Five Pilot Sites Selected for National Seahorse Conservation in Indonesia
- 26 Agt 2026 16:36 WIB
- Voice of Indonesia
Key Points
- BRIN has selected Bintan, Kota Baru, Selayar Islands, East Seram and East Lombok as pilot sites for a national seahorse conservation and fisheries monitoring framework.
- The strategy targets habitat degradation, fishing pressure, fragmented data and trade monitoring through community-based conservation, digital data integration and sustainable marine tourism.
RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta - The National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) of Indonesia has designated five key locations across Indonesia as pilot sites for sustainable seahorse conservation and fisheries monitoring, establishing a scalable operational blueprint for other coastal provinces.
Announced during a national workshop titled Identification, Measurement, and Monitoring Techniques for Seahorses at the B.J. Habibie Building in Jakarta on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, the five designated pilot regions are Bintan (Kepulauan Riau), Kota Baru (South Kalimantan), Selayar Islands (South Sulawesi), East Seram (Maluku), and East Lombok (West Nusa Tenggara).
Researchers also flagged East Java, Banten, and West Kalimantan as vital secondary monitoring zones due to high trade volumes and unrecorded bycatch. Stakeholders identified four core threats to seahorse populations, habitat degradation, fragmented data management, fishing pressure, and suboptimal trade surveillance, prompting an eight-point national strategy structured across short, medium, and long-term implementation phases.
Research teams and marine conservation specialists highlighted that multi-stakeholder data integration and community-based monitoring are essential to protect vulnerable coastal species. Junior Researcher at BRIN’s Biota System Research Center Masayu Rahmia Anwar Putri detailed the strategic selection of the pilot locations.
"The selection of Bintan, Kota Baru, Selayar Islands, East Seram, and East Lombok follows extensive workshops analyzing threats to seahorse populations and developing targeted management strategies, we identified four major concerns: habitat degradation, unintegrated data management, fishing pressure, and trade monitoring that requires further optimization," Masayu said in Jakarta on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, as quoted on BRIN's official website.
She outlined the phased framework designed to ensure long-term ecological and economic sustainability. "In the short term, our focus centers on public education, capacity building, citizen science data collection, and village-level coordination, over the medium and long term, we aim to integrate digital data dashboards, develop sustainable aquaculture, harmonize regional policies, and shift toward non-extractive utilization through educational marine ecotourism," Masayu added. ***
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