Togean Islanders Sustain Marine Life: Central Sulawesi

Set like emeralds in the turquoise waters off the coast of Central Sulawesi, the Togean Islands are home to over 500 types of coral, 600 reef fish species and an estimated 500 mollusk. It is one of the richest reef areas in the country.

Kabalutan, a village of roughly 3,000 ethnic Bajau, is surrounded by reefs that attract divers from around the world. The once-nomadic Bajau rely exclusively on the sea for their livelihood. But Togean’s natural wealth is under siege.

Endemic poverty has fueled the expansion of dynamite and cyanide fishing on the reefs. Inland, illegal logging is fouling the islands’ pristine waters and causing unnecessary sedimentation on the beachfront.

Local residents were introduced to cyanide fishing in the early 1990s, which dramatically boosted their catch to feed the growing demand for live coral fish abroad — while wreaking untold damage to fragile reef ecosystems.

Gone are the days when local fishermen could sit on the veranda of their homes, throw a line and reel in enough fish to sell at market. Catching the bare necessities today entails a 90-minute round-trip journey to surviving reefs.

The Napoleon Wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus), a favorite of Kabalutan fishermen because of the high price it commands in upscale Hong Kong restaurants, has virtually vanished in the past decade. Growing up to 2.3 meters in length, the Napoleon Wrasse controls populations of coral-consuming Crown of Thorn starfish, so its loss has consequences for the entire reef ecosystem.

The reliance on poisons and explosives — and the resulting sudden and unexpected wealth in some households — has also undermined traditional village culture and its underlying structures.

An entire generation has grown up unaccustomed to traditional fishing techniques and has lost the ability to “read” the sea and the marine bounty.

Until calendars were introduced in the 1970s, the islanders marked the passage of time by seasonal variations in plant and animal species, the wind, and the phases of the moon. For example, the arrival of a certain blossom heralds the beginning of the yellowtail fish harvest and durian season.

While many Togean islanders blame Kabalutan residents for the reefs’ destruction, not everyone there sat by idly while impoverished local fishermen invested in the quick fixes offered by exporters.

The current village head, Pak Asri, and some of his colleagues did what they could to stem the tide, confiscating cyanide and dynamite as it arrived in the islands in the early ’90s. He and others enlisted the help of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to help educate residents about the need to protect the marine environment for future generations.

“This resource is all we have and I personally can’t stand to see it destroyed,” said Asri. “The responsibility to protect, restore, rehabilitate and ensure the future sustainability of the environment lies with us alone. However, we are unable to do it on our own. We’ve needed a lot of support from the government, NGOs and others.”

One such NGO, Conservation International-Indonesia (CI-Indonesia), has been working toward the creation of community-based marine protected areas (MPAs/Daerah Perlindungan Laut) in the Togean Islands for over eight years. Because natural resources are limited, community support for conservation is critical.

The main objective of this activity has been to gain trust and increase local communities’ understanding of the severe impacts their destructive fishing practices have on their reef areas.

The best evidence for the need to create MPAs in Togean emerged in 2002, when Kabalutan fishermen discovered they had stripped bare their ancestral fishing areas and would have to commute great distances to work — something beyond the ability of most fishermen, who still rely on canoes and outriggers rather than motorboats.

“It took a lot of time for the community to understand the need for MPAs,” says CI-Indonesia anthropologist Sunjaya. “There was some resistance in the community to the fact this solution came from outside, but we have been able to bring forward the idea in a manner that is relevant to the community.”

Today, larger yields closer to home and healthy coral beds are proof that reef protection works for the benefit of all.

As the water quality has improved, new business opportunities have emerged. Some Kabalutan families are investing in seaweed farms. Seaweed farming’s potential twice-yearly harvest in tropical waters and a stable price on the market offers another option to destructive fishing practices.

Many of the worst offenders have stopped fishing with cyanide and dynamite and are now spreading the message of sustainable fishing techniques to their fellow fishermen.

Known locally as “The General”, Pak Usman is Kabalutan’s reigning expert in dynamite and cyanide fishing. For three decades he planted explosives beneath the coral, claiming to have dived to depths of 70 meters to maximize the bombs’ explosive power.

“I know all the reefs in this bay,” he said. “Almost all of them have my ‘signature’.”

Early fish bombs were manufactured with materials at hand, including fertilizer and unexploded World War II munitions. Usman went to jail repeatedly, but it took the death of a close friend who was working with explosives to turn the tide. The friend left behind a wife and several young children unable to support themselves.

“I was living exactly the same way as him, fishing with dynamite and cyanide. I am poor and I have a family. If one day I die, I have nothing to leave behind for my family to live on because all the fish have vanished from the nearby waters,” Usman said.

“My children are Bajau, but they haven’t experienced the pride of being a Bajau who lives from the ocean. If I kept doing what I was doing, I would have had nothing to bequeath them, not even the pride of being Bajau.”

Now a front-line campaigner against the use of dynamite and cyanide, Usman lends his expertise, knowledge of local waters and customs to CI-Indonesia and others investing in reef protection.

“The last couple of years, we have seen some very good results. Now we don’t need to paddle all the way out to the ocean to get fish. More fish are seen as more new coral has started to grow,” he said proudly.

With the support of the Forestry Ministry, through the local Natural Resources Conservation Center (BKSDA), Kabalutan residents meet on a regular basis with neighboring villages to explain the benefits of the MPAs. They also coordinate patrols in their respective waters, particularly those areas they have jointly agreed to protect.

In 2004, the Togean Islands were officially designated a national park that extends protection beyond the rich coral reefs to include the fauna of these little-studied islands, where new species such as the Togean tarsier, Togean hawk-owl and Togean babirusa (pig-deer) were recently discovered.

The challenge for the future will be to safeguard these biological treasures through successful co-management of the national park’s resources by the government and local communities.

Jihan F. Labetubun