https://indonesia.wcs.org RSS feeds for WCS Indonesia 60 https://indonesia.wcs.org/en-us/Stories-From-The-Field/Articles/ID/19360/Karimunjawa-National-Park-A-Personal-Notes-and-Reflection-to-One-of-The-WCS-Longest-Field-Program-in-Indonesia.aspx#Comments 0 https://indonesia.wcs.org/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=23862&ModuleID=51813&ArticleID=19360 https://indonesia.wcs.org:443/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=19360&PortalID=137&TabID=23862 https://indonesia.wcs.org/en-us/Stories-From-The-Field/Articles/ID/19360/Karimunjawa-National-Park-A-Personal-Notes-and-Reflection-to-One-of-The-WCS-Longest-Field-Program-in-Indonesia.aspx By Dr. Noviar Andayani, M.Sc.  Country Director of WCS Indonesia Program       Off we go! I always wanted to visit Karimunjawa National Park (KNP) since day one I joined the WCS Indonesia Program back in 2003. My reason was some kind of personal – I visited the park many years ago right after I came home from my study in Sweden. Other than a rough sea journey that lasted for more than 6 hours, I still had a vivid picture in my mind of the park’s crystal blue and clear water. Never crossed my mind that one day I would be part of a talented team who dedicated their lives to protect this beautiful marine park. Still, it took me 20 years before I revisited KNP and witnessed the great works our team has been doing over those years. We arrived at Karimunjawa at around 11 am after a smooth 2 hours ferry drive on the Bahari Express. The ferry was packed with visitors who took advantage of the long holiday weekend from the Eid Adha Festival that fell on Thursday of the 29th of June this year. It was very different from my first trip, but the excitement was the same if not more this time. Part of the excitement came from how well known our colleague, Jamal, among the locals. They greeted him warmly as we made our way out of the seaport. I felt like celebrity walking beside him. He has been with WCS for many years, starting as an enumerator who helped us collecting data on fishing activities from the waters around the national park. Now, Jamal is our lead who works with the Park to support communities in tourism and empowerment programs that do not only bring economic benefit, but also protect the reef ecosystem and marine diversity of KNP. Our day one in Karimunjawa was closed by a dinner under the island’s night sky. It was a lovely evening with a full moon and bright stars, a magical transformation from a perfect sun down we witnessed a few hours earlier in Tanjung Gelam at the west point of the island. Day one was also about the story of Ibu Dian and Pak Udin, two KNP’s staff, who monitored the impacts of tourism onthe park’s ecosystem. The tourism industry has been significantly increasing up to 300% (before Covid-19 pandemic) within the past 10ish years with the number of daily visitors during weekend were around 500-800 people and could reach to 1,000 people during holiday seasons such as this. Our team has been working with KNP and tourism association to develop a sustainable business model that could deliver social, economical, and ecological benefits to the people of Karimunjawa. Pak Udin’s story about fishers who carefully brought turtles’ eggs to his semi-natural hatchery in Menjangan Kecil Island is a heartening evidence of this concept. Two species of turtles, green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) and hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), lay their eggs along the beaches of many islands within KNP. In the past, people poached their eggs and put the turtles’population in decline. Today, they collect the eggs they find and bring them into Pak Udin’s hatchery to be cared for until those eggs successfully hatch into turtles hatchlings and ready to be released to the sea. Visitors can take part of the release program for ten thousand rupiah for one turtle hatchlings. The money is shared for conservation program and community. Small and nimble: meet our Team! Protected areas have been our key approach to conserve Indonesia’s incredible biodiversity. As a strong supporter for the theory of island biogeography, I believe the larger space we give to biodiversity is the better, and island is the best ecological model to demonstrate this paradigm. But, this theory was not one of the reasons we decided to build a marine conservation program in KNP. The park is just over one hundred thousand hectares and was badly troubled by muroami fishing when we started working there twenty years ago. Muroami