West Papua, followed by a a four-hour ferry journey to the island of Waigeo – the largest of Raja Ampat’s main islands, made famous in the mid 1800’s by Russel Wallace who visited it in search for the Birds of Paradise.

Chatting with Mona about the work she has been doing. If the above embedded video does not display, click here to view it.

I was accompanied on my trip by Mona, as well as several Rare staffers. We stayed in Conservation International’s field station in Waiwo, near Waisai. Nestled in dense forest and lying adjacent to a pristine white sand beach, we shared our “home” with monitor lizards, cuscus and bird of paradise.

Our time with Mona was spent discussing the progress she has made with her campaign in the four months since she completed her project plan and left the second university phase hosted by Rare at the Bogor Agricultural Institute in Java. We were delighted to find that Mona has indeed made steady progress with both her Pride campaign — which is building an enabling environment for behaviour change to take place — and with improving the enforcement of the Dampier Strait MPA. Mona’s campaign goals include increasing community awareness as to the benefits of marine protected areas and no-take zones, as well as the threats they currently face.

She is targeting both fishers and the wider community striving to reducing incursions into the no-take zones and to increase reporting of infractions. Simultaneously, she is working with the local government and other key stakeholders to improve enforcement and to involve the community in patrolling four no-take zones in all of the Dampier Strait marine protected area.

Mona reported that she has made good progress on the latter. Community and Patrol team training has been completed and community members are now actively engaged in patrolling the marine protected area. Each week villages from around the Dampier Strait area send four community members to each of the three patrol posts. These individuals spent a week learning about the benefits of the marine protected area and accompanying the patrol team on their surveillance/enforcement trips. After a week, community members return to their village and a new four-man team is sent to the patrol post.  To date 250 community members have participated. When offenders are found they are either given a warning (first offense) or have their nets confiscated. Repeat offenders are reported to the head of district and sent for trial.

Mona and her colleagues are already seeing some success. I wanted to see this for myself, so I accompanied Mona and the other team members to visit one of the patrol stations in Senapan Island that responsible for patrolling no-take zone on Salawati. We talked to the patrol team and community members, and I was impressed at their understanding of the need for protecting the ecosystem upon which they rely. They were clearly very proud of the recent apprehension of 12 boats that were illegally fishing. Mona hopes that in the months to come the local government will assign an armed policeman to every post to further strengthen enforcement efforts.

We reviewed the plethora of “marketing” materials that Mona has planned to increase knowledge amongst her key audiences as to the benefit and need to protect the area’s marine protected area, as well as to foster the supportive attitudes required to change social norms that will drive behavior change – measured by changes in rates of incursion into the no-take zones and reporting, as well as more directly by threat reduction and increased coral coverage and fish biomass. Mona plans a slew of materials ranging from caps for the community patrol officers to fact sheets, posters, songs and school visits.

Her flagship species, the grouper, will feature prominently. The grouper is an important food fish for the communities that live in and around Dampier Strait. The species relies on a healthy reef and if the campaign is successful its numbers should increase.

There were many highlights to this leg of my trip, from seeing my first Bird of Paradise, to spending time talking to fishers and the community patrol team. We were also privileged to witness the launch of a new no-take zones (also facilitated by Conservation International) in the neighboring area of Mayalibit Gulf (Teluk Mayalibit) surely one of the most beautiful places on Earth. This site has applied to be part of our next Indonesian cohort.

Celebrating the launch of the new no-take zone.

Working with Mona was a joy. She was very receptive to our suggestions with respect of improving the design of her campaign materials and on other aspects of her campaign.

Finally, the team was kind enough to help me celebrate my 55^th birthday. To be in Raja Ampat as I reach that ripe old age – what a joy!

What a way and place to celebrate a birthday!

Related posts:

1. Prince Albert II of Monaco visits marine protected area in Raja Ampat, Indonesia Note: This blog post originated on RarePlanet, our online community...
2. Seeing Pride in the Hambongan sea bank with a marine protected area This post originated on RarePlanet, our community inspiring conservation. It...
3. What is a Marine Protected Area? (video) If the above embedded video does not display, click here to view...
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Note: This is Rare’s Senior Vice President of Global Programs Paul Butler’s first blog post in a series about his recent trip to Indonesia to monitor Rare’s conservation work in the field.

