The Wildlife Conservation Society has been working in Indonesia since 1965, and established an office in 1992. In 2002 the Marine Program started and has been working with government and community partners to develop networks of marine protected areas in Indonesia. WCS has collected biological and socio-economic data from 10 regions in Indonesia and evaluated MPA effectiveness within each of these regions, including four marine National Parks. Our main findings were that small traditionally based MPAs appear to achieving improved conservation of coral reef resources, but there is a long way to go with improvements in coral reefs in large marine national parks (McClanahan et al. 2006).
Our work includes community based and scientific monitoring of marine ecosystems, the development and use of field protocols with governments and communities, the development of ecological and socio-economic database systems and improved management practices for the conservation of marine resources.
We work closely with coastal communities and with the Indonesian government to limit the damage caused by destructive, illegal and unregulated fishing.