Minister Susi and Navy Team Up to Protect Indonesia’s Coral Reefs

Jakarta Globe, Aug 09, 2015

Students from Singapore snorkeling at a coral reef in the waters off Lombok, West
 Nusa Teggara. Maintaining Indonesia's coral reefs has become a priority for the
tourism sector. (AFP Photo/Sonny Tumelaka)

Jakarta. Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti has again enlisted the help of the Navy — this time to protect Indonesia’s coral reefs, 70 percent of which are in damaged or heavily damaged condition.

Susi said only 30 percent of Indonesia’s 2.5 million hectares of coral reefs were currently in a good state, threatening the archipelago’s marine ecosystem and fisheries production.

“Coral reefs are production houses for fish; they must be guarded,” Susi said at an event in Jakarta last week as quoted by CNN Indonesia.

“There are no fish laying their eggs in the ocean. They must do so near coastal areas, on the sand, on coral reefs. When they have lost a place [to store their eggs], where would they do it?” she added.

The minister lamented the widespread coral damage, given that Indonesia is part of the Coral Triangle, which has been hailed as the global center for marine biodiversity. The area also covers Malaysia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea.

She blamed the rampant practice of blast fishing among Indonesian fishermen, as well as garbage dumping in to the sea, for the damage.

“Coral reef rescue actions will hopefully help Indonesia protect its marine richness potential through the protection, preservation and sustainable use of coral reefs,” Susi said.

As part of the rescue mission, the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry is set to expand Indonesia’s marine conservation areas from a total of 16.4 million hectares at present to 20 million hectares by 2020 — out of Indonesia’s 310 million hectares of water territory.

Susi said, though, that the ministry would not be able to guard the country’s remaining coral reefs alone, thus its enlisting of the Navy’s help.

Indonesian Navy spokesman Admiral Ade Supandi said the Navy was ready to support the ministry’s mission, having launched its own program called Save Our Littoral Life.

The program, he said, entails the protection of coastal ecosystem across the archipelago and is expected to support President Joko Widodo’s ambition to turn Indonesia into a “global maritime fulcrum.”

“We all know that these coral reefs, as well as mangrove forests, are living spaces and growth mediums for fish,” Ade said.

“And of course they are part of our geographical territory, which we must safeguard and whose quality we must improve,” he added.

As part of the program, and together with the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry and civil society organizations, the Navy is targeting to grow coral in 54 locations inside 100 hectares of conservation areas this year.

Since the launch of the program in May, the Navy has planted coral in a number of coastal areas in Aceh, Lampung, Banten, Central Java and East Java provinces, Ade said.

Separately, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Indroyono Soesilo said the Navy had promised to monitor the planting locations to ensure the growth of coral reefs.

“[We've recorded] the coordinates of every location where the coral have been planted, so we can keep monitoring [the growth] and see the result in a year,” Indroyono said on Saturday, extending his praise for the Navy.

“This is proof of the Navy’s support for Indonesia’s maritime ambitions.”

He added the coral planting program was not only expected to restore marine ecosystem across targeted areas, but also to develop them into new marine tourism destinations.

“[This program] will benefit our marine ecosystem. And the tourism minister will benefit from this,” Indroyono said.

Tourism Minister Arief Yahya agreed, saying ecological tourism was profitable because tourists were willing to pay more for a stay at well-protected marine conservation locations.

“Conserved locations offer more profit than selling coral as ornaments,” he said. “The more closely guarded [tourism sites] are, the more expensive they are.”

Prior to the conservation program, on Joko’s direct instruction and after Susi’s calls for help, the Navy last year agreed to help the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry combat foreign-flagged vessels poaching in Indonesian waters — having since blown up and sunk dozens of such vessels and arrested fishermen, triggering reactions from countries where the foreign fishing crew came from, including China, the Philippines and Vietnam.