ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to explore the potential role and contribution of local peoples to the management of the marine environment and resources. Focusing on the sea-faring Bajau people of the Indonesian archipelago, it asks how their innate skills, knowledge and experience might be utilized in the simultaneous conservation and controlled development of the country’s coastal and marine environments, possibly through the establishment of marine parks. As we have seen in the previous chapter, local involvement in the formulation and management of conservation strategies is a fundamental prerequisite for sustainable development. A supplementary but significant benefit for the Bajau would be the opportunity that their stewardship of the marine environment might provide for them to buffer external pressures which are presently threatening their established way of life.