Every Rare Conservation Fellow can expect to be visited at least twice during their field implementation phase by Rare staff. These visits afford both parties an opportunity to meet face to face in the field. It is a time to check in, a time to review campaign materials, monitor the roll out of the campaign’s barrier removal and monitoring strategies and to meet with key stakeholders.

These visits are insightful in that they help ground true progress being made in a campaign’s theory of change and to share successes and challenges. Since we work in some of the most beautiful, biodiverse and remote places on the planet they are always times of new experiences and excitement.

Support visits are usually conducted by the Pride Program Manager (a full-time member of Rare’s regional staff) that has been assigned to mentor the fellow. Visits typically last a week and take place fairly early on in the implementation phase to help with material development and barrier removal roll out, and then there is a second visit in the last four months of the campaign to check in on progress and to prepare the fellow for their return for the final university phase. The second visit is also a time for Rare staff to check in with the campaign’s lead agency to discuss follow up and support required once the fellow has graduated.

While every support visit is different, there are some commonalities. While much of the time is spent working with the fellow, time is always taken to meet with our other partners in the field — to provide support and advice and to make sure that the campaign is on track and meeting their needs. Wherever feasible, visits are made to the towns and villages where the campaign is actually taking place, and members of the target audience are met and interviewed to see whether campaign messages are reaching the right people, through the right channels and whether messages are being understood, retained and acted upon. Considerable time is spent reviewing materials.

This might mean advising on the text for a poster, helping to build a puppet show, crafting slogans, working with musicians to create songs or pastors to produce sermons. Similarly, it might mean accompanying the fellow to community meetings where collateral is tested in focus group discussions or to vendors to discuss material production and distribution.

Throughout much of June and early July I was thrilled to accompany several of Rare’s staff on support visits. First accompanying our Indonesian Pride Program Manager, Yayat Afianto, to Indonesia’s remote but critically important province of West Papua, and then with his colleague Asti Nurhidayati to a collection of islands close to Indonesia’s capital city of Jakarta. I was joined for part of my trip by our Program Director for Indonesia, Eleanor Carter and our new VP for Indonesia, Taufiq Alimi.

Paul and Yayat grabbing a meal with Rare Conservation Fellow Rosita Tariola.

The reason for my accompanying the team was to get a feel for our campaigns in the field, to learn about the progress and challenges being faced, and to offer technical support to our teams. In short to provide support for our support visits.

While I have had the pleasure of visiting Indonesia many times, I had not visited Raja Ampat (in West Papua) — home to several of our campaigns including two that I would visit:

1. The Dampier Strait campaign being conducted by fellow, Rosita (Mona) Tariola, from Conservation International.
2. The Ayau Asia campaign being conducted by fellow, Valend Burdam, from Conservation International.

Both of these campaigns are located in the Bird’s Head Seascape area of West Papua. According to Mark Erdmann, Conservation International’s Senior Advisor, Marine Science:

The Bird’s Head Seascape sits at the epicenter of the so-called Coral Triangle region. It is located in northwest Papua, Indonesia, stretching from Teluk Cenderawasih in its eastern reaches to the Raja Ampat archipelago in the west and the FakFak-Kaimana coastline to the south. Covering a combined area of over 180,000 km² and more than 2500 islands and submerged reefs, the Seascape is home to over 1,200 species of coral reef fishes and nearly 600 species of scleractinian hard coral (approximately 75 percent of the world’s total)—the highest coral reef biodiversity recorded for an area of this size anywhere in the world.

The two campaigns that I visited in the area are shown on the map attached (PDF).

A third campaign was later visited, located in a region known as the Thousand Islands. In reality, there are some 105 islands stretching from Jakarta Bay 45 kilometers north into the Java sea. This is the location of Rare’s Seribu Campaign, and is being implemented by Yuniar Ardianti, an employee of the Kepulauan Seribu National Park, DKI Jakarta.

