Developing Sustainable, friendly to nature and community-based fishery model in Wakatobi

The project will be implemented in Wakatobi Islands and National Park, located to the southeast of Buton District in Southeast Sulawesi Province. Wakatobi is located in the Coral Triangle and home to a great marine biodiversity. The coral reefs in Wakatobi are threatened because of destructive fishing with dynamite (bombs) and cyanide. A reef health monitoring survey held by WWF/TNC in 2007, showed that percentage of living hard coral in Wakatobi Ditrict is around 23,4 % - 39,68 %, which means it ranges from ‘low’ to ‘fair’. Main target fish species for the bomb- and cyanide fishing are for food fishery (like certain groupers, snappers, emperors, barracudas), both for subsistence use and for sale to other provinces and export. Through the proposed project YARI aims to introduce an effective, easy-made, and friendly to nature catching tool, named “Pancing Kedo-Kedo” (Kedo-kedo fish gear ). This method can be used to catch the same target fish as the currently used destructive methods, and was earlier successfully introduced in Hari Island, Southeast Sulawesi. The method will contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of the coral reef ecosystem and at the same time improve Wakatobi fishermen’s income: the quality of fish caught by pancing Kedo-Kedo will be better than by bomb or cyanide and hence the price can be higher. YARI will assist the fishermen with opening better market access for the fish.