Restoring coral reefs in Indonesia is undoubtedly urgent, but the task still faces major obstacles, including in funding and methods of restoring the reefs, experts say.

Thomas J. Goreau, president of the Global Coral Reef Alliance, underscored the importance of investing in the fishing community, which was ranked financially at the bottom of the social order.

"What we want is for them to really have the training and the resources to restore the area, so their children will be able to eat," he told The Jakarta Post after speaking at a sideline event at the World Ocean Conference (WOC) on Tuesday.

He added restoring the most beautiful and diverse reefs species in the world was the most important thing to do because most fishermen lived in areas where coral reefs were being damaged.

Research by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) conducted 25 years ago showed only 5 percent of the country's coral colonies was in good condition, while 29 percent was satisfactory, 25 percent was bad and 40 percent was severely damaged, according to the website www.coremap.lipi.go.id.

Goreau said the government should realize that fishermen needed training and access to loans in much the same way as farmers who received loans and seeds to boost their production.

Otherwise, he warned, they would continue destroying the reefs.

"They don't get training. They don't get loans. And the result is that what the fishermen are doing is they are using very destructive tools," he said.

"What they are doing to catch the fish is destroying the reef."

He added the funding should be channeled directly to the affected community, so the fishermen would be sure they could keep doing reef restoration.

Over the past nine years, Goreau has been involved in many projects to restore coral reefs using a bio-rock technique, in which steel structures of varying sizes are given a low voltage electrical charge to grow limestone, onto which coral would then begin taking hold.

"The limestone grows like a solid rock over the steel," he said.

Damaged coral reefs anchored to the structure are then able to recover and even grow up to two or three times faster, depending on the particular species of coral, he added.

Goreau said one of the projects involving a fishing community and university students had given rise to more than 500 meters of man-made coral reefs off the coast of Pemuteran in Buleleng regency, Bali.

However, the Nature Conservancy's (TNC) Marthen Welly criticized the restoration method, saying it was adequate for raising people's awareness of the slow growth of coral, but not effective enough in bringing about significant ecological improvement, such as shielding beaches from waves.

He added the simplest and most effective way to do this was the file rock method, which was to arrange chunks of limestones in the sea and ensure they got enough sunlight to grow coral.

This method, he went on, had proved successful in growing 6,000 square meters of coral off Komodo Island in East Nusa Tenggara in three years.

Neviaty P. Zamani, a coral researcher at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), said government officials responsible for coral restoration projects needed clear guidelines.

"It's important to ascertain the extent of damage to a reef, because the treatment required will vary," she said.

What's the use of a coral transplantation project if the coral in the area just needs a larva settlement treatment?"

Larva settlement is similar to the file rock method.

The government is in the second phase of a 15-year project called the Coral Reef Rehabilitation and Management Program (COREMAP).

Launched in 1998, the project is funded by loans from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Australia Agency for International Development (AusAid).

Popular

Volcano erupts in North Sulawesi, hundreds evacuated

Dubai roads, airport reel from floods after record rains

Ramadan boosts consumer confidence, retail sales