Writing on Seribu, the World Resources Institute, noted the important of the ecosystem:

The ecosystem is includes 193 coral species, 174 reef fish species, and important hawksbill turtle nesting sites. Coral reefs, through fishing, tourism, and aquaculture, play a vital role in the region’s economy. While proximity to the capital city brings economic benefits to the islands, it can also create ecological problems. Since the 1970s this valuable ecosystem has been threatened by destructive fishing methods such as blast and poison fishing and trawling, as well as pollution from solid waste, heavy metal, oil, and sediment. In addition, bleaching events in 1983 and 1998 resulted in 50 to 90 percent coral mortality.”

My month-long trip to these three sites would see me meeting wonderful, dedicated fellows, writing songs, attending the launch of a new marine protected area, sharing my accommodation with a six foot monitor lizard, being introduced to Bird of Paradise and Cuscus and battling mountainous seas in boats that ranged in size from ferries to an oil drum raft, as well as being taken to hospital to be tested for Malaria, Dengue and typhoid. It’s all in a day’s work at Rare.

Check back later this week for more on my adventures in conservation.

Related posts:

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Reading about our campaigns on RarePlanet, or in some of our promotional literature, a reader might think that project success relies solely on our campaign managers — those incredible individuals that Rare trains, mentors and monitors as their work in their communities to promote behavior change. Certainly it is true that our campaigns go nowhere without our campaign managers, but an equally vital ingredient in the successful campaign mix is the quality and commitment of our implementing partners.

A question that I am frequently asked is “how does Rare choose where, and with whom, to work?” With Rare’s shift to running thematic cohorts, the process has changed from being somewhat ad hoc, to being more and more sophisticated. We begin with the selection of our cohort themes.

A cohort is a cluster of campaigns — usually about 12 — around a common geography, threat, or solution. So a thematic cohort might be a group of campaigns focusing on fuelwood extraction and the promotion of fuel efficient stoves; or (as is the case in the Andes) on deforestation of upper watersheds and the payment of compensation through reciprocal agreements. Our various regions, working with Rare’s director of cohort development, choose these themes in part based upon whether there is an exemplary “bright spot” that our Pride campaigns can replicate.

A bright spot is a real-world success story — a proven solution to a threat. For example, Rare is currently considering an “ApeScapes” cohort in Francophone Africa, where we can help reduce the bushmeat, poaching, and illegal trafficking threats to all of the great ape species there: gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos. In our solutions search, we identified two bright spots in Democratic Republic of Congo — the Tayna Gorilla Reserve in North Kivu Province and the Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve in Equateur Province – where local NGOs have developed a cutting-edge innovation in community conservation.

Using gorillas and bonobos as flagship species, each has demonstrated success in community management of officially recognized nature reserves through a co-management contract between their customary (traditional) powers (represented by their local NGO) and the DRC National wildlife agency. They do their own protection patrols. They provide their own educational outreach program.

Each reserve is even associated with its own community-owned and managed conservation university. Each is planning ecotourism programs, has several active scientific teams, and is beginning a program to become self-financed through carbon credit projects (called REDD+ — reduced emissions through deforestation and degradation). We at Rare believe that a success like this can be replicated to many other ApeScape sites and amplified and accelerated by the addition of Rare’s social marketing and theory of change methodologies.

Once a Bright spot has been found and a cohort theme approved, Rare proactively looks for sites in which the threat is prevalent and the solution might be feasible. We do this by reaching out to our partners such as The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, Birdlife International, and the Wildlife Conservation Society, as well as local NGO’s and Government agencies. Rare hosts social marketing workshops in which we bring together prospective local partners who have applied to the Pride program, as well as bright spot experts and Rare staff.

Over the course of several days partners are asked to consider whether a Pride campaign and the bright spot solution proposed might be an effective conservation strategy at their own site. Participants create cohort-level and site theories of change and discuss resource allocations. Applicant organizations are asked to nominate a member of their staff whom they will commit to serving full time as their campaign manager for a minimum of two years.

The application process involves several steps, including the submission of a 12+ page application form, and a suite of calls with the implementing partner organization and the nominee. In parallel, Rare’s regional and fundraising staff and its cohort director work to put in place the other necessary pre-requisites for cohort launch, including the funding we need, and the other partners (experts in monitoring and the thematic [barrier removal] solution).

