Coastal areas need protection

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.