OMSLAG 5.indd - IUCN

Danielle Kreb
Project officer at Yayasan Konservasi RASI,
Kalimantan, Indonesia
‘I first came to this area doing research on the Irriwady dolphin. People from the
area came to see me when I was listening to dolphins with a microphone: some
had never heard the sound of a dolphin before and nobody knew that dolphins
had different ‘dialects’ in different parts of the river. Every now and then I would
give a presentation and the people were very interested.
From time to time tourists passed through the area, travelling by boat to other
places. When they heard that there were dolphins in this part of the river system,
some would stay a while. I always thought it was such a pity that most tourists
continued upstream without stopping here: there is so much to see and they
could easily contribute to development and conservation.
A small tourism infrastructure has now been set up in the Middle Mahakam area
and the people who listened to my microphone now guide the tourists by boat
over the lakes and rivers.
As an ecologist I used be suspicious towards tourism to dolphin populations,
but the influx of tourists is well controlled and visitor numbers are low,
about 100 per year. We’re working on contacts with travel agencies and tour
operators and in the new edition of the Lonely Planet the Dolphin centre will
be mentioned. We don’t expect a rise in visitor numbers to threaten the dolphin
population; visitor numbers will stay fairly low because the area is not easily
accessible. Because of the small scale, tourism does not contribute substantially
to the local economy. Our organization therefore combines tourism efforts with
support for sustainable fisheries: fishing supports more people.
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Developing tourism has improved the awareness and appreciation of the
dolphins amongst local people, resulting in protection of the dolphin
population and their habitats. We are very pleased with the support and
commitment from the stakeholders in the area to get a protected area status for
the nearly 80km river structure and the linked lakes. In 2007, the first protected
dolphin area will be created and the government is now working on a law that
forbids the transport of coal barges through dolphin habitat.’