Limited funds, low expertise cause depletion of resources

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Denpasar

More than 20 percent of natural resources in over 450 conservation areas across Indonesia have been extremely depleted due to lack of government funds and poor expertise in managing them, an official said on Monday.

"Social conflict that has damaged the conservation areas is also a factor," said Adi Susmianto, conservation director at the Ministry of Forestry.

He was speaking at a seminar on Management Planning for Protected Marine Areas held in Sanur, Bali.

Poor coordination among relevant authorities in the field in conserving those areas is also part of the problem, Adi said.

This exacerbates the situation as illegal logging is able to continue unchecked in conservation areas, where there is also a prevalence of forest fires, fish procurement using explosives, coral reef procurement by chemicals, reef destruction resulting from the use of boat anchors and environmentally unfriendly tourism activities.

"For example, diving and snorkeling activities in marine conservation waters. Beginners could easily step on coral reefs when diving, which could destroy the reefs," said Adi.

He called for collaboration between the government and relevant authorities as well as local people in protecting conservation areas.

All parties should be ready to sign an agreement to jointly manage those areas, he added.

"We will no longer apply a top-down policy like in the past, but bottom-up instead in determining conservation areas. We will have to wait for proposals from local administrations to decide whether certain areas should be declared conservation areas."

Adi said the top-down policy had, however, proven effective in managing conservation areas as applied in the Wakatobi National Park in Sulawesi, where law enforcement against illegal loggers and settlers was improving with support from local authorities.

As a result, every policy issued on the conservation area had been seriously upheld by legal and security authorities there, he added.

Adi also said his office would soon announce at least 12 new conservation areas in Indonesia, including two marine parks respectively in Togian in Central Sulawesi, and Sepanjang island in Madura, East Java.

Other conservation areas will be Tessonilo in Riau province, Sebangau in Central Kalimantan, Kawah Ijen in East Java, Lolo Bata in Maluku, Aketa Jawe in North Maluku, the mountainous Muller area in Central Kalimantan and Bantimurung Bulusaraung in South Sulawesi.

"The remaining three are the Batang Gadis, Merapi and Merbabu national parks respectively in Sumatra and Central Java," said Adi.

The new 12 will bring the number of conservation areas in the country to up to 460, he added.