fishing, also known as reef hunting, is one of the most destructive form of illegal fishing that has long lasting destructive impacts to the reef ecosystem. Also, the non-discriminate practises meant that fishes of all sizes, ages, and species were caught unsustainably. We worked with the KNP and community leaders to address this problem, spending many hours, days, months, and years building the trust and partnership to find alternatives to muroami. At the core of our works is sound science, and at the heart of our engagement is our talented team! After twenty years of working tirelessly, muroami is now gone from KNP and the fishers transformed their fishing fleets into tourist boats. Hundreds of visitors come to the park to enjoy it’s soft white sands and crystal blue water. They also come to admire the lively and colourful coral reef around many of the islands that make KNP so special. Jamal is now leading the Kj’s tour guide association as part of our strategies to make sure the growing tourism industry does not harm the park’s biodiversity and ecosystem. Our twenty years of collaboration and partnership with the KNP and the islands’ communities also has transformed the way the fishers catch the fishes. Not only now they abandoned muroami, but they also apply sustainability principles through the park’s zoning system and selective harvest practises. For these encouraging impacts, we have to thank Ripanto, our sustainable fisheries lead in KNP. In one of my chats with him, Ripanto told me that he planted various fruit trees in his garden, so that he could use his experiences with those trees to engage with the communities. I was amazed by his ingenuity and also grateful to his dedication to our mission. More than that, I also realized how fortunate I was to be part of his and Jamal’s stories for KNP, and stories of many other dedicated colleagues from Sabang to Morotai. As Jamal repeatedly said when we walked along the shore of KNP – “WCS dong!” At last! Surely KNP is not only about Ripanto and Jamal. Most, if not all, our colleagues in the Marine Program have left their marks on this beautiful marine national park. During my early days when I just joined WCS, I often bumped into them, either on their way to KNP or just came back from one of the surveys. I had been wondering since those days why they were so committed to this not so large and not so popular park. At that time Bunaken was on top of the list for tourist destination, Raja Ampat was the mysterious paradise, and Sawu was a daring idea of creating 3.3 million hectares of marine protected area in Indonesia. All were within the coral triangle that harbours the richest coral reef system in the World. KNP was none of those! Yet, here we are for twenty years and counting, working and learning from this park and the people living there. I have known long before I finally came to KNP that we have been doing well to support the park conserving one of the most intact coral reef ecosystem in the Java Sea. Still, I could not help feeling very proud when I heard from Pak Saleh, oneof the well-respected community leaders in Karimunjawa, about the great things we have done. His remarks were then echoed by our KNP’s friends who joined us in a dinner on the last day of my visit. Through our friendly conversation on that evening I could somehow picture how we started everything twenty years ago. I could picture how Irfan, Tasrif, Yudi, Rizya, Rian, Sinta, Epong, Atik, and Ratih built our vision for KNP. I am truly grateful for the solid foundation they have laid for us to continue our works there. Although we now only have a small team in KNP, with Sukma, Ripanto, and Jamal, but they are the marvel of our force. Through their passion and commitment, I could see and experience what it means to be part of WCS’ mission in this part of our great country. “We Stand For Wildlife”  Pratama, Randi Tue, 18 Jul 2023 05:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:19360 https://indonesia.wcs.org/en-us/Stories-From-The-Field/Articles/ID/19361/Mitigasi-Konflik-Pengalaman-Aceh-Dalam-Konflik-Manusia-Harimau.aspx#Comments 0 https://indonesia.wcs.org/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=23862&ModuleID=51813&ArticleID=19361 https://indonesia.wcs.org:443/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=19361&PortalID=137&TabID=23862 https://indonesia.wcs.org/en-us/Stories-From-The-Field/Articles/ID/19361/Mitigasi-Konflik-Pengalaman-Aceh-Dalam-Konflik-Manusia-Harimau.aspx By Musir Riswan   Istilah konflik antara manusia dengan harimau agaknya belum