Sustainable financing strategy

The regional government is now working with the NGO and philanthropic communities to transition from an international NGO-driven and donor-funded initiative, to one that is effectively managed entirely by local institutions and that is sustainably financed. Once successful, it will be Indonesia’s first fully sustainably financed MPA network and will serve as a model throughout the country and region. The financial sustainability of the MPA network will be achieved through diversified revenue sources including government allocations, visitor fees and other local financing mechanisms, local fundraising, and a dedicated conservation trust fund. The BHS coalition developed a comprehensive cost model and business plan that projects seascape costs, revenues, and gaps under the “steady state” management system expected to be in place by 2017. Over 70% of local costs are already secured through local sources, with the largest contributor being the government itself. While these local commitments are unprecedented, additional investment is needed to ensure a fully sustainably resourced seascape. The coalition is working with the provincial government to develop a dedicated trust fund, the Blue Abadi Fund, to fill the gap.

  • Conservation Finance Expertise
  • Governmental support and commitment

Long-term is not forever. Sustainable financing is vital for the long-term success of any conservation initiative, particularly at a large scale. At the start of the decade-long commitment to West Papua, the team created a plan to ensure steady transition from an NGO-led and international donor-dependent initiative to one with strong local leadership and ownership.

Implementation
Local
Subnational
Private sector engagement
Liveaboard Dive Boat. Copyright Conservation International, photo by Sterling Zumbrun.
Liveaboard Dive Boat. Copyright Conservation International, photo by Burt Jones and Maurine Shimlock.
The tourism industry was developed systematically to motivate the government to protect natural capital from over-exploitation and to prioritize more sustainable development pathways. The team works with tourism business owners in implementing ecotourism, including homestays owned by local communities, and championed the creation of a transparent and accountable tourist user fee system, which now generates over $1,000,000 per year in revenues that are directed to marine conservation and community development. CI further supported the local tourism department and association of tour operators to take voluntary and regulatory steps to ensure tourism best practices. These ranged from developing a code of conduct for divers and educational video to installing mooring buoys to facilitating the development of Indonesia’s first comprehensive tourism legislation (now a national model) which caps the number of liveaboards, institutes a licensing system, and provides strict guideline for coastal development. The tourism industry, which has become an increasingly large part of the local economy is now a powerful incentive for maintaining health ecosystems and prioritizing sustainable industries over mining and other extractive industries.
• Existence or significant potential for tourism industry development • Interest and commitment of communities • Support from service provider and government • Legal mechanism to collect user fees
he systematic and controlled development of the tourism industry was a major catalyst for conservation in the Bird’s Head, especially to provoke within the government a change to protect natural capital from over-exploitation and to give precedence to the initiative. After years of dedicated engagement and media attention, there has also been a clear shift in government efforts to prioritize tourism as one of the main economic drivers for Papua. The Minister of Mines and Energy has made numerous strong public statements in the media that Raja Ampat is off-limits to mining due to its importance for conservation and tourism. Another shift towards tourism was exemplified in 2012 when the Raja Ampat government passed a local parliamentary regulation banning shark and ray harvesting. This legislation is the first to afford complete protection of sharks and rays in Indonesia and is the first formal sanctuary in the Coral Triangle.
Implementation
Local
Subnational
Bird's Head Seascape, March 2, 2014: Codes of conduct for divers and dive opera…
Adequate capacity and co-management institutions
Local MPA Leader Kris Thebu. Copyright Conservation International.
MPA Training. Copyright Conservation International.
To build effective local management, the BHS coalition actively sought out and recruited energetic community leaders to take on MPA management roles and then spent the next six years systematically building their capacity to effectively manage their marine resources through targeted training programs and one-on-one mentorship. The BHS team launched a comprehensive MPA Management Capacity Building Program in partnership with the provincial government and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The program was designed to turn local village leaders, local MPA practitioners, and local government officials into highly effective and exemplary MPA managers. The coalition also worked directly with local and national government to develop Indonesia’s first MPA co-management governance system and helped create new government MPA management institutions into which the local community MPA teams could be embedded. These new institutions also required considerable capacity development support as they strengthened their institutional management capacity. Through this investment, the MPA network is now managed locally through and legally recognized partnership between local communities and the local government.
• Strong community commitment • Support from government • Legal framework • Willingness of leaders to take the role as MPA managers • Technical and financial support for targeted trainings and mentoring
Government commitment is key to achieve the necessary framework and thus approval of the MPA co-management system. Implementation needs a government agency in charge, and the legal framework for a board with flexibility and autonomy to manage fixed funding sources and recruit non-civil servants. National and local-level policy and legislation provide the legal basis for the MPA network and the mandate for effective implementation of MPA management plans, zonation systems, and regulations. Overlapping jurisdiction for the management of individual MPAs and the national network plan must be considered early. The commitment to hiring locally and then investing in capacity building is considered critical to the long-term success of the MPA network. The approach demonstrates that community-driven conservation at scale is possible: true bottom-up, community-driven conservation does not have to be limited to small scales and local communities can manage very large scale MPAs effectively.
Implementation
Local
Subnational
BHS MPA Management Capacity Building Program Factsheet
NOAA’s International MPA Management Capacity Building Program
Economic incentives for communities

