Harrison Ford to help conserve marine life

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A consortium which groups some of the world's richest companies and individuals like Hollywood movie star Harrison Ford has promised to provide some US$100 million in a grant for Indonesia to help finance marine conservation projects in the country, Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Rokhmin Dahuri said.

Companies which participated in the grouping called Consortium International include, among others, U.S. chip maker Intel, Anglo-American energy giant BP Plc., and computer and printer maker Hewlett Packard.

Rokhmin said that the funding pledge was made during a recent international conference on maritime conservation in Mexico.

"I am now waiting for a formal letter (on the grant) from the Consortium International president," he told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar.

He said that one of the conservation projects to be funded by the grant facility was the Pulau Seribu National Park in North Jakarta.

International environmental groups have long been concerned with the deteriorating condition of the country's coastal areas due to massive pollution.

A number of international institutions like the World Bank had also donated millions of dollars to help save the coastal habitat like the mangrove and coral reefs, particularly those on the north coast of Java, part of Malacca Straits, and on the south coast of Sulawesi.

Aside from pollution, decades-long illegal fishing activities by foreign ships have badly damaged many coral reefs in Indonesian waters.

Rokhmin said that the output from illegal fishing had reached 1.5 million tons per year, compared to the country's fish exports of 600,000 tons annually.

Local fishermen in numerous regions across the country have repeatedly complained about illegal fishing by Thai, Filipino and Taiwanese fishermen.

In the seminar, chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) Aburizal Bakrie urged the government to provide friendly policies to lure more investment into the maritime sector, which has the potential to become a prime mover of the country's economy.

He said that investment in the sector had been relatively low partly due to the lack of infrastructure and incentives from the government.