PAPER to BE PRESENTED at 11Th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property, Ubud Bali Indonesia, June 19-June 23, 2006
PAPER TO BE PRESENTED AT 11th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property, Ubud Bali Indonesia, June 19-June 23, 2006 The Roles of Eco-entrepreneurs in Conserving Common Pool Resources -Wildlife and Natural Areas in Sipadan Island1 James M. Alin, Datuk Douglas Primus and Izyanti Awang Razli2 ABSTRACT With the Government’s decision to vacate the island, Sipadan is currently undergoing the process of being gazetted as a Marine Park and later to be listed as World Heritage Site under UNESCO Man and Bisphere Programme. Public debates before the decision was incomplete. The operators were portrayed in mass media as the bad guys who exploited and destroyed Sipadan’s common pool resource that is the pristine environment and its terrestrial-marine biodiversity. This oversimplified generalization underestimated one very important fact. The tour (diving) operators were also genuinely concern with what happened to the island. In fact, they had taken many drastic measures (past and present) for conservation. They have very strong incentive to do so- their business survival it at stake which is very much dependence on pristine nature and unique biodiversity of Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalai. Examples of such eco-entrepreneurs are Datuk Douglas Primus, Datuk Clement Lee, Robert Loh, Ken 1 This paper is the revised version of James M. Alin, Izyanti Awang Razli,Merylyn Anak Buncha and Ho Chong Mun (2005). “Eco-entrepreneurs of Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalai”, presented at the 4th Annual Seminar on Science and Technology, 2005, School of Science and Technology, University Malaysia Sabah, 12-13 September. 2 The first and third author is a lecturer at the School of Business & Economics, University Malaysia Sabah, Locked Bag 2073, 88999 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.
[Show full text]