Applicants are screened against a number of criteria including implementing partner capacity and commitment, site suitability, the feasibility, and impact of the solution at that site, as well as the appropriateness and capability of the nominated Campaign Manager. Our implementing partners must commit to paying their campaign manager and to providing travel for the campaign manager to and from the campaign site, as well as local office costs.

Once the resources are in place and 12 high quality sites have been identified, Rare’s leadership team approves the cohort for launch. Campaign agreements are signed with our local partners and campaign managers prepare for the first university phase of the campaign. Comprising nine weeks at one of our four local university nodes, campaign managers are taught project planning and management, quantitative and qualitative research, and key social marketing concepts among other things.

While our focus is on the campaign managers we try to engage our implementing partners too. Where feasible, implementing partner directors are invited to the university to see how their staff are progressing, and to be introduced to some of the concepts and tools that we teach. Typically implementing partner personnel are invited to the barrier removal workshop component of the course, as well as to the second and final university phases. Sometimes cost and distance preclude this, but Rare strongly believes that implementing partner participation and engagement is just as vital as that of our campaign managers.

So, you might be asking, what has all of this got to do with being “helpless” or with “Heathrow” (London, and the world’s busiest airport)? Well, I was due to fly to Kunming, China on Dec. 19th to participate in a workshop that is bringing together the campaign managers and implementing partner personnel. It is week eight in the first university phase of our China wetland cohort.

Campaign managers have been taught many aspects of project planning and are beginning to really dig into precisely how, and what, their individual campaigns will promote in terms of behavior change. Each campaign is promoting a co-management strategy to align nature reserve agencies with local resource users in order to reduce over-fishing. Reserves intend to offer local communities legal rights to fish in the places and times of year that least interfere with the nesting of endangered migratory birds which depend on fish stocks for food. In exchange for fishing rights, community members will help reserve staff patrol and enforce regulations.

Since these Pride campaigns have broad implications for implementing partners’ overall management strategies, it is essential to get the support and engagement of their directors. The workshop in Kunming was a critical opportunity to incorporate directors’ input in, and secure their support for, the Pride strategy. I had not yet met either the campaign managers nor their directors, despite having been tangentially involved in the cohort’s overall development. I was excited to meet them, as well as see Rare’s tremendous staff headed up by Shiyang Li, director of Pride training program in China.

I was also excited to be seeing Sean Grundy again. Sean was a dynamic member of my Global Programs team in Arlington, Va., who moved across to work with Shiyang earlier in the year. I had planned to travel to China via Bangkok on Thai airways. A quick trip to participate in the workshop, to present several sessions and to share some face-time with my colleagues.

A thin covering of snow lay on the ground on the morning of my trip. Perhaps an inch or two, right in time for the Christmas season. All very festive. Concerned that it might make travel on the motorway difficult, I arranged for a taxi at 4.30 a.m., giving me plenty of time to travel to the airport (typically 1.5 hours) to catch a 11.50 a.m. Thai Air flight.

We made it to the airport with no delays. The Thai desk had not even opened — still better to be early than late. Having checked in, had breakfast and caught up on some work, I duly made my way to the departure gate. A glimpse out of the window showed our plane covered in a light dusting of snow (the picture at the top of this post).

At precisely 11.50 am we were ushered onto our flight. No sooner had we settled into our seats, than the pilot was on the loud speaker telling us that there would be a delay. As I was soon to find out this announcement would be made with monotonous frequency over the next eight or so hours!

Yes, we sat on the tarmac, ready to go until finally, at around 7:00 p.m., we were told to disembark. The flight would not take off! Neither apparently were there any hotels, local transportation or places for us to sleep. Heathrow and the south of England were firmly closed.

Disembarking and passing back into the terminal, we found chaos. No one was coming or going anywhere. People were settling in for the night. Hours passed until around 1:00 a.m., with temperatures in the terminal falling, we were handed silver emergency blankets.

About a micron thin, these might keep out the cold, but they certainly did not provide any comfort on the hard terminal floor. Together with half of humanity, we curled up and tried to sleep. I lay awake thinking of my friends in China and the fact that I would miss the workshop that I had been so much looking forward to.

