© Background: Tompotika Dive Lodge
Indonesia, known for its stunning marine biodiversity, is home to numerous Marine Protected Areas that play a vital role in preserving its unique underwater ecosystems. Among these, the Banggai MPA network is a shining example of a successful local conservation effort in a biodiversity hotspot. Located in the Banggai archipelago in Central Sulawesi, the MPA network encompasses several conservation areas with the potential to regenerate vibrant coral reef habitats, protect endangered marine species and enhance the livelihood of coastal fisher communities.
The Banggai MPA network is situated in the globally recognised Wallacea region, known for its high biodiversity. It protects extensive coral reefs and diverse marine species including reef fish, mantas, endangered sharks and threatened marine turtles. These MPAs also offer renewed hope for the preservation of the endemic, endangered Banggai cardinalfish, the critically endangered Napoleon fish, and more than 25 species of groupers. These remote islands exhibit unique endemism, with several species found nowhere else on Earth. The MPAs help to support sustainable fishing and the livelihoods of local communities, while providing protection for vulnerable species and degrading habitats.
The Banggai Islands form part of the Coral Triangle, which is often referred to as the “Amazon of the Seas” due to its unparalleled marine biodiversity. The MPAs contribute to their preservation.
This initiative has identified the corals reefs with the best chances of survival, in the face of Global Climate Change. With the expectation that many coral reefs will die by 2050 if the Paris Agreement goals are not met, these reefs are believed to be the most resilient.
Local communities, government agencies, and non-governmental organisations collaborate to manage and protect the Banggai MPA network. Conservation efforts include sustainable fishing practices, fisheries management, and coral reef monitoring and conservation.
MPA networks under delegated management
Reef-positive businesses in development in the Blue Economy
Threatened species being protected, including sharks, turtles, and corals
Ha coral reef ecosystems aided in recovery
Ha of seagrass protected
Ha of marine and coastal ecosystems with enhanced protection and compliance
Coastal community members with enhanced livelihoods (mostly fishers)
Jobs created for MPA management staff and rangers
Hours of local community engagement and livelihood activities
Hours of patrols conducted
Our focus is on increasing the health and resilience of marine ecosystems and improving the livelihoods of local communities living in and around the conservation area, while creating self-sustaining MPAs. To achieve this, our MPAs encompass several use-type zones, such as fisheries, tourism, aquaculture, and conservation areas, where specific uses are regulated.
With a very active fishing community, these designated areas are expected to reduce illegal and destructive fishing practices, as well as overfishing, improve marine biodiversity and contribute to food security and sustainable incomes for local communities. They also create opportunities for ecotourism businesses, community-based aquaculture, increase protection from coastal flooding and mitigate beach erosion.
We measure our impacts using five socio-ecological Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):
Regeneration of coral reef ecosystems
Regeneration of mangrove ecosystems
Recovery of species from overfishing and illegal destructive fishing
Improved catch by coastal fishers
Job creation in the MPAs and reef-positive enterprises
In 2021, the Ministry of Marine and Fisheries of Central Sulawesi Province signed an agreement with Blue Alliance for the collaborative management of the Banggai Dalaka Conservation Areas (KKP3K zone), including the three regencies of Kabupaten Banggai, Kepulauan Banggai, and Banggai Laut. The coastal area between 0 and 12 nautical miles offshore falls under the authority of the provincial government. UPTD (Unit Pengelola Teknis Dinas) is a technical implementing unit responsible for facilitating the management of the MPA as an extension of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Service of the Provincial Government.
Blue Alliance created the non-profit enterprise Blue Alliance Banggai through the support of the United Nations (United Nations Development Program), ORRAA, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to work alongside and on behalf of the government through a long-term official mandate. The programme is funded through a blended finance facility that supports our MPAs and a pipeline of reef-positive businesses involved in the Blue Economy. These businesses provide innovative solutions in the areas of poverty alleviation, reduction of coral reef ecosystem degradation drivers, and the generation of long-term income for the MPAs. The approach has been officially endorsed by the local Sulawesi government and integrates well with the work of local communities and the Directorate General of Marine and Fisheries Resources Surveillance (PSDKP).
Being a pioneer team of Blue Alliance Indonesia, which helps government and community in managing the Banggai MPA network with an area of 856,650 hectares, as the largest MPA in Central Sulawesi Province, is an honor, pleasure, and a big challenge. Saving this MPA network means saving the future of thousands of people who depend for their lives and the future of their children and grandchildren on the natural resources within the MPAs.
