World Wildlife Fund

About the Area

Halmahera is located in the center of the Coral Triangle. Renowned for its globally outstanding marine life, it is nestled between the islands of Papua and Sulawesi in the Indonesian province of North Maluku. Halmahera’s incredible marine biodiversity and rich marine resources make it both a conservation priority and a target for economic development. Its 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.

About the Halmahera Expedition

WWF, along with other partners, conducted a preliminary assessment of the potential for marine conservation and tourism investments in the Halmahera area and its surrounding islands in April-May 2008.

The five main aims for the expedition included

1. Assessing 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. Assessing 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. Estimating 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. Assessing 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. Assessing the potential for marine tourism development in the area.
   Based on these results, recommendations would be made for resources management most appropriate for the region.