Endangered green and hawksbill turtles are the most common visitors. The WWF estimates that 203,000 breeding green turtle females exist in the wild, and only 8,000 of the more critically endangered hawksbills.
FROM POACHING TO ECOTOURISM
All seven marine turtle species are experiencing severe threats to their survival, especially from pollution and the destruction of habitats such as coral reefs, beds of seagrass, nesting beaches and mangrove forests.
Those hatchlings that survive the exhausting dash from their nests to the sea face the ever-increasing risk of drowning in fishing gear or waste such as plastic bags as they make their epic migrations to feeding grounds.
Anano is a success story but elsewhere in the vast Indonesian archipelago turtles are being killed and exploited with impunity, conservationists said.
Laws setting out fines of up to US$10,000 and jail terms of five years for anyone caught stealing eggs or poaching live turtles are rarely enforced.
“Egg collection occurs in many parts of Indonesia, especially on Borneo and the western part of Sumatra island where turtle eggs are still commercialized,” said WWF’s national coordinator of marine species conservation Creusa Hitipeuw.
“Bali has been a main destination market of turtle meat which is illegally smuggled from the nearby islands of West Nusa Tenggara such as Lombok and Sumbawa.”
Located around 1,500km northeast of Jakarta, Anano and Runduma are among a cluster of islands in Wakatobi district on the southern tip of Sulawesi island.
They were declared a national park in 1996 and are among 11 zones the local government has set aside for marine and reef conservation.
“For the last three years we included environmental subjects in the school curriculum for elementary and junior high school,” said Wakatobi district chief Hugua, a former environmental activist.
“Wakatobi’s biggest development income will focus on ecotourism, which will maintain, among other things, the sustainability of sea turtle conservation.”
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