Seagrass beds in shallow coastal waters are critical ecosystems and important for fisheries activities, including the wild collection of invertebrates using simple tools or bare hands, known as ‘gleaning.’ Gleaning provides an important supplementary source of income and sustenance. This is a common activity across Sulawesi, Indonesia, including the Selayar Islands Regency. Women are typically dominant in gleaning, providing the daily needs of their families by collecting edible macroinvertebrates, seagrass-associated fish, seaweed, and seagrass fruit. A healthy seagrass ecosystem provides a wide range of species for collection, but overexploitation can pose risks to the long-term health of seagrass ecosystems.
Sandfish (Holothuria scabra) in their natural habitat, seagrass beds
To better maintain seagrass beds and their biodiversity, the cultivation of sea cucumber Holothuria scabra (sandfish) utilizes the natural habitat of this species as a productive method of habitat conservation, providing income for local communities while ensuring the ecological integrity of seagrass beds. Sea cucumbers often constitute the largest biomass in seagrass beds, and can be considered as the seagrass ecosystem engineers. Their burrowing, feeding, and locomotion help drive seagrass growth by aerating sediment and encouraging nutrient cycling, with larger sea cucumber populations correlating positively to enhanced seagrass growth and vitality (Arnull et al., 2021). This creates a positive feedback loop for local communities, with increased sea cucumber production supporting other economic activities, including coastal fish stocks.
Women in coastal communities of Selayar participated in sea cucumber cultivation training
The sandfish cultivation carried out in the Selayar Islands is aimed at high female involvement. In addition to gleaning, many coastal women also manage households, raise children, and earn additional income from small home enterprises. Many coastal women depend on men’s income, which is mostly obtained from fishing. This makes women increasingly vulnerable in more uncertain economic conditions. With sandfish cultivation activities, coastal women in Selayar Islands can increase their capacity and capability in maintaining family resilience through additional income, as well as contributing to improving the health of coastal ecosystems, especially seagrass beds.
Local women of Selayar coastal communities took part in monitoring sea cucumber growth
The sandfish cultivation in the Selayar Islands specifically targets local women, who are traditionally responsible for seagrass ecosystems and gleaning activities, in addition to their roles in childcare, household management, and household SMEs. Increasing their income from sandfish cultivation is intended to reduce dependence on male breadwinners’ income from fishing and increase the economic independence of women in the local community. Through participating in sustainable sandfish cultivation, local women are able to support their families while contributing to biodiversity conservation and habitat management.
Harvested sandfish in Selayar
In the sustainable sandfish cultivation program in Selayar Islands, female participants receive training that includes knowledge and skills of sandfish cultivation, especially at the growth stage where sandfish are raised in sea pens until they reach the harvestable size. Sea pen nets should be cleaned regularly to ensure that water flows in and out of the sea pen smoothly, bringing nutrients needed by sandfish to grow well. These women are involved in maintaining the cleanliness of the sea pens and monitoring the growth of sea cucumbers, harvesting, and post-harvest processing. Female participants take part in sea cucumber processing training to ensure that the sea cucumbers produced meet export quality. By providing these training programs, the development of a locally sustainable sea cucumber aquaculture in seagrass habitats centered on female economic empowerment will provide a stable, high-value supplementary income for coastal communities.
Training of sandfish processing for the women in coastal communities of Selayar
For the economic sustainability of sandfish cultivation, a cooperative was established with the majority of management and membership consisting of coastal women. The cooperative manages and develops existing sea pens in locations spread across the Selayar Islands coast during the project, with the aim of expanding further to new locations. The establishment of a local cooperative will assist the involved communities with site management, facilitate profit-sharing among households, and increase overall community resilience to potential disruptions. Best practices for sandfish cultivation management and regulations will be developed based on input and experience during the project. The scale of activities is expected to grow sustainably, to promote womens’ inclusion, and to increase economic and ecological benefits across Indonesia’s coastal area.
Reference:
Arnull, J., Wilson, A. M. W., Brayne, K., Dexter, K., Donah, A. G., Gough, C. L. A., Kluckow, T., Ngwenya, B., Tudhope, A. 2021. Ecological co-benefits from sea cucumber farming: Holothuria scabra increases growth rate of seagrass. Aquat. Environ. Interact. 13: 301–310. doi: 10.3354/aei00409
Written by: Qurratu Ainin & Chris Kelly
This article was also submitted to Darwin Initiative’s newsletter with a brief modification.
