Antara 23 Aug 10;
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Only six percent of Indonesia`s coral reefs is now still in excellent condition, a senior marine affairs official said.
M Syamsul Maarif, secretary general of the Marine and Fisheries Ministry, made the statement after attending the signing of a memorandum of understanding by his ministry and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) here on Monday on cooperation in sustainable and responsible management of marine resources.
He said six percent of Indonesia`s coal reefs was in excellent condition, 30 percent in good condition but the rest was categorized as damaged.
According to Maarif, one of the ways to fix the damage to coral reefs was by conducting sustainable and responsible management of marine resources with emphasis on the economic, ecological , and socio-cultural aspects.
However, he added, the most important thing to be done was to organize public campaigns to educate the people about the importance of keeping coral reefs in good condition.
"If the people`s empowerment effort goes well, environmental conditions in their areas will likely also improve," he said.
According to data collected by the Marine and Fisheries Ministry , Indonesia now has around 75,000 square kilometers of coral reefs or about 12 to 15 percent of the world`s.
The Indonesian Coral Reef Foundation has noted that Indonesia as the largest archipelagic state in the world has 17,508 islands of which 6,000 are inhabited.
Comprising 14 percent of the Earth`s land territory, Indonesia had the longest coastline in the world. It also has a sea area of about 5.8 million square km, representing approximately 70 percent of its total territory.
Coral reefs in Indonesia are mostly to be found towards the eastern end of the archipelago (Bali, Flores, Banda, Sulawesi). But cora; reefs also exist off the Sumatra and Java coasts. Indonesia supports a diverse array of reef types (fringing, barrier, and atoll).
The dominant reef type is fringing reefs. Fringing reefs can be found along the coasts of Sulawesi, Maluku, west and north Irian Jaya, Lesser Sundas, Bali, and some of the islands off the west and east coasts of Sumatra.
Patch reefs are in best developed condition in the Seribu Islands and best-developed barrier reefs are to be found along the edge of the Sunda Shelf, east of Kalimantan, and around Togean Islands, Central Sulawesi.
There are few atolls but the Taka Bone Rate atoll in the Flores Sea is the third largest in the world.
The Indonesian coastal zone supports approximately 60 percent of Indonesia`s 182 million people. In some areas, local people are heavily dependent on a wide variety of reefs and reef-associated animals for home consumption and trade, including turtles, fish, molluscs, crustaceans and echinoderms.
(A051/HAJM/P003)
