The Coral Triangle Initiative

By Barrie | September 17th, 2007 | No Comments

The Indonesian government has invited six Asia-Pacific countries to take part in a joint effort to preserve marine and biological resources through the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security in the Coral Triangle Area located in the Asia-Pacific region. The initiative was proposed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during the recent APEC meeting in Australia. Country director of The Nature Conservancy’s Indonesia Program, Rili Djohani, talked with The Jakarta Post’s Desy Nurhayati about the issue.

Question:What is the Coral Triangle Initiative?

Answer:The Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) was initiated by The Nature Conservancy, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry in an effort to safeguard the biological resources of marine and coastal areas.

Indonesia has the richest coral in the world, both in its quantity and diversity, especially in the seas in the central and eastern areas of the country. The area, called the Coral Triangle, is adjacent to the Philippines, Malaysia (Sabah), East Timor, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Through the CTI, we are encouraging the government to preserve the abundant marine resources by establishing multilateral partnerships with the other countries.

We are very pleased that our President has his own vision concerning environmental problems and has addressed the issue during the APEC meeting.

Hopefully, his proposal will be a good start for engaging the countries so as to cooperate in safeguarding the area.

How big are the biological resources in the Coral Triangle area?

The Coral Triangle area stretches from the central part of Indonesia to the Solomon Islands, and up from the Indian Ocean across the Philippines to the Pacific Ocean.

Scientists have conducted many studies and identified the area as the epicenter of marine diversity on the planet. It is home to more than 600 coral species, or 75 percent of all known coral species, and around 3,000 fish species. Most of them are endemic. The triangular-shaped region also serves as the spawning and juvenile growth site for various kinds of fish.

Aside from its biodiversity, the area also supports the livelihoods of over 120 million people living along the coastlines of the six countries, and benefits billions more worldwide. The marine resources also contribute to the nature-based tourism industry in the region. Tourists from around the world visit the area to enjoy the beauty within the ocean that they could never find at other sites.

Coral species in the area have survived for millions of years. Even today, they are resilient to the effects of mass coral bleaching and global warming, thanks to the ocean currents that bring cold water around the area, thus protecting the coral from damaging effects. Corals are critically important for the well-being of other populations as they are the lungs of the ocean.

But the species are now threatened by overfishing, destructive fishing and coastal development.

Therefore, it is our responsibility to save the area, not only environmentally, but also economically.

It would be a shame if we lost these resources, especially the coral. They are very diverse, resilient and populous. Once they’re destroyed, we will likely never get them back.

What constraints do you see in preserving our marine resources?

We lack human resources trained in marine conservation. The government once had a maritime training center for civil servants, NGOs and the public, but it was closed in 1992.

Another constraint is that there are so many threats against our oceans, including overfishing and destructive fishing. Our species are at risk from such threats.

In recent years, the central government and local administrations, NGOs and communities have taken action to protect the marine ecosystem. And the number of protected species has increased over the last several years, but we need to have better management and enforcement.

Indeed, the government has conducted training in forestry and fishery protection. But there has been no training in marine conservation. We hope that the government will reestablish the training center so as to produce more trained personnel.

What do you think about our country’s efforts so far to safeguard marine areas and their resources?

We see that the government has been paying attention to this issue and has done much to preserve our marine biological resources. Cooperation between the central government and the local administrations has improved. Local people have also played an important role in preserving marine areas.

However, policy and enforcement needs to be improved. Marine law enforcers should have better knowledge about biological resources, especially protected species.

In 2000, The Nature Conservancy established the Coral Triangle Center, which is based in Bali. The center is aimed at addressing threats to the world’s most diverse oceans, and works to establish protected marine areas. Our approaches are on-site conservation, technical support such as training, and policy formulation.

We have managed to establish marine conservation areas at Komodo Island in East Nusa Tenggara, Wakatobi in Southeast Sulawesi, Raja Ampat in West Papua and Derawan in East Kalimantan.

We need the government to give us support so that we can establish more conservation areas to protect more species.

What are your expectations now that the government has proposed the initiative?

The government’s action to reach out to neighboring countries during the APEC meeting has been a good political sign. We need those countries to establish joint forces for better management and enforcement in the Coral Triangle area.

We expect that the government will immediately take pro-active measures, not merely make political commitments.

We will meet with the other stakeholders to discuss a work program as a follow-up to the CTI and to provide us with a clear framework about what we can do under the scheme. We also need to find out how committed the other five countries are to the initiative.

Hopefully, we can present the implementation plan to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali in December to draw the attention of the international community.

It is hoped that the CTI will not only attract the political commitment of the countries involved, but also attract international funding from government institutions, NGOs and the private sector.

We are optimistic that the CTI program will be successful. In the short term, it will help restore the Coral Triangle area, parts of which have been degraded by human action, while in the long term it will preserve the biological resources, especially coral and fish, for future generations.