08 Mar Fisheries Extension Officers Improve Skills in Marine Protected Area Spatial Planning and Design

As part of its implementation of the USAID Sustainable Ecosystem Advanced (SEA) Project, CTC conducted seven days Training of Trainers for Marine Protected Area (MPA) design using GIS Marxan on  February 27 – March 8, 2018 in Ambon.

This training topic was selected based on preliminary assessment conducted by CTC and the Balai Pendidikan dan Pelatihan Perikanan (BPPP) Ambon to match the need for MPA establishment in Fisheries Management Area (FMA) 715, which consists the Maluku, North Maluku and West Papua. It is expected from this training that there will be a pool of at least 15 trainers who are able to design an MPA using GIS Marxan and are ready to train other key stakeholders in FMA 715 in the future.

The participants consisted of representatives from several stakeholders i.e. government, non-government, 2 universities in Ambon i.e. Pattimura University and Drusalam University as well as representatives of community organizations. The participants learned various topics from marine conservation, MPA governance, MPA design, GIS fundamental and GPS introduction.

Based on trainer observation, participants were highly interested on the topic given. Many participants were eager to learn, ask questions and were actively involved in the discussions. Some of the questions asked by the participants were related to building a MPA network, how to synergize the

MPA that are initiated by local community and government, local threats on marine biodiversity-small scale fisheries particularly and what is the difference between utilization zone and sustainable fisheries zone.

Most of participants found that the information and exercises given during the training was new knowledge which enhanced their skills on how to design MPA. Additionally, participants suggested to have additional training sessions using MARXAN in the near future. Lastly, there was one representative from USAID SEA (i.e. David Manski, Marine Protected Area Senior Advisor from the United States of America) who presented his work and discussed about the establishment of marine protected area in FMA 715.