Coral reefs protection: Let's talk about money

Coral reefs protection: Let's talk about money

Placido, Contributor, Jakarta

"Henry" and many others in Manado earn their living from fishing.
When the competition for bigger fish gets too keen, they resort
to every means available, including the use of poison and blast
fishing.

Henry and his colleagues may think they have found the best
way to make ends meet. However, they don't understand that their
activities contribute to the degradation of coral reefs, thus
gradually destroying their future source of income.

Environmentalists around the world are puzzling over the same
question: how to make money from the sea without destroying the
coral reefs?

A recent master's course in the North Sulawesi capital of
Manado discussed possible ways to save the coral reefs, including
providing "money for the locals".

No, this solution did not involve bribes. But it referred
instead to a long-term project aimed at generating income for the
inhabitants of coastal villages where coral reefs are the most
important source of food and economic opportunities.

Of course there are other causes contributing to the
destruction of Indonesia's reefs, such as sedimentation,
pollution and climate change.

However, the fishing practices of Henry and his colleagues
play a major part in the destruction, according Lida Pet Soede,
World Wide Fund for Nature Indonesia's program manager for
fisheries.

She had been quoted as saying that "up to 80 percent of
Indonesia's reefs have been severely degraded in this way".

Indonesia has 362 hard-coral species and 76 genera, which puts
it at the epicenter of the world's coral reef diversity. However,
the archipelago has accounted for more than 50 percent of coral
reef degradation around the world.

Let's remind ourselves that while coral reefs only cover 0.2
percent of the ocean area, they are home to one-third of marine
fish and to tens of thousands of other species.

Also, 50 percent of the world's population currently live
within sixty kilometers of the coast -- at present, that is more
than three billion people. By the year 2008, the world population
will exceed 6.7 billion people, with 3.4 billion of us living in
coastal areas.

In Indonesia alone there are 67,500 coastal villages, and
these depend primarily on coral reefs, while globally it is
estimated that coral reefs form an essential part of the
livelihoods of about 500 million people and contribute at least
US$400 billion a year to the world economy.

It follows that while it is needed to act locally, it is a
must to think globally; and while it is imperative to educate
locals, knowledge has to be a universally shared commodity.

The master's course in Manado included a discussion titled
"Knowledge and Management of the Biodiversity of the Indo-Pacific
Coral Reefs". The main issue of the discussion was how to find a
way to make biodiversity an economic value rather than a mere
object of exploitation.

One way is to convince fishermen like Henry to look after the
coral instead of blowing it up.

Nonetheless, a similar approach was taken in 1998 with the
World Bank-sponsored project, "Coral Reef Rehabilitation and
Management Program".

Money was no question here, since the bank had allocated $6.9
million for the project.

The program was implemented by the National Development
Planning Agency and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, and
centered on two pilot communities in the Taka Bone Rate National
Park in South Sulawesi and the Lease Islands in Maluku.

Here the reefs were turned into sanctuaries and the locals
were trained to manage them. The results have been positive but
the implemented solution considered too concentrated on limited
cases with limited activity.

The master's course is the product of a scientific and
technological cooperation between Italy and Indonesia, and is
financially supported by the Italian Ministry of Education.

While it does not have the World Bank's financial muscle, it
seems to have a deeper understanding of the problem and a
multidimensional approach to its solution.

Its organizers actually aim to create several viable economic
opportunities to replace activities that lead to coral reef
destruction.

Obviously, scuba diving and snorkeling tourism are the first
ideas that come to mind and the easiest to achieve. But other
ideas should not be underestimated. The breeding of fish and
invertebrates for ornamental purposes, and the development of a
pharmaceutical industry are two declared objectives.

Several species of coral can be asexually reproduced and
reared on artificial substrata, and it is not a secret that many
substances of pharmaceutical interest -- even some antibiotics --
are extracted from marine animals.

The master's course is co-taught by 20 Italian professors from
Genoa and Ancona universities, and four Indonesian professors
from the University of Manado, with the cooperation of the
Celebes Diving school of Manado. "Sharing and creating new
knowledge" is the key for the success of the cooperation.

Professor Bavestrello, one of the lectures and author of more
than 150 publications on the subject explains: "We consider
knowledge as the base to manage biodiversity. You cannot make a
learnt managerial decision unless you know what you are dealing
with.

"In North Sulawesi many species are still poorly documented or
even unknown, which makes it difficult to operate. To research
and classify these species is therefore the first step. We have a
vast experience in these fields due to the same kind of work
carried out in the Mediterranean Sea reserves and we plan to
share it with Indonesian students so that, eventually, they can
carry on independently."

Starting from classifying microorganism is a long way to
protecting coral reefs, but the organizers believe that in a few
years the economic opportunities that such an initiative will
open will provide work for a large stratum of qualified and
unqualified local people, and maybe it will give locals like
Henry a different way to earn a living.