Pristine beauty: An idylic scene of a coastal line at Nusa Lembongan. JP/Indah Setiawati

“If our diving equipment breaks, we can always buy new equipment in shops. But if the precious coral reef is damaged, where do we buy a new one?”

That remark was not made by a political party targeting voters who support the vulnerable marine treasury protection in Bali in the upcoming general election.

Marthen Welly, a professional diver and project leader of a worldwide organization concerned with natural resources conservation, reiterates that message to everyone he meets when he talks about coral reefs and species living in reefs.

He works for the Nature Conservancy-Coral Triangle Center (TNC-CTC), which is working on a project aimed at conserving the marine area in the Nusa Penida islets, which comprise Nusa Lembongan, Nusa Ceningan and Nusa Penida islands.

Known as a paradise destination for tourists who love scuba diving and snorkeling, the islets feature 1,800 hectares of pristine coral reefs made up of 247 protected coral species. The coral reef beds are home to 562 species of reef fishes.

The islands, however, are ill-equipped with regulations to protect the marine resources, and there is a limited budget to preserve the underwater treasury, as tourists only have to pay entrance fees of as little as Rp 1,000.

Marthen said the TNC-CTC proposed the inclusion of three zones, namely the central, the utilization and the marine tourism zones, in the marine conservation area plan.

The central zone will cover areas that have the most breathtaking underwater view and are often visited by the world-famous Mola-mola fish and other types of marine life, including the manta ray and sperm whale.

The utilization zone comprises offshore areas that can be utilized  for seaweed farming and fishing; while the marine tourism zone, which also includes the central zone, can be used for water sports activities.

“Separating the zones is important because the activities in the islets are not well-managed now. People can plant seaweed anywhere, or fish in the snorkeling and diving spots,” Marthen said.

He added if such practices continued, they  could trigger a horizontal conflict among seaweed farmers, tourism-related businesspeople and fishermen, as each sought out the best locations for their activities.

“We need to conserve the Nusa Penida islets immediately to prevent damage to the coral reefs, but it can’t been done instantly,” he said, adding the program required local residents, the Klungkung administration and the tourism industry to share the same vision the conservation activists proposed.

He said the idea of a marine conservation area itself could somehow give a wrong impression to local residents because they could mistakenly think they would be prohibited from conducting activities in the conserved area.

Marthen said that once the marine conservation area was approved by the local administration in the form of a regent’s decree, it would be run by a collaborative management body.

“The body will consist of representatives from the local residents, the administration, a local NGO and businesspeople. They will run some programs and determine the dos and don’ts in the conservation area,” he said.

“Currently, there are no rules on the maximum number of people who can dive at the same time. Once I saw 20 boats anchored in the same spot.”

Marthen also said the TNC-CTC would run a study to see how much money overseas tourists were prepared to pay to help conserve the marine area each time they visited the islands.

“I’m sure they would be willing to pay, because most divers understand that the coral reef is priceless,” he said.

He added his organization expected it would take five years to set up the project, and said he hoped that by the end of 2012, the collaborative management body would be able to be an independent and financially sustainable institution.

The project aims to endorse the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI), a program proposed by several countries to halt the degradation of vulnerable coral colonies and conserve threatened marine species in the coral triangle area, which comprised Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

The six countries will sign the initiative at the first ever World Ocean Conference (WOC) in Manado, North Sulawesi, in May this year.

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