~ Andreas Hero Ohoiulun – MPA Manager, Banggai MPA
As a responsible driver of the Blue Economy, Blue Alliance Banggai oversees the monitoring of marine ecosystems and implements marine conservation activities and sustainable, regenerative, revenue-generating projects through a dynamic process that relies on community-led initiatives and strong institutional support. The on-the-ground management team is proactively conserving and protecting natural resources, pursuing science-based approaches, and implementing regenerative community projects focused on environmental protection and economic growth.
© Background: Sofi Sugiharto
Our focus is on controlling destructive and illegal fishing practices such as blast fishing and poison on coral reef fish species through enhanced law enforcement, long term community engagement programmes, and development of new jobs for fishing communities in and around the MPAs.
We develop incentives for small-scale fishers to pursue sustainable practices via micro-credit and fishery supply chain improvement. We fight the disappearance of emblematic and keystone species through development of aquaculture hatcheries.
We are dedicated to safeguarding sea turtles (endangered and vulnerable species) by preserving critical habitats such as nesting sites, reducing poaching, and spreading awareness.
We help reduce bycatch of sharks and other threatened species by promoting sustainable fishing methods and training local fishing communities in releasing bycatch.
Coral reef care is critical, as reefs are the axis around which all our work revolves. We protect them from destructive fishing, anchor damage, and stomping, while promoting awareness through marine conservation education for scholars, residents, and visitors.
Mangrove forests serve as natural carbon sinks that contribute to climate change mitigation. Our Blue Economy initiatives are focused on preserving mangrove forests and encouraging their protection via businesses that depend on thriving mangrove forests. We also introduce, drive, and support programs and educational campaigns.
We create direct jobs with fishers becoming staff of the MPAs and staff of the different reef-positive businesses. We improve livelihoods for coastal fisher households through supporting small and medium enterprises in the Blue Economy and providing training programs, with a specific focus on empowering women and girls.
The increased fisheries production around our MPAs provides essential protein and income generation to traditional as well as non-traditional areas.
Through our ecotourism division, we introduce responsible eco-tourism practices with sustainable code of conduct, experiences for the conscious traveler and education programmes known as BlueTalks.
By enhancing the health of natural coastal and marine ecosystems, which act as carbon sinks, our work protects coastal communities from the impacts of extreme weather events caused by climate change and contributes to climate change mitigation.
We share the deep concern around plastic pollution. We improve the enforcement of illegal activity through engaging communities and working with our own programmes and innovative companies to support mitigation mechanisms and solutions responsibly.
Leading our Marine Conservation programmes in Indonesia has been an enriching journey, filled with invaluable lessons from the local community. The magic lies in the deep connection we’ve forged with them, and our shared commitment to empowering them to protect their Marine and Fisheries resources. Together, we’re not just safeguarding the environment; we’re nurturing a sustainable future for both nature and the people who call this place home.
~ Marian Doucet, MPA Manager
The programme strives to improve coral reef health by enhancing MPA management capacity and capabilities and reducing the primary anthropogenic drivers of degradation of coral reef ecosystems that have direct impacts on coral reef health and communities. It starts with the improvement of MPA management capacities and growing financial sustainability through adequate upfront financial support and capacity building initiatives.
© Background: W Poelzer
We work in four fundamental and interrelated fields of operation, and we measure and report on the results we achieve. These are conservation and science, community development, compliance, and sustainable revenue generation.
Enabling community development and empowerment
© Photo: Tompotika Foundation
Surveillance and protection by raising awareness, ensuring compliance
© Photo: Olivia Grubenmann
Science and conservation via research and monitoring projects
© Photo: Tompotika Dive Lodge
Reef-positive businesses to create sustainable revenues
© Photo: Nomad Archipelago
Our expert science team monitors the health of coral reefs and the impact of our management interventions with comprehensive underwater assessments of fish and coral communities, both inside and outside the MPAs. Through the support of our funders, scientific monitoring is further enhanced by exploring new methods such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) for fish identification. We also partner with existing organisations to advance their work, such as sea turtle monitoring. Public awareness is a key component of our science programme, with both physical and theoretical activities such as swimming, snorkelling, and diving. Socio-economic surveys on fishing activities completes our science assessments, with rangers and community member collecting fishery data over time so as to determine MPA effectiveness and inform adaptive management practices.
We monitor fish and shark populations, coral reefs, seagrass beds, and mangrove forests to:
This is done through Biophysical Assessments of the success of MPAs in protecting marine biodiversity. We also conduct underwater surveys of commercial fish species in monitoring stations inside and outside MPAs. In these annual surveys, we identify commercial fish species (those targeted by fishers), including their count and sizes using the variable distance method. This allows us to measure the success of MPAs in enhancement of fish biomass in adjacent fishing grounds, and to understand how this benefits local fishing communities. In parallel, we conduct fish catch monitoring programs through fish landing surveys and regular interviews with fishers to monitor the health of the fishery, as well as obtaining indicators of fishing effort and use of new gear. Fish landings are also an important way of assessing the bycatch of threatened species.
