Lorenz Mäder

Karen Stearns · Issue 90, May/Jun 2016 · pp. 45–49

Products mentioned: Wakatobi Dive Resort

Lorenz Mäder, the founder of Wakatobi Dive Resort, worked in consort with local leaders and village elders to establish the Collaborative Reef Conservation Program. The program was designed to motivate the people living in the Wakatobi region to take an active role in protecting the marine ecosystem. Gaining regular payments and alternative employment in the resort the villages realized that it is a smarter economical use of their natural resource to let sections of the reefs be untouched for the tourist to enjoy looking at the fish. With proper management jointly with the dive resort, there is more for everyone from tourism than from just fishing, especially in a special location like Wakatobi. When was the protected area established? The Collaborative Reef Conservation Program began as a pilot project launched in 1997, which turned 6 km of reef into an effective no-fishing sanctuary. A…