Coremap operation handed over to maritime, fisheries ministry

JAKARTA (JP): The operational activities of the Coral Reef Rehabilitation and Management Program (Coremap) were transferred to the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries on Friday.

Coremap was previously handled by the National Institute of Sciences (LIPI).

"Basically, the program's transfer to the ministry is due to a clause in the Coremap agreement that stipulates that the scheme will be handed over to the available national maritime institution," Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Sarwono Kusumaatmadja told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

"Since we now have a special ministry to handle maritime affairs, LIPI has agreed to share the responsibilities of the scheme," he said.

The government has set up a joint board to monitor the condition of the country's coral reefs, in cooperation with a number of non-governmental organizations and foreign donors, including the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.

The Coremap board, established in 1995, runs programs in 10 provinces that contain maritime assets.

Under the new arrangement, the ministry will be responsible for three components of the Coremap scheme: program strategy and management, surveillance and enforcement, and community-based management to preserve coral reefs.

Another component of the program, public awareness, will continue to be overseen by LIPI.

Coremap is scheduled to run in three phases. The first phase, from 1997 to 2002, will include such programs as community-based development and community awareness. The second phase, from 2002 to 2006, will be a period of establishing specific programs, and the third phase, from 2007 to 2011, will focus on institution building.

Attending the handover ceremony on Friday was LIPI chairman Taufik Abdullah.

"We are pleased that finally we can do some definite work to save our coral reefs, and hopefully the cooperation with LIPI will continue," Sarwono said.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelagic country, has around 60,000 square kilometers of coral reefs, or about 15 percent of the globe's coral shelves.

Only 6 percent of the country's coral reefs, however, are in pristine condition, the remaining being either in a good state, slightly damaged or badly damaged. (edt)