familiar di kalangan masyarakat Aceh. Masyarakat lebih akrab dengan istilah bahasa Aceh rimeung sawue gampong, maupun rimeung pajoh leumo, keubeu, atau kameng. Artinya, harimau mengunjungi desa, maupun harimau memakan sapi, kerbau, atau kambing. Istilah itu menyiratkan nuansa kearifan lokal yang berkembang di beberapa desa, terutama di Kabupaten Aceh Selatan, Aceh. Bila ada ternak yang dimangsa harimau, warga memandangnya sebagai bagian dari zakat harta tertentu yang wajib dikeluarkan kaum muslim. Dalam konteks lokal ini, harimau dinilai sebagai perantara dalam penyucian harta, yang mungkin pemilik ternak lupa membayar zakat kepada golongan yang berhak. Tak heran, jika terjadi konflik, warga cenderung meresponnya dengan ritual kearifan lokal. Di beberapa desa, warga mengenal orang yang bisa berkomunikasi secara spiritual dengan harimau. Masyarakat mengganggap, jika sudah berkomunikasi dengan harimau, sang pemangsa ini akan menghindar dari permukiman atau kebun. Namun, hasil ‘mitigasi’ seturut tradisi ini tidak ada durasi waktu yang pasti. Alhasil, tak jarang timbul pertanyaan apakah harimau akan kembali lagi di lain waktu? Terkadang, setelah ritual, tanda-tanda kehadiran harimau tidak terdeteksi sampai berbulan-bulan. Namun, tak jarang pula, dalam hitungan pekan usai ritual, harimau kembali menunjukkan tanda-tanda keberadaannya. Singkat kisah, tak ada yang bisa menjamin harimau tidak akan berkeliaran lagi di seputar permukiman. Bila begitu, respon secara spiritual itu nampaknya tidak bisa menjamin konflik telah redam. Namun, upaya mitigasi harus tetap melestarikan kearifan lokal dan hubungan emosional masyarakat dengan hidupan liar. Ini terutama bagi masyarakat yang tempat tinggalnya menjadi titik rawan konflik. Hubungan emosional ini dapat memperkaya mitigasi jangka panjang karena telah menjadi pengetahuan masyarakat dalam mengelola konflik. Pada saat yang sama, hubungan emosional juga dapat menjadi pintu masuk bagi mitigasi yang tidak sekadar mencegah konflik, namun juga mendorong masyarakat hidup adaptif. Harapannya, dengan pendekatan ini masyarakat tidak lagi memandang hidup berdampingan dengan harimau sebagai konflik. Tapi, warga memandangnya sebagai interaksi yang wajar karena tinggal di sekitar hutan habitat harimau. Pada hakikatnya, interaksi negatif dapat dihindari bila konflik tidak menimbulkan kerugian. Dalam konteks ini, yang terjadi sebenarnya hanya sebatas ‘perjumpaan’ dengan harimau, baik secara langsung maupun tidak langsung. Ada sejumlah teknik untuk mengidentifikasi keberadaan harimau yang berkonflik, entah dengan mengendus jejak, cakaran, ataupun memasang kamera intai di jalur harimau. Untuk mengenali tanda-tanda harimau tentu memerlukan ketelitian dalam mengamati temuan di lapangan. Jejak harimau yang lengkap dan utuh dapat mengabarkan informasi tentang kesehatan si harimau. Bila harimau terluka jerat sling misalnya, jejaknya terlihat pincang dan tidak utuh. Sementara itu, identifikasi dengan kamera intai memerlukan informasi awal yang memadai. Beberapa informasi dari warga di daerah konflik terkait dengan lokasi, waktu, dan intensitas kemunculan si harimau. Data awal ini menjadi acuan dalam menentukan lokasi pemasangan kamera intai. Kamera intai akan tetap terpasang sampai ada informasi ditemukannya tanda-tanda keberadaan harimau. Jika tidak ada informasi, kamera intai dapat tetap terpasang maksimal satu bulan lantaran baterai dan memori kamera harus diganti. Salah satu penyebab borosnya baterai: kamera terlalu sering merekam pergerakan manusia di permukiman. Pada malam hari, warga perlu meronda daerah yang rawan munculnya harimau. Upaya ini bisa dilakukan berkelompok dengan memakai lampu penerang dan alat-alat yang bisa menghasilkan suara lantang—seperti kentongan. Aktivitas seperti ini akan membuat harimau risih dan tidak nyaman berada di dekat permukiman. Selain monitoring, masyarakat terdampak konflik juga perlu diberi pemahaman tentang perilaku harimau dan kiat-kiat mengelola konflik. Di beberapa desa, pemahaman seperti ini sangat dibutuhkan. Apalagi jika konflik telah menelan korban jiwa. Dalam situasi seperti itu, biasanya warga antusias mendengarkan penyuluhan. Kegiatan penyuluhan ini dapat menjadi media kampanye untuk meningkatkan kesadaran masyarakat mengenai mitigasi konflik dan pelestarian hidupan liar. Peningkatan kesadaran diharapkan dapat mencegah ekskalasi konflik, sehingga dapat menghindari jatuhnya korban di kedua belah pihak, baik manusia maupun harimau sumatra.   Pratama, Randi Mon, 17 Jul 2023 17:11:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:19361