(Bogor, Indonesia) As global leaders convene for the sixteenth United Nation biodiversity conference (COP16) in Calí, Colombia, a new paper examining marine conservation in Indonesia finds that Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs) offer a pathway to achieving global biodiversity goals. The paper, published in the journal Ocean & Coastal Management, identified 382 potential OECMs spanning 10.2 million hectares of coastal marine area in Indonesia, meaning they would count significantly toward the nation’s biodiversity protection goals if counted. The paper also concludes that OECMs and traditional MPAs can safeguard over half of Indonesia’s seagrass and coral reef habitats.
Traditional marine conservation tools like Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) focus on increasing protected area coverage through limiting human activity including fishing. OECMs complement traditional MPAs in areas where high-human use meets high biodiversity by balancing protection and sustainable use to advance equitable and effective conservation. These areas are often managed and led by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities.
“Coupled with MPAs, which have been the primary conservation tool in Indonesia, OECMs have the potential to substantially contribute to safeguarding the nation’s marine biodiversity and achieving national and international targets for area-based conservation. Most importantly, Indonesia may overlook many effective conservation areas in its national reporting if OECMs are not recognized,” wrote the paper’s authors.
The paper also found that situating potential OECMs near existing MPAs offer a host of ecological benefits such as serving as ecological corridors for marine species movement, protecting a wider range of habitats and ecosystems, improving fish populations in non-managed areas, and providing greater resilience against environmental disturbances or localized impacts.
Over the years, researchers working on government sanctioned MPAs have often encountered remote and traditional protected areas of coastal ocean waters not counted or recognized by formal government marine conservation efforts.
“The paper advances our knowledge of these long-held contributions to marine area management and forges a pathway to recognizing the protection traditional, customary, and remote communities have provided to vital coastal ecosystems,” said Dr. Stuart Campbell, a researcher from Rare and one of the paper’s authors. “If we want to achieve ambitious goals like protecting 30 percent of the ocean, counting OECMs, which benefit people and nature, must be part of the strategy.”
The researchers of this paper come from a diverse set of organizations and have collaborated for at least a decade to advance marine conservation and fisheries management in Indonesia and on the global stage. The organizations include Rare, the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research, University of Bremen, Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), IPB University, Indonesia’s Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, World Wildlife Fund, Yayasan Pesisir Lestari, LMMA Indonesia, Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), Carl von Ossietzky Universitat, Yayasan Landesa Bumi, and the Coral Triangle Center.
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