Measuring Effectiveness Example: Indonesia
Description
The Nature Conservancy—Indonesia Marine Program (TNC-IMP) has been involved in marine protected areas (MPAs) in Indonesia since 1996, working with various partner organizations. TNC-IMP has been working in six locations: Nusa Penida (Bali), Komodo National Park (East Nusa Tenggara), Wakatobi National Park (Southeast Sulawesi), the Misool and Kofiau Islands in Raja Ampat (West Papua), Berau (East Kalimantan), and the Savu Sea (East Nusa Tenggara).
Joint strategic planning, Wakatobi NP & TNC-WWF. Photo © Arisetiarso Soemodinoto/TNC
To build capacity to provide management assistance to its partners, it is necessary to have an instrument to assess the management effectiveness of the MPAs where TNC works. This instrument would have the potential to not only demonstrate the performance and success of management that is fundamental for the purpose of raising conservation funding from donors, but it also could be used to anticipate the expansion of protected marine areas in Indonesia. Without an appropriate tested instrument, it would be difficult to determine whether these protected areas are effectively managed in a way to achieve the two goals of biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.
The Guide for Improving Marine Protected Area Management Effectiveness in Indonesia presents a simple yet robust tool to assess how an MPA is doing in its management and conservation role. Although MPAs may be set up to achieve different objectives in different areas of the country, this Guide can be used to assess MPAs anywhere in the country. In addition to providing an easy means of assessing progress or problems within MPAs, it is a learning tool. It provides a systematic means for MPA planners, managers, stakeholders and others to determine what has been accomplished within an MPA project and what is missing or needs more attention to make it more effective.
The project has four objectives:
- Identify the parameters of MPA management that should be monitored in MPAs established in Indonesia.
- Create and finalize a practical, comprehensive system and process for measuring the effectiveness of MPA management that includes jointly agreed management parameters and indicators.
- Test the management effectiveness system in several pilot MPA to assess the overall effectiveness of their management and to draw lessons from the adoption of the system and its results, before applying it in Indonesia-wide MPAs and MPA networks.
- Disseminate lessons learned and best practices in strategic ways, including capacity strengthening through regional and national workshops to facilitate lesson learning with MPA authorities (location managers and government officers), publications, papers, technical reports, and participation in regional symposiums and national conferences.
The Steps of the Guide
The MPA management effectiveness guide includes five main steps in implementing an effective evaluation process. These are:
- Step 1 — Identify and gather the review team.
- Step 2 — Consolidate, wherever possible, all background information on the MPA. This entails gathering together all existing biophysical, socioeconomic and governance related background information about the MPA (including spatial coordinates, copy of decree, zoning or management plan if relevant, etc.).
- Step 3 — Collate all data (or resultant analysis of data, reports, reviews, etc.) gathered from any and all assessments or monitoring exercises that have been undertaken in the MPA. This may include, for example, the results of biophysical monitoring (such as reef health monitoring), socioeconomic monitoring (such as perception monitoring), and governance monitoring (such as the effects of particular surveillance and enforcement activities to implement relevant MPA regulations).
- Step 4 — Where possible develop and maintain a database to house all MPA data. This is an important factor in effective MPA management long-term and considerably assists in the review process.
- Step 5 — Now the review team can complete the MPA management effectiveness background information and scorecard through focus group discussions with the identified review team members. The results of this process will determine the MPA management score.
Progress to Date
The development of the management effectiveness guide involved the following steps:
- Development of a prototype guide. A prototype was developed using the results of the desk study as a reference and guide. This guide has been designed to be used by the management agency of an MPA to undertake a ‘self-evaluation’ of the MPAs management effectiveness. To that end the reviewer will be the management agency itself. The result was a prototype containing:
- Descriptions of the governance, biophysical and socioeconomic aspects, and a draft/preliminary list of self-assessment questions;
- A draft/preliminary list of questions about baseline data on the MPA; and
- Draft/preliminary management evaluation scorecard.
- Basic relevant information about the MPA, such as about governance, biophysical and socioeconomic aspects; and
- A database that stores all this information in a form accessible to decision- makers to make analyses and to ensure that management activities are guided by accurate information and directed towards effective management of an MPA or MPA network.
- Field trials. Three field trials have been made to date in three MPAs: Wakatobi National Park, Berau Marine Conservation Area, and West Bali National Park. These MPAs represent both different administration regimes and management approach. Wakatobi and West Bali are managed under the Ministry of Forestry, and Berau is managed by District Office of Marine Affairs and Fisheries with assistance from Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries.
In terms of management approach, Wakatobi and Berau are solely managed based on their marine setting which includes all important ecosystems (coral reefs, mangroves and seagrass meadows) and relevant species/populations (commercially valuable fishes, protected and endangered turtles, cetaceans, etc.). West Bali, however, represents a unique management approach because management of its marine environment is particularly for tourism purposes. This is because the Park is mainly terrestrial-based, and only around 20 percent of its area is marine environment.
Results of the trials indicate that the guide could be used to learn about and understand several important aspects that government has not considered in establishing and managing MPAs, such as public consultation and public participation in monitoring and security of the area. In addition, as well as helping to identify the priority activities that need to be carried out, this guide has also sparked a need for studies related to public perceptions of, for example, the need for evaluation of the ecological and socioeconomic impacts of the establishment and management of an MPA, and for exploring sustainable financing mechanisms for management of MPAs.
Park staff and officials of West Bali NP filling out MPA Management Scorecard. Photo © Arisetiarso Soemodinoto/TNC
In summary, the MPA guide will be immensely useful for improving management at the local scale as well as providing guidance on what types of assistance are needed and where, through government agencies or partners, in MPA planning and management. Finally, it is hoped that this guide can be widely applied to improve the status of MPAs in Indonesia.
Contact
Arisetiarso Soemodinoto, MPAME Specialist
TNC Indonesia Marine Program, Bali, Indonesia
Email: asoemodinoto@tnc.org
Alan White PhD, Senior Scientist,
TNC Asia-Pacific Program, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Email: alan_white@tnc.org
Funding
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)
Resources
The Nature Conservancy—Indonesia Marine Program (TNC-IMP)
MPAME eWorkbook User Manual — contact the Indonesia Progam directly to obtain the Excel workbook that this Manual accompanies