Govt tighten management of coastal environment
Govt tighten management of coastal environment
JAKARTA (JP): The government has launched a project to improve the management of the coastal areas in order to better tap the natural resources without harming the environment.
The coastal zone environmental and resources management project, launched on Monday, will integrate the activities of various agencies in coastal areas.
Surna T. Djajadiningrat, Assistant to the Minister of Environment overseeing operational coordination, said during a workshop coinciding with the launching that the project is part of the cooperation program between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Australia Economic Cooperation.
Indonesia has already had two programs on coastal management.
The first, to oversee coastal living resources and tides, was carried out in cooperation with the National Survey and Mapping Coordinating Agency. The second, managing marine science and technology, was conducted with the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology.
The two-day workshop, attended by scientists and government officials from related agencies, was to discuss a study utilizing data from the Geographic Information System and the building of a network of information gathered by Natural Resources Information Center.
The project will be carried out in Bunaken, North Sulawesi, where vast coral reefs are a major tourist attraction, but which often overlap with other human activities such as fishing.
Richard Kenchington, Senior Director of Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park's External Services Section, said coastal zone management requires an approach which can accommodate the interests of many parties.
"The task of coastal management is very complicated because it involves all areas of human life...Political reasons are often a major concern in a decision-making process," Kenchington said.
He emphasized that all aspects of a project along coastal zones must be must be considered carefully in order to ensure that the benefits exceed the costs.
"The benefits of land reclamation, for instance, could mean the cost of people living near the beach who live from tourism, or from fishing," he cited.
Commenting on plans for a major land reclamation project in the Jakarta Bay, Kenchington said the easiest task would be in determining the physical aspects and impacts of the reclamation, which could be done by means of computer-modeling.
"But there are biological, social, cultural, jurisdictional and economical aspects which are much harder to calculate. The closer you get to human beings, the more complicated the problem gets," Kenchington said. (pwn)