Mantehage Island Residents Reject Bunaken National Park Boundary Demarcation

Image: article cover, from Ronald et al. (2021), Jurnal Wasian, licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.

The demarcation of Bunaken National Park boundaries on Mantehage Island, North Minahasa Regency, North Sulawesi, has been rejected by the local community. The rejection arose because residents claim parts of the area as their gardens and settlements. This was revealed in research by Ronald Junedie Aneng, Roland A Barkey, and Muslim Salam from the Postgraduate School of Hasanuddin University, published in Jurnal Wasian in 2021.

According to the study, land cover on Mantehage Island consists of primary mangrove forest, dryland agriculture, mixed gardens, shrubland, settlements, and roads. Conflict occurred between residents and the Forest Area Boundary Demarcation Committee of North Minahasa Regency. The research team noted that residents do not yet understand the demarcation process and the regulations that could actually provide a way out of their land problems.

The study offers three solutions: recognition of third-party rights in the demarcation process, review of spatial planning, and conservation partnerships. For communities around forests, these findings indicate that the designation of conservation areas needs to take into account land that has long been cultivated by residents, rather than merely drawing boundary lines on a map.

Source and how to cite

This story is based on the research article Analysis of Tenurial Conflict of the Bunaken National Park (A Case Study of Mantehage Island) by Ronald Junedie Aneng Ronald, Roland A Barkey Roland and Muslim Salam Muslim, published in Jurnal Wasian Vol. 8 No. 1 (2021). The full article is free to read on the Jurnal Wasian website.

Cite the original article (APA 7):

Ronald, R. J. A., Roland, R. A. B., & Muslim, M. S. (2021). Analysis of Tenurial Conflict of the Bunaken National Park (A Case Study of Mantehage Island). Jurnal Wasian, 8(1), 47–57. https://doi.org/10.62142/1f47tx19

If you use these findings in coursework, a thesis or other writing, cite the original article above, not this news story. The original article is licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.