Planning education to care for the earth - IUCN Knowledge Network

Planning education to care for the earththe parks, communities were engaged in primary environmental care, andvisits were made to discuss and inform groups who were affected by zoningproposals in the parks.From these experiences the project tried to build closer links betweencommunication and the process of establishing a protected area system.Communication will play an instrumental role in achieving the conservationgoals and in designing a more realistic protected area system which will havea chance of being implemented. Without communication, protected areasrisk being a fact on paper only, designed behind the desk of a conservationplanner, and unknown to the people in the field, or even in other agencies.The challenge of marine conservation in IndonesiaIndonesia is the world’s largest archipelago, with a coastline of some 81,000km. Over-exploitation, pollution, the dynamiting of fish, coral mining andother unsustainable practices are putting heavy pressure on the coastal areas.In an approach to this problem, the Indonesian Government is declaringsome of the endangered areas “protected areas”. In its fifth Five Year Plan,the government has established a target of 10 million hectares (ha.) ofprotected marine and seashore areas. By the end of the Sixth Plan in 2000the intention is to protect 30 million ha. The plans are ambitious, consideringthat legally established protected areas now cover only 2.5 million ha.,without any significant conservation intervention.The problem is to give support to the creation of protected areas by means ofcommunications, so that the region protected is known about, and hasinvolved people in the process of its gazetting and management planning.Marine conservation planning processThe establishment of a protected area system is a complicated administrativeprocedure involving many government institutions at national, regional andlocal levels. Once a global outlook on the areas to be protected is developed,government agencies also interact with various non-governmental interests atnational, regional and local levels to determine the area for conservation.Lack of awareness and conflicts of interest hamper the process, which maytake years. Once the park or protected area is selected, boundaries areproposed and the area formally becomes a conservation area by Ministerialdecree. Then management plans can be drawn up and hopefullyimplemented.The planning cycle to establish parks and protected areas has the followingcharacteristics:•phase 1 : gazetting and administrative preparatory procedures•phase 2 : developing a management plan•phase 3 : implementing the management plan•phase 4 : maintaining control on the management88