Harrison Ford to help conserve marine life

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.