Sarwono wants marine environment preserved
Sarwono wants marine environment preserved
JAKARTA (JP): State Minister of Environment Sarwono
Kusumaatmadja made a fresh call yesterday for greater efforts to
preserve the coastal and marine environment.
Addressing the opening of a national meeting on the
environment here, Sarwono said that the pollution and general
destruction of coastal and marine resources has reached an
alarming level.
"The seas are often treated as dumping grounds for cities,
where industrial and domestic waste as well as chemical waste
from the agricultural sector is dumped," he said.
He said mangrove forests are being destroyed rapidly, with
only 2.6 million hectares now left. In 1982, there were 4.25
million hectares of mangrove forest in Indonesia.
Coral reefs are also suffering, he pointed out. Despite the
rapid exploitation, however, coastal communities have yet to
benefit from this development.
"The fishermen remain poor," he said, adding that another
factor preventing local communities from enjoying the fruits of
marine exploitation is that many foreign ships illegally fish in
Indonesian waters.
The seas constitute two-third of the whole archipelagic area
of 1,919,444 square kilometers, and the considerable marine
resources are obviously of strategic value, he said.
Indonesia's 81,000 kilometers of coastline, which constitute
14 percent of the world's coasts, need protection, he argued.
Indonesian seas cover an area of 5.8 million square kilometers.
Sarwono also said that the seas have vast untapped natural
assets in the form of minerals and energy resources. "Thermal
differences in the sea, for instance, can be manipulated to
produce electricity and fresh water," he said. "We have yet to
fully utilize these resources."
The meeting discussed programs for the management of the
environment in various regions. Attended by environmental
campaigners and organizations, regional administrators, private
sectors and universities, the conference also discussed special
programs such as clean-river campaigns. (16)