To measure the success of our MPAs in enhancing fish productivity in municipal waters, we conduct a comprehensive programme of experimental CPUE (catch per unit effort) measurements. The fish catch and size data of reef fish can assist in gauging the effectiveness of MPAs in supporting adjacent fishing areas through adult fish movement and, in turn, the positive results of management interventions.
We implement direct conservation programmes in and around our MPAs:
Through funder support, we are continuously exploring new methods that might reduce the need for skilled monitors (a challenge in our remote areas of operation) and provide further insights.
FISH-I© technology was developed by the University of the Philippines for AI-powered assessment of fish species diversity. Fish identification and biomass determination can determine whether our management measures are effective. FISH-I© technology is a quicker, safer, and more accurate method and is especially needed in areas where we are lacking capacities for fish identification.
Our work is complemented by reports from our Citizen Science programme, launched in 2023 in collaboration with local dive shops. Click here to learn more about our Citizen Science programme.
Key scientific programmes and assessments include:
The species within our Marine Protected Areas are crucial for preserving the ecological balance and health of their habitats. Unfortunately, many of them are threatened by unsustainable and illegal fishing, habitat destruction, pollution, and climate change. Visit our marine wildlife page to discover the vital roles of more than 50 selected marine species in our MPAs, the threats they face, and the actions necessary to protect them.
We work closely with government and local communities to identify and develop Blue Economy revenue models with the potential to sustainably increase the resilience of both marine ecosystems and coastal community livelihoods. Our community development programmes are typically linked to our reef-positive businesses. We focus on job creation and continuously measure the number of people supported and employed through the MPAs. Blue Economy solutions are not only implemented to conserve nature, but also to improve the lives of local community members.
We also implement community livelihood programmes outside of our reef-positive businesses.
Our key community development programmes include:
Our role as an official co-management entity is to enhance compliance with fishery and environmental laws and regulations. We achieve this through surveillance and long-term community engagement programmes. One of our major management interventions is to enforce fisheries legislation aimed at combating destructive fishing methods. We do this through joint patrols consisting of local authorities and our own rangers. This helps fish populations to recover inside the MPAs and ensures that fishing outside our MPAs is conducted sustainably.
We have also developed new enforcement strategies to improve surveillance routes for daily seaborne patrolling using both our patrol vessels and foot patrolling from our observation posts and ranger stations. The team is also trained to use new equipment including night vision monoculars and GPS. We have introduced the EarthRanger digital tool to allow our rangers to provide real-time updates on MPA and fishery law violations, marine wildlife sightings or strandings, and other relevant events. Our team consists of four head rangers, with ongoing recruitment amongst the local community.
Key compliance support and programmes include:
Our goal is for each Marine Protected Area to be self-sustaining by addressing the funding gaps that have historically hindered effective MPA management. Reinvesting profits from reef-positive businesses is a core part of our strategy. We also provide training for community members interested in getting involved in these initiatives.
A reef-positive business is a solution that reduces specific drivers of coral reef ecosystem degradation and contributes financially to MPA management. Blue Alliance Banggai aims to become self-sustaining through the development of a pipeline of reef-positive businesses in and around the conservation area, in Blue Economy sectors. These sustainable businesses will improve the livelihoods of coastal communities, reduce threats to marine biodiversity, and create tangible revenue streams that are reinvested directly back into Blue Alliance Banggai.
Key sustainable revenue generation initiatives include:
With Indonesia being particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to its high population density in hazard-prone areas and strong dependence on the country’s natural resources, conserving mangrove ecosystems plays a crucial role in the mitigation of, and adaptation to, the crisis. We are exploring a blue carbon credits certification scheme from the conservation and restoration mangroves through a partnership with Uba Sustainability Institute.
Through BlueWild EcoVentures, our ecotourism division, we aim to harness tourism as a sustainable means of financially supporting Marine Protected Areas and to reduce drivers of coral reef ecosystem degradation linked to tourism activities. Our approach is founded on four pillars:
As part of our social enterprise network, and through our Blue finance facility, we have invested in Nomad Archipelago, a pioneering liveaboard business with a commitment to 'Exploring with purpose' by making a genuine difference through travel. All proceeds from voyages are channelled directly into the management and protection of Marine Protected Areas in Indonesia.
Together with local authorities, the rangers of Blue Alliance Banggai are conducting 24/7/365 patrols within the MPAs, ensuring enhanced biodiversity protection and control of destructive and unsustainable fishing activities for 904,167 ha of marine and coastal ecosystems.