Representatives of Thai airways seem to have melted away, we were left to fend for ourselves. They said they had no idea if or when the plane would take off, it might be days (in fact as I write this Heathrow remains all but closed!).

As night turned to day, my daughter managed to contact my taxi company (Allport Cars – I would recommend them to anyone) and its owner, Barry, offered to try to battle the horrendous roads to come get me. Hours later, cold, miserable and feeling rather sorry for myself, I was duly rescued from Heathrow and returned to my home in Kent.

Still, for all my pain and suffering, I had a great idea for a new English-language cohort theme — Climate change and the provision of snow ploughs at Heathrow airport!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

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For those of you that like acronyms, here is another, courtesy of Rare – The BROP, or Barrier Removal Operation Plan for short.

“Barrier Removal” plays a central role in Rare’s Theory of Change — K+A+IC+BR >BC>TR>CR.  Put another way, if we inform resource users about the environmental threats their activities cause, the implications of these to their own well being and of alternative behaviors that might be available (K); and if we foster positive attitudes towards adopting these new behaviors (A); as well as create conversations in the broader community that shift social norms to encourage and support them (IC); and if we also proactively remove any impediments to adopting these new behaviors (BR) then resource users are more likely to change, thus reducing the threat (TR) and conserving biodiversity (CR).

Barrier Removal may require the provision of technical assistance (such as teaching resource users how to create fire breaks or use controlled burns); alternatively it may involve distributing new, more resource friendly technologies, (such as fuel efficient stoves, solar ovens); or it might involve some kind of benefit exchange, (such as reciprocal agreements where, in return for protecting watershed forests, a farmer receives financial or other compensation provided by down-stream water users). Without the provision of socially acceptable, economically viable and easily adoptable barrier removal strategies, behavior change is unlikely to occur.

I have just spent the past week in Manado in northern Sulawesi with Rare’s Indonesia team and the eleven campaign managers we are partnering with in our “Bogor 4″ cohort. Nine of these campaigns are focusing on over-fishing within the Indonesian archipelago, while the 10th campaign hails from East Timor, a newly independent country that was formally part of Indonesia.

Collectively these sites represent some of the planet’s most important reef ecosystems and form part of the “Coral Triangle” – a six million square kilometer ecosystem that spans parts of the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, East Timor, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. This area is home to 76 percent of the world’s coral species and 37 percent of coral reef fish, as well as supporting the livelihoods of more than 100 million people.

Rare’s staff, our campaign managers, and their supervisors had gathered in Manado for three days of discussions around which strategies (or combination of strategies) might be best deployed to begin to change the behaviors of local fishers who are decimating fish stocks through over fishing and destructive fishing. Destructive fishing includes the use of dynamite and cyanide, as well as the use of nets with mesh sizes too small to allow juvenile fish the opportunity to escape.  The meeting also brought together Indonesian experts in no-take zones, community agreements, and enforcement.

Clearly a key driver in over-fishing is the need for local fishers to earn a living and to provide for the community’s protein needs. Surveys conducted by our campaign managers showed that fishers are aware of declining stocks and understand that unless stocks are conserved eventually there will be no fish and their livelihoods will be decimated. What they are less sure of is what they can do to help.

A compounding issue is what is known as the tragedy of the commons, as well as a lack of enforcement (either by the State or by the communities themselves). The tragedy of thec ommons “is a dilemma arising from the situation in which multiple individuals, acting independently, and solely and rationally consulting their own self-interest, will ultimately deplete a shared limited resource even when it is clear that it is not in anyone’s long-term interest for this to happen.”

Here is more info pertaining to how the tragedy of the commons specifically affects fisheries.

In this marine thematic cohort the key barrier removal strategy has already been pre-agreed during planning and recruitment and is the establishment and/or better management of existing no-take (replenishment) zones. These are  areas of reef that communities agree to set aside and zealously protect. As fish breed in these areas, their young spill out into other areas of the reef re-populating and replenishing stock so that fishers can continue to fish, safe in the knowledge that they are conserving key breeding grounds and will have a long term sustainable supply of fish and other marine product species.

