A guide for planners and managers - IUCN

252 MARINE AND COASTAL
PROTECTED AREAS
Source: Graham Usher, Consultant on Marine Resource Management, 53 Melford Way,
Felixstowe, Suffolk, U.K. and Reed Merrill, Protected Areas Management Advisor,
USAID, Jakarta, Indonesia.
E-Mail Contact: reedm@cbn.net.id
Box III-3: A Change of Approach to Zoning
The first zoning concept developed in the early 1980s had been designed to
support tourism and reef biota. Based primarily on ecological criteria and tourism
value, relatively large areas of the park were designated for tourism and conservation
(See Case History 19 in Part III). However it did not reflect the realities of use patterns
within the park, and assumed that use by local communities was incompatible with either
conservation or tourism goals. This largely reflected “either/or” conservation thinking
at the time, i.e. either an area is used, or it is conserved. While this may be relevant to
forest systems, it is less applicable to coral reefs, where it has been consistently shown
that reefs must be in good condition (i.e., conserved) if they are to support both
sustainable fisheries and/or tourism. This initial zoning system provided a model of what
should be conserved, but it did not address the more fundamental issue of the practicalities
of managing conservation and capturing these conservation benefits. Quite simply,
Bunaken NP does not have the human, technical or financial resources necessary to
adequately manage a zoning system that does not accommodate non-destructive existinguse
patterns. Therefore, the park has adapted a more realistic zoning strategy which involves
greater stakeholder participation in design, implementation and monitoring of the
zoning plan, as well as much smaller and thus more easily managed conservation zones.