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ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE STAKEHOLDER ZONE 

Introduction

This project will be about the stakeholder zone, which is being planned around the island of Kaledupa. The stakeholder zone is a form of coastal management which will aim to improve the quality of life for the human communities of Kaledupa which depend on coastal resources while maintaining the biological diversity and productivity of coastal ecosystems (Olson and Hale 1997). In order to implement the stakeholder zone the fisherman in the 16 villages, which will participate, must be informed of the idea otherwise the scheme will not work due to a lack of knowledge of the restrictions of the zone. Operation Wallacea, which is the driving force behind the zone, has held meetings in all of the villages to inform the fisherman and to get their opinions. A large meeting was then held with a delegation of headmen and fisherman attending to finalize the plans and to see if the idea of the stakeholder zone was being accepted. 

Methodology   

The basis of the information is to come from qualitative interviews using a random sampling method. Sets of interview questions were formed before doing the interviews and in total there were 28 questions. At the time of writing up these interviews only Laulua and Sampela had been examined. 15 interviews were done in Laulua, more would have been done but no other fisherman could be found. 20 interviews were done in Sampela as it was thought that that would be a good sample size. 

Preliminary Analysis of Results

When this was written 2 out of the 3 villages had been interviewed but is still possible to come to some conclusions on difficulties that the stakeholder zone at present may come across and through identifying these difficulties possible solutions in the future may be able to be found out.

The first set of question about the fisherman’s background showed that there are early differences between the two parties. The Lauluan fisherman mostly had another form of income whilst the Bajo were solely dependent on the sea and the fish for there living. 

One of the first things that became sticking after conducting the two set of interviews was that there is a massive community divide between the Bajo people of Sampela and that of the Laulau interviews. Many of the interviewees expressed their dislike and lack of respect toward each other. Some of the interviewees in Laulua were saying that what is the point in asking the Bajo what their point of view is towards the stakeholder zone as they do not fish for economical purposes and just fish for themselves. A bajo perspective on the community divide is the inlanders dictate to a thought that they do not have a strong enough voice to express their ideas on to the public debate and will there for. One interviewee thought this was the case because the inland people still provided them with there fresh water and used the inland markets to trade there fish thus having a form of power over them. 

 This initial divide was mirrored to some extent in the response I was getting concerning park ranges. The Bajo had a far greater concern for the park ranges and there ability to do their job. Many of the Bajo were pleased not to see the ranges patrolling as much as they used to as this means they will spending less time interfering with there fishing. The people from Laulua seemed to have a far greater respect for the ranges and an understanding of what they do. When the questions was asked would you like to see more community involvement in the patrolling of the area both parties agreed that more collaboration with the ranges would be of advantage in the understanding of the rules regarding fishing. 

The subject of agar was of interest as the initial findings again show differences in the both parties’ attitudes towards the importance of Agar. The Lauluans seemed to have a greater understanding of the agar and felt it important to include Agar in any controlled fishing area. Many of the people interviewed did both fishing and Agar cultivation, which seem to explain their views. The Bajo have different views on Agar cultivation and this may stem from the fact that there isn’t that many Bajo people who actually farm Agar. A number of responses said that all this Agar cultivation is reducing the area in which we can catch fish. 

The next finding is that there is a difference between the two when concerning what type of fishing methods they would like to use in the future. The Lauluans would generally like to see improvements in technology to unable them to catch more fish. The Bajo would generally like to see no change in fishing methods, as they fear any change will be a change for the worse regarding fish stocks. This possible confirms a popular view that the Bajo live for the day where as the kaledupans are more interested in maximizing profit from the sea. 

There is definitely a uniform consensus that fishing techniques, which harm the environment namely, bomb fishing, cyanide fishing and the use of compressor should be banned. 

Report

The findings of this study will be presented in an undergraduate dissertation entitled Attitudes towards the Stakeholder Zone by Alex Baynes, University of Portsmouth by May 2003.