Indonesia trying to unite support of ocean nations with the Manado World Ocean Conference

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post 10 May 09;

Indonesia will try to convince the world of the key role of the ocean in climate change and the importance of including it as a part of United Nations climate talks when the five-day World Ocean Conference in Manado kicks off Monday.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said Saturday the ocean had been overlooked for years by the world as a major carbon sink, despite covering two-thirds of the Earth's surface.

"The ocean plays a major role in determining the world's climate system, but climate change talks have not included it so far. We aim to bring the declaration of this conference to the UN climate talks in Copenhagen by the end of this year," he told reporters when conducting final checks on the event's preparations.

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Freddy Numberi has repeatedly said the ocean should be given credit for its role in absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2), similar to forests that help control climate change. He highlighted the latest legal framework that governs the use of the ocean, the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea, (UNCLOS), which is now 27 years old.

"We hope the Manado Ocean Declaration will be incorporated into talks during the 15th UNFCCC Conference of Parties meeting in Copenhagen," he said.

Hassan pointed out Indonesia's long struggle to convince the world of the importance of the ocean.

"We need to unite all the ocean countries to be able to push for the inclusion of the ocean in the Copenhagen talks," he said.

"We have to work hard to determine what's next after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. With the declaration, we hope the ocean dimension will play a greater role *in a new agreement* after the Kyoto Protocol."

The WOC is also expected to produce a joint declaration acknowledging the destructive impacts of climate change on the ocean and small-island states, with the rising rate of global climate change in recent times threatening marine species and the livelihood of the people living in those countries.

Manado is also set to host the Coral Triangle Initiatives (CTI) Summit, which will be attended by leaders of six countries: Malaysia, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

Maritime minister Freddy said donor countries had granted US$70 million through the Global Environmental Fund (GEF) for the conservation of coral reefs, marine resources and ecosystems within the region. Indonesia, he added, had also received $40 million from the US alone for the same cause. Indonesia now hopes to receive the largest portion of GEF funds as it initiated the CTI process, the minister said.

Hassan said that as the country with the largest area within the coral triangle, Indonesia deserved to get the most funds.

The country also wants the secretariat of the CTI to be set up in North Sulawesi.

Hosting the WOC has prompted an influx of investment and tourists.

Indroyono Susilo of the organizers said total private investment from outside and inside the province had reached Rp 1.5 trillion, mostly in the construction of facilities and hotels.

With all hotels fully booked for the duration of the event, foreign and local tourists are expected to jump in the coming months.

In March, the number of tourists jumped by more than 20 percent, or 1,700 people, from March last year, Governor S. Harry Sarundajang said.

Nations gather for oceans talks in Indonesia
Aubrey Belford Yahoo News 9 May 09;

MANADO, Indonesia (AFP) – Ministers and officials from 70 nations will gather in Indonesia on Monday for talks on protecting the world's oceans and to help set the stage for climate change talks in December.

The five-day World Ocean Conference in Manado city is being touted as a first-of-a-kind meeting on the oceans' role in mitigating climate change and on the consequences of higher temperatures such as rising seas, extinctions and food shortages.

Environment, fisheries and resources ministers are expected to agree a declaration aimed at influencing the direction of the Copenhagen talks scheduled for year end, where nations will gather to hammer out the successor to the expiring Kyoto protocol.

Organisers say they hope to expand the scope of any future climate change agreement to encompass marine environments, on which hundreds of millions of people rely for their livelihoods.

"The conference will be non-binding but it is the highest political level ocean conference done so far," said Indroyono Soesilo, the Indonesian official in charge of organising the event on Sulawesi island.

"If we are able to put oceans into world climate change policies it will be a success for us because it has never happened before.

"Because of global warming we will have sea level rises that will make some island nations disappear, so let's do something about that."

The sidelines of the conference will also see the launch of an international plan to save the Coral Triangle, an underwater ecosystem in Southeast Asia that is half the size of the United States and has been compared to the Amazon rainforest in its biodiversity.

Leaders from the six Coral Triangle Initiative nations -- Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands -- will sign a joint plan to protect the region, home to more than half the world's coral reefs.

But while organisers express optimism over the meeting, scientists say knowledge about the oceans is so limited that not much is known about how they will behave under the influence of climate change or the role they can play in absorbing carbon.

The boosting of ocean research and agreements on international sharing of data are expected to be a part of any conference declaration.

"If you talk about marine carbon issues it's still a long way to go," The Nature Conservancy's Coral Triangle Centre head Abdul Halim said.

"Unless you have at least basic scientific evidence to support your argument it's really difficult for people to argue about."

The conference comes amid a slew of gloomy studies on the possible effects of global warming.

A report in the science journal Nature last month found catastrophic sea level rises of up to three metres are a "distinct possibility" within the next century.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted in 2007 that sea levels could rise by up to 59 centimetres (23 inches) by 2100, drowning low-lying island nations.

Studies predict conference host Indonesia, an archipelago of roughly 17,000 islands, is set to lose many outlying islands, threatening its sea borders with neighbouring countries.