18 Feb Moving Forward with the MPA Establishment in Lease Island

CTC, under the USAID-SEA Project, has began working in to support Marine Protected Area (MPA) establishment in Lease Islands in Maluku Province. Lease Islands MPA is envisioned to fit multi-purpose needs of fisheries, marine tourism and marine sustainability that will benefit local communities and enable food security.

In 2016, the Governor of Maluku released a Decree No. 387 to reserve the Lease Islands as a Coastal and Small Islands Marine Protected Area (Kawasan Konservasi Pesisir dan Pulau-Pulau Kecil/ KKP3K). The proposed MPA covers a total of 81,573.48 hectares, including three major inhabited islands, namely Haruku, Saparua and Nusalaut Island, as well as two small uninhabited islands namely Pombo and Molana Island. However, there has been minimal follow up to bring the process up into official appointment by the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries.

As part of the process to set up an MPA, CTC conducted a scoping study at Lease Islands from February 14-18, 2018. This was followed up by households’ data collection on February 27- March 2, 2018. The activity was done in 30 villages in four sub-districts, namely Haruku, East Saparua, Saparua, and Nusalaut. During the visit, CTC also disseminated the information about MPA establishment plans in Lease Islands according to the Governor’s Decree to all local leaders and related staff. It’s highly expected that all villages within the proposed MPA have greater understanding and will support the whole process of creating a MPA for the protection and management of their marine resources.