Key to the success of these replenishment areas is that everyone in a community agrees to their establishment and to leave them be; as well as their demarcation and enforcement.  Enforcing them not only against wayward community members who disrespect them, but also against outsiders. Rare’s Pride campaign will be used to convey the benefits of these areas and to shift local attitudes to be more positive about their establishment, management and protection. Among other things, Rare and its partners will help remove barriers by establishing and equipping community patrols to protect against the tragedy of the commons, create community agreements around both the physical location of the zones and their establishment, and help in the demarcation of them.

Hari Kushardanto, Rare’s Director of Training for its Indonesia Program was helping to evaluate potential strategies.

Under the guidance of Hari and Eleanor Carter, Rare’s Indonesia Cohort Director, the three days were packed with lectures, activities, and field trips. I was excited to see how closely our campaign managers worked with their supervisors to formulate and prioritize strategies, as well as to witness how well Hari and his team facilitated the various sessions. Each campaign manager presented on their sites and on the results chains (Theory of Change) that they are developing as part of their campaign planning process.

I felt really proud of them; planning a Pride campaign takes a great deal of hard work. Campaign managers spend nine weeks at one of our four university nodes learning the theory and then have to put it to effect at their sites. Seeing them present and watching them at the workshop was a privilege.

On Monday, Nov. 29, Ir. Mangaraja Gunung Nababan presented a session on the range of centrally managed / existing surveillance and enforcement systems currently used in Indonesia’s Marine Protected Areass / NTZs (such as floating ranger stations, centrally managed systems) and the challenges of these systems and lack of linkages with the local population. This was complemented by a second session given by Dr. Handoko Susanto on community surveillance methods, approaches and systems.

Participants then looked at their own sites and reviewed what challenges they faced with respect of enforcing their no-take zones and what they might require in terms of training and resources to overcome these. They practiced using Rare’s BROP template to set barrier removal objectives, plot activities, timelines, and RACI charts.

On the Tuesday, Nov. 30 three more lecture sessions were held with Prof. Laurentius T.X. Lalamentik describing the use of mooring buoys and Muhammed Khazali discussing the range of formal Marine Protected Area regulations and zoning laws in Indonesia. These sessions were followed by Khaerul Anwar who spoke about less formal systems, and community agreements such as village level regulations.

The key goal for these latter two presentations was to get participants thinking about ways to ensure their community agreements about NTZs will fit into the overarching policy and regulation framework at their sites. This is particularly important in Indonesia, where regulatory frameworks are complex, and without vertical alignment through the bureaucracy community agreements risk being unsupported or being challenged.

Participants spent the  final day in the Bunaken National Park, the site of one of our campaigns, where they learned about the community agreements already in place at the site and the community surveillance operations that are underway there – experiences, challenges and opportunities from both the community and Park rangers perspective. The North Sulawesi Tourist Board describes this spectacular Park:

“The Bunaken National Marine Park was formally established in 1991 and is among the first of Indonesia’s growing system of marine parks. The park covers a total surface area of 89,065 hectares, 97 percent of which is overlain by sparkling clear, warm tropical water. The remaining 3 percent of the park is terrestrial, including the five islands of Bunaken, Manado Tua, Mantehage, Nain and Siladen.

Although each of these islands has a special character, it is the aquatic ecosystem that attracts most naturalists. The waters of Bunaken National Marine Park are extremely deep (1566 m in Manado Bay), clear (up to 35-40 m visibility), refreshing in temperature (27-29 C), and harbor some of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world.”

Sadly, because of a need to attend a meeting in Washington, I missed the opportunity to visit the park, but I’m delighted I got to see our campaign managers at work, to meet their supervisors, and to see our own Bogor team in action. I was also delighted to spend time with our Vice President for Indonesia Nigel Sizer and to bid him farewell. Sadly, he will be leaving Rare early next year to take up an exciting new position working on global forest policy.

Back in the UK now, housebound by snow, Indonesia seems very far away. The warmth of its sun matched by the warmth of its people. How I wish I was back. Congratulations to all the workshop participants and thank you for welcoming me.

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