Indonesia will host the World Ocean Conference (WOC2009) in Manado, North Sulawesi, in May next year. In Manado, many topics will be discussed, including the consequences of climate change and the role of oceans, by government leaders, scientists, decision makers, NGOs and politicians.
Oceans cover about 70 percent of the world. Oceanic processes are governed by the fundamental laws of physics, chemistry and biology. The marine realm provides new discoveries -- like the hot springs on midoceanic ridges with their peculiar biota of bacteria, mussels and worms in the darkness of two kilometers down -- continually.
Indonesia is one of the largest maritime countries in the world with 95,181 km of coastline, 17,504 islands and a tropical climate. Its coastal zone, where land meets sea and where fresh and salty waters mix, contains many of the earth's most complex, diverse and productive ecological systems.
Indonesian coasts are home to the highest concentration of people, ethnically mixed, and provide a natural resource base for a broad range of human activities. These are areas vulnerable to climate change and social conflict.
The coastal zones on each of the archipelago's thousands of islands are unique, ecological and biological domains of vital importance to a wide array of terrestrial and aquatic life-forms, including humankind. They are amazing habitats that are never static. The diversity of species in coastal environments differs markedly from those in terrestrial and oceanic systems. All are under the domain of climate change.
Abundant forage materials and nutrients attract many species and many species depend upon the coastal habitats for part of their life cycle. Individual species thrive in the habitats and ecosystems -- coral reefs, sea grass beds, mangroves, wetlands and tidelands, estuaries and beaches -- found along our coasts.
Here, our fishery resources are spawned and nurtured, offering nurseries, and feeding and breeding habitats for many marine species. They are fragile systems which are often destroyed or impaired by pollutants. Deforestation and agricultural activities occurring far inland can also give rise to the pollution of coastal systems through siltation and a run-off of fertilizers and pesticides. Jakarta Bay is an example.
Oceans and the terrestrial are interconnected in term of economic activities and natural systems. Open access to coastal resources has resulted in overfishing, which along with exploitation and pollution, is putting a tremendous strain on our coastal resources, resulting in the loss of fishery habitats, water quality, and various types of marine life from corals, sea grasses to mangroves and fishes.
Dynamite fishing, cyanide poisoning, industrial pollution, domestic waste and siltation are destroying our coastal reefs and seagrass beds. The result: a declining fish catch. This has already led to a situation where most fishing activities are no longer economically viable.
If our coastal environment is not conserved or managed well, resource-use conflicts and threats to food security will inevitably add to our country's social and economic development problems. Already vulnerable to natural phenomena such as tsunami, typhoons, cyclones and coastal storms, our coastal communities are facing an even greater risk from all kinds of unmanaged and potentially harmful human activities.
The unrestrained pursuit of multiple activities in coastal zones inevitably leads to competition for finite resources and environmental degradation. It often leads to environmental and social conflict, similar to conflict in Buyat Bay, North Sulawesi, and Jakarta Bay.
Furthermore, development practices that ignore the dynamics of coastal systems island-by-island can be catastrophic, as evident by the increasing loss of lives, property and investment due to coastal flooding and erosion. The destruction of natural barriers to coastal flooding -- reefs, mangroves and dunes -- further increases the vulnerability of coastal populations, as does localized land subsidence, which may be induced by large-scale extraction of ground water, oil and gas.
Our mangrove forests are being converted into fishponds, beach resorts, and residential and industrial estates, further reducing the natural habitats of various fish, shellfish, and crustaceans found in our coastal zones.
Thousand of hectares of the waterlogged coastal zone resources have been lost countrywide due to unsustainable development programs. More are continuing, and this is unfortunate because it is now known that these so-called wastelands are a resource as valuable as good farmland and are, in their own unique way, equally productive.
Despite widespread coastal degradation in Indonesia, opportunities still exist for sustainable development and for remedial action in heavily impacted areas, including Aceh, North Sumatra and Nias. A prerequisite, however, is a genuine commitment to coastal management, not just by governments (provincial and central), but also by the multitude of users and beneficiaries of coastal resources.
At the national and local (provincial and district) levels, the development of broad-scale resources and use policies is important. Specific environmental legislation, economic incentives and economic disincentives are needed. Policies on human populations nationally may need to be modified, and birth control programs should be intensified up to the district level.
Within this situation, Indonesia prepares itself to host the conference.
The writer is professor of mangrove ecology at the Centre for Oceanological Research and Development, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Jakarta. He can be reached at s_sukardjo@yahoo.com
