Sarwono sets terms for lease of Indonesian islets

JAKARTA (JP): Foreign investors wishing to lease islets in Indonesian waters must comply with conservation standards and their businesses have to be community-based, Minister of Maritime Exploration Sarwono Kusumaatmaja said on Tuesday.

"Small islands are rich (in resources), but they are vulnerable. A small mistake could mean an island's destruction," Sarwono said after opening a communications forum to promote his ministry's programs.

Investors would have to conform to conservation standards, and their businesses would have to be a part of local economic activities involving the participation of the people living in the vicinity, he said.

The ministry and various non-governmental organizations are currently drafting a set of rules for the management of small islands which will be used as a basis for investors to lease the islands, he said.

"The most important norms would be on conservation. Every economic activity should be based on conservation," said Sarwono, who was state minister of the environment between 1993 and 1998.

Sarwono's ministry, established by President Abdurrahman Wahid in October, announced last month that the government was looking into the possibility of renting out some 10,000 uninhabited islets to investors.

Many members of the House of Representatives criticized the government for making the announcement without prior consultation with the House, and some feared that leasing the islets without strict supervision would lead to their destruction.

The Riau provincial administration, which oversees the hundreds of islands in the Riau archipelago south of Singapore, also opposes the plan, fearing the move will have psychological impacts on local people.

Sarwono said the outbursts of rejection were based on fears that the central government would act on its own in allowing destructive economic exploitation of the islands.

Asserting that the final decision would be in the hands of provincial administrations, Sarwono pointed out that leasing the islets would bring in significant revenue for a region.

Although these islets are technically uninhabited, any investment project would have to involve the surrounding community, he said.

He cited maritime tourism, and the cultivation of pearls, giant clams and sea cucumbers as examples of economic activities that enhance conservation efforts.

The plan could be modeled on the experience of the Caribbean islands, which reap some US$9 billion a year from maritime tourism and still conserve the environment, he said.

The director general of coastal areas, beaches and small islands, Rokhmin Dahuri, said on Tuesday that initially between 100 and 200 islets would be put up for lease.

These would be islands in North Sulawesi, South Sulawesi and West Nusa Tenggara, he said.

"But again it will depend on the provincial administrations," he said.

Investors from Kuwait, Singapore, the Netherlands, Japan and China have expressed interest in leasing the islets to develop maritime tourism and cultivation, Rokhmin said. (10)