About the expedition

A special place in the spotlight

The area’s incredible marine biodiversity and rich marine resources make it both a conservation priority and a target for economic development.

Halmahera's local government  is facing important decisions on how to strike the right balance between sustainable economic development of  marine resources and conservation of globally-significant marine diversity.

The future prosperity of the people living in the Halmahera area depends on responsible, well-informed policies that allow for sustainable development while preventing the environmental destruction that has occurred in many other areas of Indonesia, including severe overfishing and illegal logging.

Responsible governments and their stakeholders need support in developing effective, sustainable coastal and marine resource management that conserves biodiversity while benefiting local communities.

In order to help achieve this, WWF-Indonesia, Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy proposed conducting a preliminary assessment of the potential for marine conservation and tourism investments in the Halmahera area and its surrounding islands. Based on the results, recommendations will be made for resources management that is the most appropriate for the region.

The Halmahera expedition will be conducted from 13 April through 11 May 2008, with five main aims:

1. Assess the current biodiversity status (including coral reef condition and conservation status/resilience of hard corals, coral reef fishes, stomatopod crustaceans, and sea turtles) of the Halmahera area, including Ternate and Tidore Islands, the Goraici and Bacan Islands, Patientie Strait, Damar and Widi Islands in the south, Weda Bay, Buli Bay, Kao Bay, Galela Bay/Tobelo Islands, Morotai Island, and the North Loloda/South Loloda Islands.

2. Assess the potential for development of marine protected areas (MPAs) along the extensive assessment route, specifically identifying areas of outstanding conservation importance due to rare or endemic hard coral or fish assemblages, presence of turtle nesting beaches or reef fish spawning aggregation sites, or other outstanding biological features.

3. Estimate levels of ecological connectivity between reefs in the Halmahera area and across the Bird’s Head Seascape in general, including with the reefs of Raja Ampat as well as the Sulu-Sulawesi Seascape. This will be done through analysis of taxonomic similarities of coral, fish, echinoderm and crustacean assemblages on these reefs and through direct analysis of phylogeographic structure across selected marine populations in the assessment area.

4. Assess the current socioeconomic conditions of coastal villages that are located in or near potential MPA(s); including documentation of reliance on marine resources for livelihoods, dominant capture techniques including potentially destructive fishing practices, and attitudes towards conservation.

5. Assess the potential for marine tourism development in the area.

The results

All data collected by the assessment team will be shared  with each of the implementing partners, including PHKA-Ministry of Forestry, Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, BKSDA, Provincial Government of North Maluku, Universitas Khairun, The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International Indonesia, and WWF-Indonesia.

Preliminary results will be reported directly after the expedition in a presentation conducted at Universitas Khairun in end of May 2008, with final compiled reports and associated data distributed in hard and electronic copy by end of 2008.