Local communities of Cagayancillo are com¬pensated for economic losses caused by no-take policies. A share of the conservation fee is channelled into a livelihood fund that provides loans for development.

  • Conservation fees for TRNP are anchored in the TRNP Act
  • Policy in place to provide the local communities with a share in tourism revenues

Provision of economic incentive contributed to trust and confidence building between parties. Hiring local residents as a form of economic incentive multiplies the ambassadors for Tubbataha in the communities. Interpretation of agreements made with local communities could be affected by the political process. New leaders, new perspectives on agreements.

Implementation
Local
Local Community Support
Financing Park Management

Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park (TRNP) is run with financial assistance from a range of sources. Conservation fees paid by visitors are the main source of funding, providing 74% percent of the annual budget. Grants from NGO’s and the private sector make up the other 26%. These funds are deposited in a local trust fund managed by the Tubbataha Protected Area Management Board and used solely for the administration of the Park.

  • Tubbataha’s natural beauty and rich marine biodiversity is a prerequisite for diving tourism
  • Effective enforcement or rules results in the maintenance of its natural beauty
  • Conservation fees, anchored in the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park Act, fund enforcement and other management activities

Tubbataha requires adequate financial and manpower resources in order to maintain effective management. So far, conservation fees, which remained the same for the last 10 years, are the main source of income. A 66% increase in conservation fees in 2017 provided more income for management, resulting in less reliance on external support. As tourism could be an unstable source of funds due to external variables, more diversified sources of financing need to be obtained. The sale of merchandise and widening the network of possible funders are some ways employed for Tubbataha.

Implementation
Local
Locally-based Park Management and Law Enforcement

Local institutions and communities, municipal and national govern¬ment representatives, NGOs, academia, and the private sector are all represented in a locally-based park management and law enforcement body. Law enforcement is ensured through partnerships with the Philippine Navy and Coast Guard and locally recruited park rangers who receive in-depth training and appropriate surveillance equipment. The environmental situation in the park is monitored regularly, while the effectiveness of governance is measured annually using participatory mechanisms.

  • Partnerships provide the support necessary for law enforcement operations. The Philippine Navy and Coast Guard play the biggest role by detailing personnel on rotation duty at the ranger station and supply of technical equipment
  • Locally-based management body, solely dedicated to implementing the park’s management plan and maintaining a presence in the park

Effective law enforcement requires appropriate enforcement capacities and equipment at the level of the MPA management agency. The management of a National Marine Park requires adequate resource use policies to being in place and being enforced including stringent penalties for non-compliance as a disincentive to illegal use. These laws, rules and regulations need to be supported and adhered to by the legitimate resource users and other relevant stakeholders.

Implementation
Monitoring
Local
Information Campaigns

To promote awareness and a general understanding of the global significance of this biodi¬versity hotspot, the developed Act and policies are commu¬nicated to the public through various outreach activities, e.g. through radio plugs and local newspapers.

  • Public outreach activities in local schools and fishing villages enabled by local government and school administration support
  • Contributions of radio stations and local papers through reduced rates

To promote awareness and a general understanding of the global significance of this biodiversity hotspot, the developed Act and policies are communicated to the public through various outreach activities, e.g. through radio plugs and local newspapers.

Inception phase
Implementation
Local
Participatory Development of the Act

A series of multi-stakeholder consultations and workshops to draft and review the Act ensured full stakeholder participation and fostered compliance with regulations. The Internal Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the Act has since been reviewed and updated several times and now includes policies on ecosystem research, tourism and management plan for the buffer zone. It was communicated to the public through outreach activities. Trainings and information campaigns promoted awareness and understanding of the global significance of this biodiversity hotspot.

