Indonesian government claims of marine carbon reduction not yet proven

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 4 Apr 09;

The government says Indonesia’s marine environment can absorb millions of tons of carbon, but scientists say the claim has not yet been proven through scientific studies.

“It is merely a prediction, there is no scientific research yet,” Augy Syahailatua, head of marine resources at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said Friday.
He said Indonesia has never conducted research to determine how much carbon its marine ecosystems can absorb.

“Many countries like the United States and Australia have conducted research on their marine biodiversity,” Augy told a group of journalists in the run-up to the World Ocean Conference in May.

Indonesia will host the first-ever international conference on marine ecosystems in Manado, North Sulawesi, in the hopes of establishing commitment to the sustainable management of marine resources to help combat climate change.

Around 10,000 delegates, including ministers and scientists from 121 countries, are set to attend the forum, scheduled for May 11-15.

Organizers have said the Manado declaration, expected to be issued at the end of the meeting, would not be legally binding but would be tabled for discussion at a UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, by the end of this year.

The Copenhagen Climate Conference is expected to yield a new binding protocol for emissions cuts.

Abdul Halim, manager of the coral triangle at the Nature Conservancy also acknowledged that no research had been conducted to determine if Indonesia’s marine environments could absorb carbon.

He expressed hope that the ocean and Coral Triangle Initiative conferences in Manado will boost public awareness of the importance of marine conservation.

“We hope with the conferences more scientists will conduct marine research on this matter,” Halim said.

Augy said that scientific studies to find out whether the country’s marine and mega biodiversity can sink or release climate emissions were also crucial to boosting the country’s bargaining position in international arena discussing climate change.

After claiming that the country’s marine environments can absorb carbon, the government called on donor countries to help Indonesia finance conservation programs to save the world from climate change.

The blue print on a national plan of action on climate change, which was launched by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during the climate change conference in Bali in 2007, states that Indonesia’s marine biodiversity can absorb some 67 million tonnes of carbon, equal to about 245.6 million tons of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) per year.

CO2 is the main contributor to global climate change.

Indonesia has about 5.8 million square kilometers of marine territory.

The action plan states that the country’s 61,000 square kilometers of coral reefs has the capacity to absorb up to 73.5 million CO2 per year.

Moreover, the country’s 93.000 square kilometers of mangrove areas could absorb 75.4 million tons of CO2 annually.

Global warming has the potential to cause ocean acidification, rises in temperature and sea levels which could flood entire small island states, such as the Maldives.

The heads of states of six countries — Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and Timor Leste — will launch the Coral Triangle Initiative with the aim of reducing carbon emissions on the sidelines of the WOC.

The region is home to 53 percent of the world’s coral reefs and 3,000 fish species and is considered important to the health of the world’s oceans, according to experts.