Coastal areas need protection

By Rokhmin Dahuri and Suzy Anna

BOGOR (JP): Marine waters cover more than 65 percent of the total Indonesian territory. Presently, about more than half of the population live and work within 50 kilometers of a coastline, and two-thirds of the country's large cities (e.g. Medan, Jakarta, Semarang, Surabaya and Ujungpandang) also located in coastal zones.

Marine ecosystems are the lifeblood of planet Earth. From the life-giving rain (through the hydrological cycle) that nourishes crops to lifesaving medicines; from the fish that come from the ocean to the global goods which are transported on the sea's surface, the ocean plays a crucial role in human life.

This is particularly true for Indonesia as the largest archipelagic state in the world. The products and services that come from coastal and marine ecosystems also provide many jobs. It is estimated that one out of every five Indonesian jobs is coastal and marine-related. About 24 percent of the nation's Gross Domestic Product comes from coastal and marine areas through fishing, aquaculture, tourism, mining, forestry, transportation and other industries.

As population numbers and development intensity will inevitably increase and, at the same time, terrestrial resources decline or deemed difficult to develop, coastal and marine resources will be a primary trust for Indonesia's sustainable economic development in facing the 21st century.

Despite the important role of coastal and marine ecosystems to the Indonesian economy and life as described above, coastal zones are under increasing pressures from incompatible development (human) activities compounded by a burgeoning population.

The significant deterioration of the coastal environment is evident, especially in some of the productive natural ecosystems on this planet such as mangrove forests, coral reefs and estuaries.

Indonesia's total mangrove area decreased from 4.2 million hectares in 1982 to 2.7 million hectares in 1993. This was mainly due to the conversion of mangrove forests into other land uses such as tambak (brackish water fish/shrimp ponds), human settlement and industrial estates, besides the cutting of mangrove timber for charcoal, pulp, construction materials and other uses.

From Indonesia's total area of coral reefs of 50,000 square kilometers, more than 60 percent have been severely damaged due to coral mining, bomb fishing, cyanide fishing, irresponsible tourism activities, sedimentation, land filling (coastal reclamation) and other destructive activities.

The level of pollution in some coastal waters, particularly those adjacent to urban or densely population areas, such as Lhokseumawe, Medan, Jakarta Bay, Semarang, Surabaya, Balikpapan Bay, Bontang Bay, Ujungpandang and Aijkwa estuary, has exceeded allowable environmental standards.

Although the sustainable potential of marine fisheries resources is about 6.1 tons per year and only 55 percent of this has been harvested, meaning that there is still room to increase the catch, there are some fish stocks that have been overexploited in waters such as the Strait of Malacca, the north coast of Java, the Bali Strait and the south coast of Sulawesi.

If such a trend of the degradation of coastal and marine ecosystems continues, it will be difficult for the nation to utilize its coastal and marine wealth for the country's sustainable economic development.

It is, therefore, timely to reorient our development paradigm and practices with respect to coastal and marine resources, from a merely economic growth pursuant or short-sighted orientation to more balance economic, ecological and social objectives, or sustainable development. This is also in accordance with the Rio Declaration that applies to oceans and coasts as stipulated in Chapter 17 of Agenda 21.

The challenge for any coastal management is then how to implement sustainable development paradigm into practices of coastal and marine development. Technically, this can be done by making a balance between development intensity and the carrying capacity of a certain coastal and marine region.

In this case, the carrying capacity of a coastal and marine region (e.g. the Strait of Malacca, the north coast of Java and the Arafura Sea) is its ability to provide: (1) space for living and locations for development activities, (2) natural resources, both renewable and nonrenewable, for consumption or raw input for production or manufacturing processes, (3) a natural basin for waste and (4) amenity and life-support systems.

This means there should be redistribution of types and intensity of development activities among coastal and marine regions throughout the archipelago according to its carrying capacity.

For example, along the north coast of Java, which by any environmental standards has already been saturated (overexploited), development activities should be reduced or reorganized, and moved into underdeveloped coastal and marine regions such as the west coast of Kalimantan and the Natuna Sea, the west coast of Sumatra, the south coast of Java, the south coast of Sumbawa and other eastern parts of the country.

By doing so, coastal and marine regions that have been overexploited will be given a respite to ecologically recover so as to be more healthy and productive environments, and will simultaneously enhance economic development and national security of existing underdeveloped regions.

Such a technical policy should be supported by three major sociopolitical and legal-institutional policies.

First of all, the political will of today's government with regards to decentralization and autonomy for local (provincial and district) government to manage coastal and marine resources should be sped up and strengthened.

This will require human resources and institutional strengthening in planning and managing coastal and marine resources development. The second policy should be that integrated coastal management should be applied in coastal and marine resources development.

While there is general agreement on the need for integrated approaches to coastal zone management, this has rarely, if ever, been achieved in Indonesia.

The primary reason for this failure is that the existing management structures or institutions are either nonexistent or inappropriate. The distinctive feature of the management of coastal zones in the country is, typically, fragmented decisions made by a considerable number of separate agencies, about 19 sectoral agencies.

In other words, the fundamental problem of coastal zone management in Indonesia, from institutional perspectives, is that different government agencies act so as to maximize the achievement of their sectoral goals, without any effective mechanism for ensuring that the sum total of all development activities by various agencies provides a solution or program which is ecologically, economically and socially sustainable.

Thus, the third policy should be the establishment of a coordinating agency at the national, provincial and district levels which deals specifically with coastal and marine issues related to development and management.

Rokhmin Dahuri is director of the Center for Coastal and Marine Resources Studies of the Bogor Agricultural Institute. Suzy Anna is a master of science candidate in integrated coastal and marine resources management, graduate program at the same institute.