ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to discuss collaborative conservative projects in the Kepulauan Seribu Islands, off the north coast of Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. The projects, under the name of ‘Save Our Small Islands (SOSIS)’, were aimed at empowering the communities to take part in addressing environmental issues in a bid to achieve sustainable tourism on the islands. The collaborative projects involved a non-governmental organisation (NGOs) serving as the project anchor responsible to the donors, several other NGOs, private operators and academia. They were implemented in coordination with the local government of Kepulauan Seribu Regency and National Park management. Part of the projects’ outcomes were signs of raising awareness of the environment and behavioural change in the community. This behavioural change is expected to empower the community to take part in shaping Kepulauan Seribu as a more sustainable destination. The SOSIS project could serve as a model for collaborative conservation with the above-mentioned organisations contributing ideas on how to carry out sustainable development on the small islands. Lessons learned from the project were how to overcome communication issues and build effective multi-stakeholder communication and cooperation between organisations involved in sustainable tourism development on the islands.
