Although the threat of environmental damage in the Wakatobi National Park area has decreased from year to year, the security of the area is still being strengthened. On February 17, 2015, the Wakatobi National Park Office together with WWF-Indonesia held a Coordination Meeting on the Security of Wakatobi National Park (TNW) which was officially opened by Drs. Sudjiton, MM, Regional Secretary of Wakatobi.

This activity was attended by representatives of the Wakatobi Regency government, law enforcement, customary institutions and WNP Center staff. The meeting, which took place in the meeting room of the Wakatobi Regent's office, aimed to unify the vision and mission related to securing the WKNP area and to collaborate and share roles between all stakeholders in securing the WKNP area.

Until 2015, some of the programs that have been in place and will continue are routine monitoring and guarding patrols, routine patrols with strike aircraft, sudden or incidental patrols, intelligence operations or collecting materials and information, functional or joint security operations, and case handling.

In 2014, several security disturbances were found in WNP, such as the capture of protected animals, especially turtles, turtle egg trade, zoning violations, fish bombing, drugging and unlicensed fisheries. Furthermore, actions were taken such as returning turtles to their habitat. For some cases, guidance is carried out, because there are still residents who do not know regulations such as turtle protection.

The existence of strike aircraft is effectively used to conduct monitoring with a large area coverage and in a shorter time. Information obtained from the strike aircraft is collected and followed up.

Commitment in Security

From this meeting, a commitment was formed to conduct joint security and follow-up of illegal activities found in the field as well as scheduling collaboration in securing the area for the period January to December 2015 in the form of joint surveillance (surveillance). The first joint surveillance will be conducted this March and will be routinely conducted once per month.

This joint surveillance involves the Head of the Wakatobi Regency Marine and Fisheries Service, the Head of the Resort Police, the TNI-AD Commander, and the Head of the WKNP Center. The increased security of the WKNP area is organized to support the main functions of the WKNP based on the Decree of the Minister of Forestry No. 7651/Kpts-II/2002, namely as a life support system protection area, a conservation area for the diversity of plant and animal species and their ecosystems and an area for sustainable use of the potential of biological natural resources and their ecosystems.

This surveillance collaboration is still relatively new, so the technical implementation still requires a mediation process, which is one of the duties of the BTNW-WWF SES Surveillance Working Group Team (SK. 1251/BTNW-1/2014). The plan for the future is to schedule joint patrols at the district level once a month, in addition to the routine monthly patrols of each agency. In addition, this commitment will be passed down at the island level to sub-districts throughout Wakatobi.

Author: Amkieltiela (Marine Science and Knowledge Management Officer)