Marine Protected Area Of Indonesia Case Study

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Top-down vs Community-Based Management Approach: Finding The Most Suitable Implementation for Marine Protected Area in Indonesia

INTRODUCTION
Marine protected area is an essential instruments in marine biodiversity conservation. It has been applied by various institution and nation throughout the world to encounter several issue from fish stock collapse to habitat degradation (IEEP and NRDC, 2008). Marine protected area can act as a residence for certain species, habitat, and ecosystem as well as cultural heritage which cannot survive in other human intervened area. It can also act as the standard of how human should deal with nature.
Indonesia is one of the countries that have highest marine biodiversity in the world. With more than 2 million km2 of the sea coverage, the country have a large benefit from the marine natural resources. For a very long time, the utilization of natural resources in the sea, especially in the coastal area, has provide the needs of many local communities as well as people in a major cities throughout this country (MacAndrews, 1998). On the other hand, Indonesia is also suffer from several environmental threats such as marine habitat loss, coral reef degradation, and fish stock collapse as a consequences of several human activities such as over-exploitation, illegal fishing, and pollution (Sukardjo, 2002). For these reasons, marine protected areas in Indonesia has become an important role for protecting, preserving, and reducing the pressure to the natural biodiversity and cultural heritage. Nowadays, there are 296 marine protected areas covered in about 62,600 km2 which include Marine National Park, Marine Nature Tourism Park, Marine Sanctuary, Regional Marine Conservation Area, Strict Marine Reserve...

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...urce users in or surrounding area is actively involved and participated in decision-making and managing their natural resources in sustainable ways and local wisdom controls. They already have knowledge and experiences about their environment and surrounding much better than the government. The awareness to protect their ecosystem and maintain the sustainability of the natural resources might came from their own experiences as well as cultural wisdom which are very familiar for them for several generations. However, sometime this awareness could change for some reasons. There are other aspect such as socio-political and economical aspect that could turn the communities and resources users to terminate the establishment of marine protected area. A better approach and regulation might necessary to keep maintain the awareness and obedience of the related stakeholders.

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