The Benefits of Marine Protected Areas in Fighting Inequality and Fostering Environmental Sustainability in Indonesia

Climate change is deteriorating Indonesia’s marine and coastal ecosystems, consequently worsening the economic condition of people living in coastal areas. The concept of marine protected area (MPA) was introduced to conserve marine ecosystems, with various potential benefits both for environmental sustainability and the fight against inequality. By assessing government documents and relevant literatures, this paper aims to explore the potential benefits of MPAs and assess their impact on environmental sustainability and inequality in Indonesia. We find that various studies have documented that MPAs do contribute to poverty alleviation to some extent. We identify several challenges for future implementation of MPAs, particularly related to awareness, human resources, short-term trade-off between programs and opportunity costs, and program sustainability.