RI needs to protect coastal ecosystems from destruction

RI needs to protect coastal ecosystems from destruction

JAKARTA (JP): Poor management and coordination between
government agencies are the main reasons for the difficulties in
determining who should be responsible for the problems occurring
along the coastal regions.

Participants in a one-day forum on how to prevent the
destruction of coastal and marine ecosystems, yesterday, said
that only through clear coordination could there be a stricter
enforcement of the law.

The forum, which was attended by members of government
agencies, NGOs and the private sector, felt that there had to be
more cooperation between each of their organizations to achieve
an optimum result.

"However, we have to remove all feelings of hostility between
us before we can start any sort of cooperation," said Surna T.
Djajadiningrat, third secretary to the State Minister of
Environment overseeing Operations Coordination.

Overlapping authority in the coastal regions between the
Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Forestry, the Ministry
of Agriculture, the Armed Forces and local (city and provincial)
authorities often occurs in this region, as there is currently no
clear distribution of authority there.

In other instances, however, parts of the regions are not
overseen by any of them and are left unattended, making them prey
to illegal fishing and man-made environmental destruction.

As a result of the poor coastal resources management, coral
reefs and fish in various parts of Indonesia, which were once
extremely rich in variety, have been destroyed by poisonous
fishing, explosives, pollution and a lack of environmental
consciousness.

Research conducted by the Office of the State Minister of
Environment revealed that, as of last year, only seven percent of
Indonesia's coral reefs were in satisfactory condition. Thirty
three percent were categorized as average, 14 percent were in
critical condition and 46 percent were completely destroyed.

State Minister of Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, who
opened the forum yesterday, said his office was considering
prohibiting the export and trade of a certain expensive species
of reef fish commonly known as the Napoleon fish. "The way they
are captured is very cruel as divers use potassium to stun them
and reefs are destroyed to catch the fish," he said.

Sarwono said that good coordination could only be achieved if
Indonesia abandoned its tradition of managing marine environment
on an administrative basis instead of good, reliable information.

Surna said the source of environmental destruction was in fact
the poverty which still existed among the community of fishermen.

Poverty

Conservation should not only be done for the sake of
conservation itself but also to alleviate poverty in these
communities, he said. "We have the strategy and the policy, the
question is how do we implement it?" he asked. He added that
without definite guidelines, there would be no improvement.

Yesterday, Sarwono also launched Indonesia's Sustainable
Development Network which is sponsored by the United Nations
Development Program.

Surna, a member of the SDN's Steering Committee explained that
the network is made up of four nodes: the government, NGOs,
businessmen and a university body.

"These four are expected to interact and disseminate
information concerning the environment to their respective fields
as well as to the public," he said.

UNDP Resident Representative C. Jan Kamp said the UNDP has
sponsored US$138,000 for the network's operation, for 18 months.
The network was expected to become independent afterwards, he
said.(pwn)