Conservation not incorporated in maritime laws<\/p>\n
SERPONG, West Java (JP): Conservation interests are relatively
\nnew in Indonesia's maritime laws, most of which were enacted in
\nthe 1960s chiefly to protect Indonesia's territorial sovereignty
\nand its economic resources, a top expert in maritime laws says.<\/p>\n
\"Our first concepts were based on political considerations,\"
\nsaid Mochtar Kusumaatmadja, the former minister of foreign
\naffairs, who now heads the Center for Archipelago, Law and
\nDevelopment Studies in Bandung.<\/p>\n
He was referring to the establishment of territorial
\nborderlines at sea, later called Wawasan Nusantara, which he
\nhelped draft in 1957. Maritime legislations after 1960 focused on
\nthe need to utilize mineral resources under the sea.<\/p>\n
Environmental awareness only came into the picture in 1975
\nafter a Japanese tanker crashed and spilled crude oil, causing
\nmass pollution in the Malacca and Singapore straits.<\/p>\n
\"The accident increased our awareness of marine conservation
\nand pollution prevention,\" said Mochtar in his paper on the
\nchallenges of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of
\nthe Sea presented at the Sixth Congress on Science.<\/p>\n
\"The need to protect and preserve marine resources...is no
\nless important than the establishment of territorial borders and
\nnational jurisdictions...,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The Convention justified Indonesia's efforts since 1969 to
\ngain exclusive rights over natural resources within its waters
\nthat span between 17,000 islands of the archipelago.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's total territory is now 4.9 million square
\nkilometers, covering some 1.9 million square kilometers of land
\nand three million square kilometers of waters.<\/p>\n
The challenge of the Convention, Mochtar said, lies in to what
\nextent Indonesia has met the obligations of the agreement,
\nparticularly regarding marine conservation.<\/p>\n
He underlined that Indonesia is also a signatory to the Agenda
\n21, an action plan for environment conservation issued at the
\nEarth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992.<\/p>\n
Among problems that remained unresolved is the lack of
\nstandards for clean sea water, Mochtar said.<\/p>\n
Until such standards are set, \"we need a compromise, an
\nacceptable level\" as a basis for action against signs of a
\ndegrading marine environment, he said.<\/p>\n
One particular hazard at sea is the presence of unused oil
\nrigs. Indonesia has tried to convert these structures into coral
\nbeds, Mochtar said. \"There are 172 unused oil rigs which the
\ncontractors said are under the responsibility of (the state-owned
\noil company) Pertamina.\"<\/p>\n
\"At first we thought of selling them as scrap, but we found
\nthat tearing them apart and transporting them involves higher
\ncosts than their scrap value,\" said Mochtar. \"Then we found they
\ncould serve as coral beds to attract fish,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Despite the difficulty in handling environmental problems, the
\n1982 Environment Law and the establishment of the Office of the
\nState Minister of Environment, are important tools.<\/p>\n
Mochtar said the Oceanology Institute, under the Indonesian
\nInstitute of Sciences, should be given a higher status to be more
\neffective. (anr)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/conservation-not-incorporated-in-maritime-laws-1447893297",
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