Scientist says coral reefs need strategic approach
Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Makassar | Fri, 02/04/2011 11:27 AM
Ecology-based methods must be coupled with a far-reaching strategic approach to curb the destruction and degradation of the nation’s coral reefs, says a prominent Indonesian scientist.
Jamaluddin Jompa, director of the Center for Coral Reef Research at Hasanuddin University in Makassar, said the extent of destruction of coral reefs in Indonesia, including in South Sulawesi, had reached an alarming 60 percent.
“Indonesia holds 70,000 square kilometers of coral reefs with highly diverse ecosystems. If we are aware of its high economic value and implement ecology-based exploitation methods, coral reefs can contribute significantly to the national economy,” Jamaluddin said at a recent ceremony appointing him a professor at Hasanuddin University.
Jamaluddin said that well managed coral reefs might yield 30 tons of fish per kilometer square a year.
“Because of indiscriminate exploitation, they can only generate 2 tons per kilometer square a year,” he said, adding that Indonesia was part of the vast and rich ecosystem of the so-called “Coral Triangle” that spans Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and Timor Leste.
As global warming also contributed to degradation, well managed exploitation was needed, he said.
Jamaluddin said an ecosystem’s resistance to and its ability to recover from destruction would depend on how coral reefs were managed.
Developing a coral reef conservation area was a way to preserve the ecological balance, he said.
“An ecological balance will keep coral reefs’ organism populations from dwindling inside the conservation area and beyond,” Jamaluddin, who was also chairman of Coral Triangle Initiative, said.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, the economic cost over a 25 year period of destroying one kilometer of coral reef was between US$137,000 and $1,200,000.
In his book, Indonesian Coral Reefs amid Threats from Global Warming, Jamaluddin, offers a five point plan for the strategic management of coral reefs, including developing a sea conservation network.
