Destruction of mangrove, swamps and peatlands rife: NGO

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The country's wetlands, such as mangrove forests, swamps, and peatlands, have significantly declined in total area from 42.5 million hectares in 1987 to 33.8 million hectares this year, the Wetlands International-Indonesia Program said on Tuesday.

The destruction of wetlands has caused a number of disasters in the country including annual flooding, drought, and loss of biodiversity, they said.

"Wetlands have been altered in many places; for example, mangrove forests have been changed into fishponds, swamps into residential areas, and lakes into roads.

"The conversion is a result of poor understanding among people and poor policy from the government," Wetlands program director Dibyo Sartono said at a workshop on wetland policy strategy.

The non-governmental organization estimated the decline in mangrove forest area to be from 3.2 million hectares in 1986 to 2.4 million in 1996, due to their conversion into fishponds.

Peatlands in the country have also dropped to less than 16 million hectares this year, from 20.7 million hectares in 1990, due to the expansion of agricultural areas and plantations, Dibyo said.

In Jakarta, 50 percent of its wetlands had been cleared for houses and buildings, roads and other facilities, he said.

"To date, the destruction of wetlands has become even more rampant as local governments, which enjoy more power under the regional autonomy law, issue policies that damage wetlands," Dibyo said.

According to the 1971 Ramsar Convention, a wetland is defined as swampy areas, peatlands, water catchment areas, and seawater areas with a depth of less than 6 meters at low tide.

Indonesia, which ratified the convention in 1991, has two locations which are classified as International Ramsar sites: Berbak National Park in Jambi and Danau Sentarum Protected Park for Animals in West Kalimantan.

In order to manage its own wetlands under the Ramsar Convention, Indonesia established a national commission to handle their wetlands in 1994, but the commission did not work well due to poor coordination among the relevant ministries.

Dibyo said the government must re-integrate a wetland management policy to reduce the current destruction rate of wetlands.

"We can't leave it to the local governments, as wetlands are usually located across several regencies. If we leave the policy to regional administrations, they will only issue policies that create losses for other regions," he said.

He added that the current national commission must be given more power and authority to manage wetlands and it must also set up branches at the regional level to monitor and to supervise the implementation of the policy.

Hajrul Junaid of the Indonesian NGO Network for Forest Conservation (SKEPHI) agreed that the country's wetlands were severely damaged, and that it needed an integrated policy from the central government.

"The government must move quickly, however, because there are obvious threats to the wetlands," he said.

Widodo S. Ramono, director of conservation areas at the Ministry of Forestry, and Liana Bratasida, Deputy State Minister of the Environment for environmental protection, welcomed the idea to revise the national commission's role in managing wetlands.

"I think the new function of the commission must be formulated by both government officials and the public to create a solid policy," Liana said.