On January 29- 30, 2024, a consortium of non-governmental organizations, consisting of WWF-Indonesia, Coral Triangle Center, Rare, Yayasan Pesisr Lestari (YPL), Rekam, and Konservasi Indonesia, kicked off a new project aimed to collaboratively to advance an ambitious MPA and OECM agenda in Indonesia, in partnership with key government institutions and communities.

The project, entitled Advancing Equitable, Effective Protection of Marine and Coastal Areas in Indonesia, will facilitate the establishment of enabling conditions to support the effective and equitable conservation of 30% of Indonesia’s marine area– underpinning biodiversity, blue carbon, and sustainable livelihoods, and contribute to the 30×30 global biodiversity target. It is currently supported by donors such as Ocean 5 and Packard Foundation.

In 2022, the Government of Indonesia (GoI) set an ambitious target to protect 30% of Indonesian waters by 2045 – representing 97.5 million hectares of protection. This builds on previous momentum in Marine Protected Area (MPA) establishment that led to Indonesia having achieved 7.3% (23.9 million ha) MPA coverage in 2020, and the 2019 GoI announcement to ensure that at least 10% of Indonesian waters (32.5 million ha) are protected and managed effectively by 2030. These commitments align with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, where governments came together internationally in December 2022 to commit to achieving 30% marine protection by 2030. Under this new global framework, there is increased emphasis on community-led conservation and recognition of marine conservation beyond MPAs – particularly of Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs) as a crucial pathway to achieve new marine protection.

The five-year project specifically supports the Indonesian Government in strengthening its capacity to achieve its goals. Its objectives include developing simple and mutually agreed upon coordination mechanisms, criteria, and guidelines to support functional MPAs and OECMs.

Under this project, CTC will focus on three priority areas: integrated planning, program, and budgeting for the future of marine protection in Indonesia through the development and revitalization of the National Marine Protected Area Council; strengthening MPA human resources, competencies, and capacity; and the set-up of collaborative communications spaces supporting MPAs and OECMs. CTC will also provide sub-grants to RARE and YPL to further implement this initiative.  RARE and YPL will focus on development of the OECM legal framework, governance and guideline in Indonesia including the preparation of academic papers and toolbox development on OECM.  The project aims to ensure that OECMs are recognized for their contributions to biodiversity conservation and sustainable fisheries management; enable recognition of alternative governance.

Some of the project’s key objectives activities includes ensuring that the National Marine Protected Area Council has sufficient capacity and sustainable funding to operate long-term, and provide high-level assessments of MPAs and OECMs going forward in Indonesia as well as updating the MPA 2030 vision to reframe as a MPA and OECM 2045 vision aligned with the new GoI marine protection targets. The project will also support the development of national guidelines in partnership with MoHA and MMAF focused on supporting provincial MPA management with key issues including budgeting, co-management, and management authority establishment.

Photos: Marthen Welly/CTC & Mike Veitch