By Irvan Ahmad Fikri and Reffa Pythaloka

WWF Indonesia's Conservation and Science team held an "Ecological Database Training" activity at the Komodo National Park Center, Labuan Bajo, NTT. The training, which was held on May 13 and 14, was attended by 18 staff of the Komodo National Park (BTNK). This training aims to improve the ability of BTNK staff related to aspects of aquatic ecological monitoring such as resource use monitoring and species incidental monitoring (occasional observation).

Since 2008, Komodo National Park has only conducted resource use monitoring. In fact, with an area of 173,300 ha which covers 70% of the waters and is included in the world's coral reef triangle (Coral Triangle) which has more than 1000 species of fish, 260 species of corals and 70 species of sponges, Komodo National Park has a high potential to be explored through monitoring.The waters in Komodo National Park are also a migration route for unique species such as whales, dolphins and dugongs. The ecological database training held by WWF-Indonesia will help uncover the potential in Komodo National Park.

The enthusiasm of the participants was evident from the understanding of how to monitor resource utilization and incidental species in the field, the ability to compile a good database, and be able to perform simple analysis of the data collected. The WWF-Indonesia team and the participants developed a survey form that will be applied in an Android-based data collection system to facilitate monitoring activities in the field.

Through this monitoring training, it is hoped that BTNK will be able to conduct routine monitoring of resource utilization and incidental species monitoring in the field, so that the potential of aquatic resources in the area can be better explored, and the potential for the emergence and migration of unique species can be well mapped. The data collected by the monitoring team from the center can be used as a reference in the management of the Komodo National Park area.