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. Over the years, these researchers working on government sanctioned Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have often encountered remote and traditional protected areas of coastal ocean waters not ‘counted’ or recognized by formal government marine conservation efforts.
This paper advances the researchers’ knowledge of these areas’ long-held contributions to marine management and forges a pathway to traditional, customary, and remote communities being recognized and assisted in their long-held practices. Among the paper’s main findings:
- Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECM) can spatially contribute over 3% (approximately 10.2 million hectares) to marine conservation in Indonesia, contributing significantly to the Global Biodiversity Framework.
- OECM and traditional MPAs can safeguard over half of Indonesia’s seagrass and coral reef habitats.
- OECM (including our Managed Access with Reserve areas) are often situated around existing MPAs and could enhance ecological connectivity by serving as ecological corridors for marine species movement and increasing biodiversity conservation.