The Transition of Co-management Practices in a Marine Protected Area: A View from the Bajau Seafaring Nomadic Community in Indonesia

Abstract

Customary communities with nature-based livelihoods have ways of knowing and living with their environment that they are best situated to manage. One example of such a group that lives in coastal and small island areas is the semi-nomadic Bajau people. At present, most of them have been sedentary in coastal areas and several Marine Protected Areas (MPA) such as Wakatobi National Park (WNP). They are rarely incorporated into the MPA management system. This research aims to investigate the transitional pattern of co-management in MPA from the view of the Bajau as a maritime-oriented people. This ethnographic study was carried out in five Bajau villages in WNP, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. Interviews and participatory mapping were employed as research methods among related stakeholders to explore the many perspectives on these issues. WNP is starting to put the concept of co-management into practice, yet they face several challenges. However, Bajau communities there face cultural degradation and institutional complexities in inter- and intragroup relations, especially in promoting coastal and marine management. The documented pillars of the Bajau community indicate socio-ecological constraints on their involvement in the co-management transition of WNP. Administration, governance, sustainable resource management, capacity building, locality, and other issues can be addressed via a participatory model, but there will be difficulties to resolve on many levels for this model to prove optimally effective. To justify the need for WNP, Bajau sacred areas as part of traditional ecological knowledge have the prospect of being incorporated into marine co-management schemes.