Whales and Indonesian coastal communities

Jakarta Post 26 Jun 09;

As a whale researcher who has been working on Savu Sea sperm and blue whales since 2002, I would like to make it clear that the Savu Sea Marine National Park (MNP) is not about stopping traditional sperm whaling.

In fact, as we have said many times in various official meetings, I regard the Lamalera community as part of this productive seascape, and a village of unique cultural heritage. It's important to note that the Savu Sea NMP is to be of a multi-purpose nature and, as such, can accommodate all stakeholders within it, including traditional sea hunters. As the article correctly points out there are certain features within adat (traditional) law which have strong conservation values.

When combined and preserved without modernization, these adat laws ensure a level of "traditional catch per unit effort" or T-CPUE. These laws can form the basis of whale management in these waters, with a major input from the Lamalera community itself.

The Lamalera community has indeed much to benefit from the NMP as it will address key threats to whales such as net entanglements, shipping and pollution, as well as issues of major concern to the community like: a) coastal mining in Lembata, including plans to dump massive volumes of waste in the nearby sea and b) commercial long-line fleets encroaching on their traditional hunting grounds.

The village elders have informed me of these issues on many occasions over the years. Marine Protected Areas are widely used around the world to deal with such conflicts and allow for the traditional use of marine mammals (for example, indigenous Australians can hunt certain numbers of sea turtles and dugong within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park).

As such it is unfortunate there is still a lot of misunderstanding in the media and other parties on the goals of this Marine National Park and how it can benefit local communities, including the Lamalera.

The over-aching principle here is sustainability, and as I also hear from the Lamaler, this is of common interest: No more whales, no more traditional whaling culture. In my view the Savu Sea National Marine Park will help to avoid this by ensuring healthy, productive seas, on which both the whales and coastal communities depend for their livelihoods and future.

Banjamin Kahn

Lembata, East Nusa Tenggara