Funding Paradise

A remote stretch of Indonesian shore was at risk of plunder until a dive pioneer partnered with villagers to create incentives to protect it.

- Karen Stearns

The most-effective marine-conservation programmes don’t rely on top-down enforcement that attempts to deter destructive practices through regulation. Instead, they are bottom-up efforts that inspire communities to engage in positive behaviours, grass-roots initiatives that coastal populations willingly embrace. Wakatobi Resort is proof of this principle, and has earned broad recognition for its innovative partnership-based conservation programme.

The genesis of this programme was in the mid-1990s, when Lorenz Mäder was first laying the groundwork for the property that would eventually become Wakatobi Resort. Mäder had spent several years searching for the ideal location for a dive lodge before discovering a small island in a remote part of central Indonesia. The setting on Pulau Onemobaa was stunning, with a white sand beach and surrounding reefs that were pristine and covered in a spectacular menagerie of marine life.

At that time, destructive new fishing practices such as netting and dynamite fishing were spreading through the Indian Ocean, laying waste to coral reefs. To safeguard the future of the reefs in his area, Mäder met with local fishermen and village elders from the surrounding communities. He offered a unique proposal. In exchange for agreeing to honour a “no take” zone on six kilometres of reef, the residents of 17 villages would receive direct-lease payments from Wakatobi.

They struck a deal, and the Collaborative Reef Conservation Program was created. It arranged for the placement of mooring buoys on all dive sites, to prevent anchor damage. The initiative funded additional moorings in local harbours to protect more of the seabed. And there were additional benefits to the community.