Ecological Status of Misool MPA - 2015 Technical Report

The Raja Ampat Islands encompass 4 million hectares of land and sea located in West Papua, Indonesia, right in the heart of the Coral Triangle. The Raja Ampat Islands are a part of the Bird’s Head Seascape, which has the greatest coral reef biodiversity on the planet (Veron et al. 2009, Allen and Erdman 2009, 2012, Mangubhai et al. 2012) and is a global priority for conservation. In recognition of the conservation values of coral reefs and their importance to sustaining the livelihoods of local people, a network of seven marine protected areas (MPAs) covering over 1 million ha was established in Raja Ampat. The main aim of establishing the MPA network was to conserve fish habitats, reproduction function and stocks and to ensure sustainable fisheries and uses of other marine resources. South East Misool MPA, hereinafter referred to as Misool MPA, is one of these MPAs. In this report, we analysed 22 permanent sites data of 2011 as a basis data before zoning established and year of 2013 and 2015 as repetition data for evaluate the zoning and management plan implementation. In 2015, 26 sites were surveyed by an integrated monitoring team from Misool local community, Raja Ampat Conservation Implementation Unit (UPTD DKP Raja Ampat), students of Diponegoro University, Reef Check Indonesia, Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy from 18-23 October.