Communities Vulnerability Mapping of Spermonde Coral Islands

The purpose of this research is to map the vulnerability of communities in seven islands of Spermonde. Vulnerability assessment was conducted in July 2013 using an environmental and socio-economical stand point. Identification of the vulnerability issues were grouped into indicators (climate, island morphological, marine resources and socio-economical changes), with each given a scale of 1-5.and attributes in the form of a semi-structured questioner. To check for the type and severity of a disaster, 62 respondents were asked to rank the disaster on a scale of 1-4. Results indicate that the majority of respondents find that change in climate, island morphology, marine resources and socio-economical conditions hardly affect them. The disaster that they fear the most is the danger of losing their source of income. In terms of vulnerability index,  Bone Tambu and Lumu-Lumu islands are under very high vulnerability for Island and Socio-economic change. In terms of Climate and Marine Resource change, there are no significant differences among the islands. The trends show that these two categories fall under medium to high, with marine resource dynamic change always being higher than the climate change index, except in Kapoposang Island. Overall,  there are no differences between each zonation in vulnerability indexes

Sediment Composition and Facies of Coral Reef Islands in the Spermonde Archipelago, Indonesia

Sedimentological and geomorphological characteristics of coral reef islands are strongly related to past and recent boundary conditions such as the hydrodynamic regime, wind directions, sea-level fluctuations, and the ecological footprint of the surrounding reef complexes. Alterations in the physical, chemical, and biological boundary controls may affect the stability of reef islands. Additionally, these factors are of importance in the context of future climate change. Such alterations through time may well be documented within the sedimentary record of reef islands and a better knowledge on its effects could help to improve our understanding of island responses to future changes of the status quo. However, detailed studies on the sedimentology and geomorphology of reef islands from southwest Sulawesi, Indonesia, are still rare. Here we report on the sedimentary composition and related facies zonation of four uninhabited coral reef islands in the Spermonde Archipelago. Sediment samples from onshore- and reef-flat environments were analyzed in regard to their grain size, component assemblages and facies distribution. Our results show that the analyzed island sediments are characterized by medium- to coarse-grained sand fractions and are well to poorly sorted. Across all islands examined, the surface sediment is predominately composed of materials identified as scleractinian coral and coralline red algae fragments, with minor additions from bivalves, gastropods and foraminifers. Importantly, statistical analyses of the variations in the percentage of these components allow for a clear sedimentary distinction of the four study sites into three outer shelf islands, situated closer to the open marine Makassar Strait, and one inner shelf island. On the inner shelf island, additional subsurface sedimentological analyses indicate a potential shift in major sediment contributors through time, preserved as coral-dominated accumulations within the subsurface samples, and coralline red algae-dominated deposits on top. These findings highlight the practical use of detailed sedimentological studies for the reconstruction of environmental changes in the Spermonde Archipelago

Breaking Resilience for a Sustainable Future: Thoughts for the Anthropocene

Strong resilience of a system usually enables the protection of a status quo. Most resilience studies assume that resilience-building is the central objective of sustainability work. Even though transformation has become a central theme in development and social-ecological debates, questions surrounding the weakening resilience of undesired system states are rarely analyzed. We suggest that resilience studies not only serve to protect systems and feedbacks we want to maintain, but may also help to understand and overcome chronic, undesirable,—and thus wicked—resilience. This contribution focuses on reef fisheries in the Spermonde Island Archipelago in Indonesia, based on social and ecological studies between 2004 and 2016. We identify a number of interlocking wickedly resilient vicious cycles as predominant drivers of the impoverishment of fishing households and the overexploited, polluted and degraded state of the coral reefs that fishers' livelihoods depend on. We argue that, more often than not in the Anthropocene, breaking resilience has a central role in the pursuit of sustainable human-nature relations. Therefore, the link between the resilience and the transformation debates needs to be much more explicitly made. Breaking interlocking, wicked resilience at multiple levels is needed to move toward sustainable human-nature relations from the local to the global level. There are lacunae in debate, literature, and research practice as to when, where and how wicked resilience might need to be weakened. A more complete resilience lens is particularly needed under Anthropocene conditions to support the unmaking of chronically resilient, anthropogenic systems