Coastal communities need empowerment, Sarwono says
Coastal communities need empowerment, Sarwono says
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia needs to draw up a development model
specifically for coastal communities because they have been
impoverished by current economic development programs, State
Minister of Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja said yesterday.
"The exploitation of the coasts and seas tend to ignore the
biological diversity, and leads to a decline in income of coastal
communities," Sarwono said in a keynote address at a two-day
workshop on development models for coastal people.
Ironically, while the sea and coasts contribute to about 22
percent of Indonesia's gross domestic product, the people living
in these areas remain poor, he said.
He said such a model should empower coastal communities. Their
increased prosperity in turn would encourage them to better
safeguard their surrounding environment.
Sarwono said in drawing up the new model, experts have to take
into account several factors.
These include the use of natural resources without destroying
the environment; partnerships involving the public, government,
non-governmental organizations and the business circle; more
environmental-friendly methods of exploiting natural resources;
the creation of markets for them; and the involvement of coastal
communities in safeguarding these resources.
During the workshop, three activists from Sulawesi warned that
stereotyping coastal communities has made it even more difficult
for people to understand these people.
"Stereotypes lessen our sensitivity to the diverse problems of
coastal communities," said Arief Wicaksono, in a paper written
together with Moudy Gerungan, both coastal community workers in
North Sulawesi.
Before empowerment, the identities of these people must be
clear, he said. A study of the familiarity and ability of the
local administrations regarding public participation models is
also needed, he said.
Local policies on resources related to coasts and coral reefs,
spatial plans and access of local people to information on
policies and spatial plans are also important in developing
community development models, he said.
Sufri Laode from the Institute of Rural, Coast and Societal
Studies (LP3M) in Ujung Pandang, South Sulawesi, said different
islands have different specializations in their fish-catching
technology, a difference which is often ignored in various
projects.
Arief quoted a 1990 study on improvement efforts of fishing
communities in developing countries, which stated that
cooperatives, which is the general approach in Indonesia, are
mostly enjoyed by established groups in the community.
Sufri told the workshop that 11 fishing communities in South
Sulawesi which they work with have difficulties in reducing
dependence on their employers.
"We tried to improve the management of these employers,
particularly regarding the administration and access to formal
financial institutes," Sufri said.
In the last two years they only managed to convince two of
nine employers to cooperate with their organization to improve
their managements. (anr)