Within North Sulawesi’s ‘working seascapes’, the preservation of marine biodiversity is fundamentally tied to the daily needs of coastal populations. In the communities of North Minahasa – Tarabitan, Bahoi and Bulutui – the intertidal meadows are not just peripheral habitats, but essential socio-economic infrastructure. These meadows serve as a vital source of nutrition and income. At low tide, community members harvest invertebrates from seafloor, a practice that has led to seagrass being locally described as a “natural food pantry”. This provides a critical protein buffer when adverse weather restricts offshore artisanal fisheries, illustrating the clear reality that the health of the marine environment and community protein security are inextricably linked. However, this dependence also highlights a shared vulnerability. As land-based pressures such as sedimentation and waste pollution degrade seagrass habitats, both marine biodiversity and local food security are placed at risk. For species such as the dugong (Dugong dugong), which depend exclusively on seagrass for survival, habitat degradation poses an existential threat.
To address these interconnected challenges, the CMS Office – Abu Dhabi, under the framework of the Dugong Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), is supporting the Seagrass Ecosystem Services (SES) project (2020-2026), funded through the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Government. The project operates on the foundational principle that the long-term viability of Dugong dugon is contingent upon the ecological integrity of seagrass habitats, which in turn depend on the communities that reply on them. Moving beyond species-specific conservation, the project adopts a seascape-level approach that integrates ecological protection with socio-economic development. In North Sulawesi, this has involved close collaboration with YAPEKA, a key national partner, to align scientific research with Local Ecological Knowledge.
In North Sulawesi specifically, where the species is known locally as “Duyung”, or “Ikan Duyung” – the dugong serves as a biological indicator for their complex seagrass habitats. The presence of the species signals the health of local meadows, which include high-biomass structural species like Enhalus acoroides and Thalassia hemprichii. Therefore, community observations have been incorporated into drone-based surveys, improving the identification of key dugong foraging areas and strengthening the precision of conservation planning. This synergy suggests that for elusive sirenians, local stewardship is not a supplementary tool, but a core requirement for effective spatial management.
Figure 1. Local community members assist YAPEKA in the deployment of a BRUV unit. Beyond data collection, these daily field activities fostered a sense of shared ownership over the ‘working seascape’ – providing a tangible link between scientific research and the community’s lived experience of their environment.
The ecological value of these sites lies in their symbiotic connectivity. Seagrass meadows, coral reefs, and mangroves form an integrated system that supports fisheries and biodiversity. Community perspectives, articulated by individuals like Maxi Lahading, characterize these meadows as a “fish house”, highlighting their role as a nursery ground that sustains daily catches and, by extension, household food security. Beyond these immediate benefits, the project quantified the ‘blue carbon value’ of these sites, identifying significant carbon stocks in the soils of Bulutui and Bulo. These findings, aligned with the IPCC Wetlands Supplement, provide the empirical evidence needed to integrate seagrass into Indonesia’s Second National Determined Contributions (SNDC), challenging historical mangrove-centric climate policies.
However, the project recognizes that conservation efforts cannot succeed without addressing underlying economic pressures. Heavy reliance on nearshore fisheries and fragmented waste management can place additional strain on already vulnerable ecosystems. In response, community-led interventions in Bahoi have emerged as a form of “ground-up” environmental policy, where localized recycling programs act as primary defense for marine health. The SES Project has also supported the development of alternative livelihoods, including community-based spirulina cultivation.
Between 2023 and 2024, the project partnered with PT Niras for technical engineering and YAPEKA for ground-level operational implementation to establish two community-based farms in Yogyakarta and Tarabitan. Spirulina, a highly efficient photoautotrophic cyanobacterium, offers a superior nutrient profile compared to traditional livestock, requiring significantly lower water and land footprints. Launched in December 2024 under the commercial brand “Mermaid Spirulina”, these facilities represent a strategic intervention to decouple community income from seagrass extraction. The initiative has since transitioned into a revenue-generating model, proving the potential for scalable “blue economy” alternatives within coastal communities.
Figure 2. Commercial-grade flakes of Arthrospira platensis, marketed under the “Mermaid Spirulina” brand. These products are the primary output of the community-based cultivation facilities in Tarabitan and Yogyakarta, established to provide sustainable livelihood alternatives to seagrass-dependent activities.
Crucially, these economic interventions have also enabled stronger policy engagement. YAPEKA’s evidence-based demonstration of seagrass as an economic foundation enabled the formal integration of key habitats into the provincial marine spatial plan (RZWP3K). Through this advocacy, specific areas were designated as Daerah Larangan Penangkapan Ikan (no-take zones) and Kawasan Pencadangan Konservasi di Laut (KPL; marine conservation reserves). These zones provide the necessary legal mechanism to curtail coastal development while anchoring community-based management within formal state governance.
The experience from North Sulawesi offers a scalable roadmap: seagrass conservation is most effective when it is community-led, policy-integrated, and economically diversified. The overarching takeaway from YAPEKA’s involvement in the IKI SES project is the necessity of the “triple bottom line” – without the people, conservation cannot be implemented; without the economy, it lacks fuel; and without nature, survival is “impossible”. In these communities, seagrass is no longer viewed as a passive habitat, but as the foundation of food security, livelihoods, and biodiversity. By treating conservation as a long game rather than a short-term project, the local-level outcomes from this project have transitioned seagrass from the periphery of conservation into its rightful place as a pillar of coastal resilience and sirenian protection.
Further information on the project can be accessed at https://www.dugongseagrass.org/projects/seagrass-ecosystem-services-project/. Enquiries may be directed to cmsoffice.ae@un.org.
Figure 3. (From left) Ryan (Blue Ventures), Abie Ariyo Dandoro (YAPEKA), the YAPEKA team, and community partners after a training session in North Minahasa.