Improving national awareness and research of dugong and seagrass in Indonesia (ID2).

Indonesia: Bintan District; Alor District; Maliku Tenggara District; and Kotawaringin Barat District

$335,374

ID2 seeks to enhance community awareness of dugong and seagrass conservation and management, improve the capacity of dugong and seagrass research and monitoring, and provide scientific information to support related conservation and management activities.

The project seeks to support dugong and seagrass conservation efforts by promoting national awareness of the threats posed to dugongs and their habitats by destructive fishing equipment, stranding, habitat destruction, pollution and coastal development. This will involve identifying target audiences through a National Communication Strategy Workshop; producing national awareness campaign materials; conducting a public awareness campaign using social and traditional media; appointing a Dugong and Seagrass Ambassador; and organising a national dugong day.

ID2 also aims to collect information and contribute knowledge to support conservation efforts, employing seagrass mapping and monitoring; a questionnaire-based dugong survey; an aerial dugong survey; and devising both carbon budget guidelines and a seagrass and dugong database. Implementation of training on these methods and community-based seagrass management is expected to build stakeholder capacity and engagement, and enable standardised methods for national dugong and seagrass research and monitoring.

Deliverables
  1. Enhance dugong and seagrass awareness among local communities.
  2. Improve dugong and seagrass research and monitoring capacities.
  3. Develop a standardized methodology and guidelines for seagrass ecosystem carbon budgets and a national standardized methodology for dugong research.
  4. Develop and operationalise a database of dugong and seagrass