{"id":263055,"date":"2020-07-27T08:47:27","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T12:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=263055"},"modified":"2020-07-27T09:00:35","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T13:00:35","slug":"tourism-project-threatens-indonesian-fishers-livelihood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/07\/27\/tourism-project-threatens-indonesian-fishers-livelihood\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourism project threatens Indonesian fishers&#8217; livelihood"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mceTemp\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"bulletpoints\">\n<ul>\n<li><em>The coastal district of Majene on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is being developed to attract tourists.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Local fishers, however, have opposed the Waterfront City development project, saying it will damage the ecosystem that they depend on as their main source of livelihood.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Environmentalists also allege maladministration by the district government in allowing the project based on an environmental impact analysis that doesn\u2019t square with the real impact on the ground.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>The Majene government says it will continue with the project, calling the opposition one-sided.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>MAJENE, Indonesia \u2014 On a breezy afternoon, fishermen are preparing to set sail from a beach on the western coast of Indonesia\u2019s Sulawesi Island. Not far off, two excavators dredge earth from the coast as part of land reclamation project for a municipal development.<\/p>\n<p>For the past two years, the government of Majene district in West Sulawesi province has been developing the Waterfront City project on 18 hectares (44 acres) of land here. District head Fahmi Massiara has spoken of the need to turn the area into a modern coastal city featuring tourist attractions.<\/p>\n<p>Environmentalists and fishers are largely opposed to the project, saying it will destroy the coastal ecosystem and deprive fishing households of their main source of livelihood.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany oppose, but are afraid to speak out. Afraid of being intimidated,\u201d said Ridwan Tajuddin, 32, a fisherman from Cilallang, one of the villages that will be subsumed by the Waterfront City project.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>\u2018We could die\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Ridwan lives in a shack with his wife, two children, and the rest of his side of the family. From his door, he can see part of the reclaimed land. Ridwan is one of the fishermen who has been vocal in his public opposition to the project, even though others have warned him that his stance could lead to him losing access to government aid for low-income households.<\/p>\n<p>As villages go, Cilallang is relatively new, established in the 1990s by impoverished migrants moving to the area for the fishing. Most still depend on fishing and related activities to buy food, send their kids to school, and patch up their houses.<\/p>\n<p>Those homes \u2014 shacks of wood and corrugated tin \u2014 don\u2019t fit into the plan for the Waterfront City project, which will have a museum, park, floating mosque, hotel and tourist attractions. The project has also been designated part of the City Without Slums (Kotaku) initiative by the administration of President Joko Widodo, hich means it gets funding from both the district and national governments.<\/p>\n<p>While much of the project is about reclaiming new land on the coast, the plan also includes building dikes. Ridwan said it\u2019s this aspect of the project that will create problems for fishermen: the dikes, he said, will amplify the power of the waves crashing on their small stretch of beach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKids can\u2019t play by the beach anymore,\u201d Ridwan said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_232958\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-232958\" src=\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2020\/07\/24020430\/Salah-satu-sudut-permukiman-di-Cilallang-Agus-Mawan-1536x863-768x512.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"512\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cilallang village in Majene, Indonesia. Image by Agus Mawan\/Mongabay Indonesia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In the neighboring village of Parappe, fellow fisherman Abdul Rifai is also against the project. \u201cWe\u2019ve gone against it, but what can we do when the government wants it?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The fishers of Parappe say they\u2019re already experiencing the impact of stronger waves, deflected to their area by the ongoing construction of one of the dikes. In response to calls to stop the project, the government said it would build a wave breaker instead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe could die. Our boat already broke. It\u2019s deep here, about 3 meters [10 feet]. Plus, the waves in this area are very choppy,\u201d Rifai said.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Fishing as heritage<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Environmental activists have also called for an end to the reclamation activities for the Waterfront City project. Part of the plan calls for new land to be created over a 4.5-hectare (11-acre) area that currently hosts a coral reef and seagrass meadow.<\/p>\n<p>A study led by the Alliance to Save Coastal Fishers (ASNP), a local NGO, found environmental degradation at the reclamation site, including increased sedimentation in the seagrass meadow, during observations in August and September 2019. The group concluded the reality of what was happening on the ground was far different from what the project developers\u2019 environmental impact analysis (EIA) had predicted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe think [the EIA] was a supporting reason why the location [was considered] reasonable for land reclamation,\u201d said Dicky Zulkarnain, a researcher at the ASNP.<\/p>\n<p>Last August, environmentalists and fishers staged a protest demanding the Majene district government stop the Waterfront City project. They also demanded compensation for the losses incurred by the fishers throughout the ongoing development.<\/p>\n<p>The district head and his deputy were out of town that day, and the protesters went on to shut down activities at the reclamation site in Cilallang. The government responded by sending police to protect the construction workers.<\/p>\n<p>In October, ASNP filed a formal complaint alleging maladministration in the development of the Waterfront City project to the office of West Sulawesi\u2019s ombudsperson. In March this year, the office presented its findings of maladministration to the Majene administration, but the government has yet to respond.<\/p>\n<p>Opposition to the project hasn\u2019t waned. Activists and fishers continue calling on the Majene government to stop the project and prioritize the interests of local fishers and environmental protection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe think the WFC is only positive in one aspect: aesthetics. Nothing more than that,\u201d said Yusri, a coordinator at the Sulawesi chapter of the NGO People\u2019s Coalition for Justice in Fisheries (KIARA).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe planner, the developer and the government may not understand that fishing isn\u2019t just a profession, but it\u2019s a heritage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_232957\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-232957\" src=\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2020\/07\/24020421\/Aktivitas-nelayan-di-tengah-pengerjaan-tanggul-di-Cilallang-Agus-Mawan-1200x800-768x512.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"512\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An excavator dredges earth for a reclamation project in the midst of fishers carrying out their work at the site of the Waterfront City project in Majene, Indonesia. Image by Agus Mawan\/Mongabay Indonesia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_232960\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-232960\" src=\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2020\/07\/24020448\/Tanggul-WFC-di-Cilallang-Agus-Mawan-1536x864-768x512.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"512\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dike built as part of the Waterfront City project in Majene, Indonesia. Image by Agus Mawan\/Mongabay Indonesia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For its part, the Majene government says the opposition is \u201conly from one side.\u201d District head Fahmi says the project is a solution to the district\u2019s high population density. He says he also consulted with the ministry of public works, which he said advised him to promote the project\u2019s goals of tourism, urban planning, and protection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen this is completed, it\u2019ll be very beautiful,\u201d Fahmi said.<\/p>\n<p>[This article was originally published by Mongabay. READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/2020\/07\/indonesian-fishers-face-livelihood-threat-from-beautiful-tourism-project\/\">Indonesian fishers face livelihood threat from \u2018beautiful\u2019 tourism project<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The coastal district of Majene on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is being developed to attract tourists. Local fishers, however, &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":263056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-agus-mawan","mauthors-mongabay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263055"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263073,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263055\/revisions\/263073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}