MAE's Lisa Becking gives talk to promote legislation for conservation of marine lakes

From 3 to 5 May there was an important administrative meeting for the marine and fisheries departments of the province and regency level in Manokwari. The participants included: the Ministry of Marine and Fisheries affairs, the heads of the MPAs, Universitas Papua (UNIPA), The Nature Conservancy Indonesia (TNC), Conservation International Indonesia (CI), and Starling Resources. The reason for the meeting was that currently there is a major administrative change going on. Previously, the responsibility and infrastructure of the MPAs was at the Regency, but from August 2017 onwards, it will lie with the Province (a level higher). In other words: there is a shift in power.

Counterparts of the Marine Lake Team at TNC, CI, UNIPA had asked them to give a presentation on marine lakes, with recommendations and code of conduct. As this is a time of transition, it is a good time to get marine lakes into conservation legislation.

Agustin Capriati, Luca Prins and Amanda Putri (all three MSc students from Wageningen University, currently doing thesis projects at MAE) joined in on the conversation.

The major points they wanted to get across about the lakes in Bird’s Head Seascape:

1. Get marine lakes formally part of the conservation management plan
2. Set up a monitoring program
3. Make code of conduct and info-leaflet for tourists
4. Close off all lakes except 3 jellyfish lakes
5. Set up of system of local guides and guards

It seemed like everyone was keen to do this. Each person who was responsible asking for specific wording in order to make it possible. So we’re really hopeful!

(On a side note: this was the first time Lisa presented a full presentation in Indonesian!)