Fishing off Labuan Bajo

Stanislaus Stan on right explaining dive sites to guests

Local house - near Labuan Bajo

Komodo Dragon - Rinca Island

Helping Local communities to help themselves
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This project aims to re-train and re-direct villagers living in and around Komodo Marine Park from fishing for income towards working in the tourism and dive industry. The project focuses on 5 local subsistence fishing villages – Komodo, Rinca, Pulah Musah, Papagam, and Bajo. The program (commenced 2010) provides education and employment mentoring for 10 students per year, preparing them for careers in the scuba diving industry.  Local people are well suited to this sort of work spending much of their lives in and on the waters within and around the Park.  

This is a highly innovative project and is the first of its kind. It was originally developed by Save Indonesian Endangered Species Fund (SIES) together with Stanislaus Stan as a way to change the culture and dependence of villagers from destructive and dangerous fishing practices to more sustainable income opportunities that also support conservation. Stan suggested that if local fishing people could be educated into the dive industry it would assist them to a better, safer life while also assisting to protect this valuable Marine Park.

Villagers deep free dive (no Oxygen) to collect lobsters. Every year local people suffer from decompression sickness. Untreated decompression sickness is extremely painful, and leads to deafness, sinus problems, joint degeneration and death. There are no treatment facilities on these islands.

About the National Park

Komodo National Park (http://www.komodonationalpark.org) is located in the center of the Indonesian archipelago, between the islands of Sumbawa and Flores. Established in 1980, initially the main purpose of the Park was to conserve the unique Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) and its habitat. However, over the years, the goals for the Park have expanded to protecting its entire biodiversity, both terrestrial and marine. In 1986, the Park was declared a World Heritage Site and a Man and Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO, both indications of the Park's biological importance.

Komodo National Park includes three major islands: Komodo, Rinca and Padar, as well as numerous smaller islands creating a total surface area (marine and land) of 1817km2. As well as being home to the Komodo dragon, the Park provides refuge for many other  notable terrestrial species such as the orange-footed scrub fowl, an endemic rat, and the Timor deer.

 Moreover, the Park includes one of the richest marine environments including coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass beds, seamounts, and semi-enclosed bays. These habitats harbor more than 1,000 species of fish, some 260 species of reef-building coral, and 70 species of sponges. Dugong, sharks, manta rays, at least 14 species of whales, dolphins, and sea turtles also make Komodo National Park their home.

 Threats to terrestrial biodiversity include the increasing pressure on forest cover and water resources as the local human population has increased 800% over the past 60 years. In addition, the Timor deer population, the preferred prey source for the endangered Komodo dragon, is still being poached. Destructive fishing practices such as dynamite, cyanide, and compressor fishing severely threaten the Park's marine resources by destroying both the habitat (coral reefs) and the resource itself (fish and invertebrate stocks). The present situation in the Park is characterized by reduced but continuing destructive fishing practices primarily by immigrant fishers, and high pressure on demersal stocks like lobsters, shellfish, groupers and napoleon wrasse. Pollution inputs, ranging from raw sewage to chemicals, are increasing and may pose a major threat in the future.

 Living around and within Komodo Marine Park (KMP), are impoverished communities, which depend on subsistence fishing.  Homes perch on the edge of small rocky islands with no freshwater. They are fully dependent on Flores island for water delivery. Farming and agriculture are not possible on these waterless islands. In Indonesia, food relief is minimal and often fails due to corruption in the supply chain, and medical provision and education are minimal on the islands.

 Despite World Heritage status the area is poorly protected. Overfishing and reef damage has substantially impacted on KMP, threatening the reef, water life, local communities and tourism industry.

 The waters outside KMP have been severely overfished and damaged, and local poor fishermen find that fish are more readily available from within the protected area (pers. Comm. Stanislaus Stan).  Excessive damage is caused to the sea life within the Park by over-fishing, use of poisons and dynamite, and disrespectful boaters damaging the coral with anchors.