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THE ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF OPERATION WALLACEA ON LOCAL COMMUNITIES IN THE WAKATOBI MARINE NATIONAL PARK
Introduction
International tourism is a new concept to the Islands of SE Sulawesi, but in the last 5-6 years new eco-tourism projects have been introduced into the area, giving the local communities a new source of income. One of these projects is called Operation Wallacea, which is based on the Islands of Buton and Hoga; it runs scientific based expeditions, to help to conserve the areas' unique natural environment. They do this by recruiting a range of volunteers who help the conservation, not just by their financial contributions, but also by them taking an active role to assist in the conservation methods that have been implemented. Operation Wallacea gives the local people a chance to generate income from eco-tourists by offering services, such as accommodation, food, transport and selling local products. This project will look at the affect this new source of income has had upon the local communities.
Objectives
Methodology
Data on total spend within the local community were obtained by examining the Operation Wallacea accounts. Data on how the income is distributed was assessed by conducting questionnaires with local people. These include house owners, fishermen; local people employed or contracted by Operation Wallacea, and shops providing goods or services to the project . For each interviewee the questionnaire established how much of their annual income is from Operation Wallacea and how many people are dependent on them and their income. For example if a fishermen derives 50% of his annual income from Operation Wallacea and has 2 dependents reliant solely on the income he makes, this would be calculated as 1.5 people obtaining their annual income from Operation Wallacea. For shops the percentage of their turnover derived from Operation Wallacea was estimated and this percentage then applied to the employees. For example if a shop receive 10% of its turnover from Operation Wallacea and the employees of the shop together support 8 people witht heir wages, then this would be calculated as 0.8 of a person being suopported.
Analysis of results
Over 400 people in the local community now directly benefit from the income from Operation Wallacea and there has been an average rise in these people’s annual incomes of around 50 %. These results suggest that Operation Wallacea has a ratio of 2 local people receiving their annual income for each western visitor that joins the project, which is one of th highest ratios reported in the literature.
Report
A report entitled The economic impact on local populations of a small research tourism operation in the Wakatobi Marine National Park will be produced by Peter Williams, University of Portsmouth by May 2002.