Scuba diving in North Sulawesi, Indonesia

country:	Indonesia
departures:	Dates available all year round.
price:	Diving: Prices starting from USD$25 for individual dives to USD$75 for daily dive packages. Accommodation: budget $20, mid-range $35-50, high $90

the amazing things you'll be doing

Dive with The North Sulawesi Watersports' Association (NSWA) in and around the award winning Bunaken National Marine Park. Formed in 1998, the NSWA has the primary goal of promoting North Sulawesi as a world-class marine tourism destination through fostering high standards of service and safety and especially by promoting environmentally friendly watersports activities.

Experience a dazzling array of underwater wildlife including juvenile frogfish, ghost pipefish, reef sharks, the endangered dugong and new species of pygmy seahorses, whilst simultaneously supporting an international conservation initiative and improving livelihoods for 30,000 Indonesian villagers. Divers can choose to stay in one of three areas: Bunaken National Marine Park, Bangka Island, or Lembeh Strait.

Each location possesses unique features; spectacular 1,500 meter vertical coral walls off Bunaken Island; soft coral paradise of Bangka Island; fascinating muck diving in Lembeh Strait, which scientists believe is home to the highest concentration of unusual critters in the world!

Diving
Diving packages range from a full day (2 or 3 boat dives) to pay as you dive. Low guide to dive guest ratios are guaranteed. North Sulawesi has a full range of resorts from backpacker to 4 star to boutique properties ($20-$90 per night based on double occupancy). Most NSWA resorts offer long stay and group rates with high quality services. Divers can opt to stay on the islands or stay on the mainland and take day dives with a mainland operator. Contact NSWA members for individual and group deals.

This award winning tourism business presence on the responsibletravel.com site has been made possible by British Airways -- we are the official web partner of British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow Awards (more)

how this holiday makes a difference

During its four year history the NSWA has made significant strides in improving the management and conservation of BNP and surrounding marine ecosystems and in conferring benefits of tourism to the 30,000 villagers living within the park.

These achievements include:

A commitment to hiring local staff to run their operations and act as dive guides. Over 1,000 villagers are now employed directly and indirectly in the Bunaken tourism sector;
Purchasing goods (fish and agricultural products) from local communities and villagers;
Designing a reef-friendly marine tourism practice brochure to be distributed to all arriving guests;
Sponsoring a PADI Project Aware Workshop on responsible dive tourism for the Manado community;
Instituting a voluntary but strict ban on all anchoring within the park by member's boats;
Sponsoring a village handicrafts program whereby local villagers have been encouraged to produce a variety of reef-friendly handicrafts for sale to diving tourists (e.g., marine life handkerchiefs, coconut shell carvings of marine animals and miniature replicas of dugout canoes. Revenues to villagers from the program have topped 25 million Rupiah;
Initiated a scholarship donation fund for university, tourism vocational schools and high school students;
Instituting a night patrol system to patrol the park with park rangers;
Donated a library of reef educational books to the Alung Banua village conservation information centre;
Sponsored beach and reef clean-up events for "Dive Into Earth Day";
Printed 300 coral reef educational cartoon books for distribution to local schoolchildren;
Initiating a "Bunaken Preservation Fund" which has been used to fund enforcement activities and to combat illegal and destructive fishing practices;
Sponsored a television production of the "Trashing Sulawesi" information video (aired on TV Republic Indonesia – TVRI)

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