  • National and international NGOs have provided the initial funds and technical know-how
  • Good understanding of the problems and management options already existed

The TRNP Act institutionalized the representation of a wide sector of society in the policy-making body, the Tubbataha Protected Area Management Board (TPAMB), enabling stakeholders to articulate their concerns and influence rule-making. Tubbataha has demonstrated that with sensitively negotiated stakeholder agreements local communities do not need to bear the burden of no-take protected areas, but rather, can be their main beneficiaries.

Planning phase
Local
Development of ecologically connected co-managed MPA network
Traditional Cermony to declare MPA. Copyright Conservation International.
Joint Patrol Team. Copyright Conservation International, Keith Ellenbogen.
With the MPA network newly declared, the coalition focused on the development of a management system that empowered local communities to actively lead the planning, management, and program implementation of the BHS MPA network. The MPA boundaries as well as the zones within them were based largely on tenure boundaries, rather than administrative ones. To reinforce cultural identity within the MPAs, the Papuan tradition of sasi (seasonal harvest closures) was melded with the modern concept of no-take zones (NTZs) as a way of reinvigorating this important cultural practice. Within each of the MPAs a minimum of 20-30% of all critical habitats are completely closed to exploitation in NTZs to serve as “fish banks”. Areas outside of the NTZs are largely restricted to traditional fishing by local communities and employ sustainable fisheries management practices. The communities and local government were then equipped with the skills and infrastructure necessary to actively manage and enforce their own protected areas. In this way, the MPAs are designed not only to protect critical natural capital, but also explicitly to enhance small-scale local fisheries and to strengthen the tenure rights of Papuan communities.
• Strong community commitment and support • Government commitment, support and willingness • Existing legal framework • Marine tenure in place • Technical and financial support
Use the conservation process as a means to strengthen the rights and culture of local communities. The MPAs were delineated using customary tenure boundaries rather than solely administrative ones. Each of the locally declared MPAs was first pronounced through a local ceremony by local council of traditional leaders. The joint patrols include both community members and police officers, with the community members bringing traditional authority and manpower and the police officers adding an additional level of legal authority and training. The patrols use a system of “rolling” participation in which individuals are appointed by village chiefs to a two-week "tour of duty", after which they are replaced by a fresh team of villagers. In this way, over the course of a year, the majority of adult males in a given village will have dedicated at least two weeks to patrolling their MPA, during which time they invariably develop a stronger sense of understanding and ownership of the MPA.
Implementation
Local
Subnational
V. Agostini, H. Grantham, J. Wilson, S. Mangubhai, C. Rotinsulu, N. Hidayat, A…
Blog Post: Shark Poachers Chased Down by Indonesian Communities + Police
Social and political support and partnership
Students on the Kalabia, a floating marine school in the Bird's Head Seascape. Copyright Conservation International, photo by Keith Lawrence.
BHS Parnters at a Coalition Meeting. Copyright Conservation International.
To build social and political support, CI formed a coalition of partners across the seascape. We actively engaged with 90+ scattered coastal communities to build trust and community support, while exchanging ideas on the sustainable use of natural resources and conservation benefits. Through various innovative communication and education strategies, the team was able to amplify their impact towards community awareness and commitment for marine conservation over a large geographic scale. The team trained community conservation officers for each village and equipped religious leaders with environmental training, enabling them to disseminate conservation messages widely. The team cultivated conservation champions throughout the region, slowly working to shift attitudes toward resource use and conservation. The marine conservation movement extended across the entire Seascape through a wildly popular conservation radio program and a floating classroom that traveled around the region delivering experiential learning. The outreach efforts were even more successful then anticipated, leading to relatively quick action by the local communities and government. Together they established Indonesia’s first MPA network.
• The overall strategy for the BHS worked well in a Melanesian cultural context that values tenure of the sea. • Any seascape initiative requires the lead agency and partners to be committed for engaging for a significant period, to have a long-term strategy and vision. • Significant funding and commitment of a donor to partner long-term to achieve seascape scale success.
Partnership was central to the BHS and allowed conservation to occur on a truly seascape scale. In 2004 Conservation International (CI) forged an unprecedented collaboration with The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and WWF-Indonesia in Papua, launching the Bird’s Head Seascape Initiative. The Partnership has expanded over the years to include over 20 central partners, most of which are local institutions. The integration of community aspirations into MPA network design process, i.e. focusing on enhancing sustainable local fisheries (food security) and the strengthening of traditional resource user rights, culture and tenure, led to rapid declarations of the BHS MPA network.
Inception phase
Local
Subnational
S. Troeng, P. Bryant, G. Dutra, M. Erdmann, G. Farmer, S. Henderson, K. Lawrenc…
The Kalabia Marine Conservation Education Program Factsheet
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