T

he Bunaken National Marine Park in Manado, North Sulawesi, is globally renowned as one of the world’s most beautiful marine parks and is home to diverse marine biota and coral reefs.

However, the marine park, first studied by Lock Herlambang and Dr. Batuna in 1978, is now littered with garbage in at least 39 areas of Bunaken Island.

The Indonesian Navy (TNI AL) eighth naval base in Manado has prepared three navy platoons to clean up the waste, most of which reportedly came from Manado and other areas in the Sulawesi Sea.

“We are concerned about this and it is our duty to maintain cleanliness at sea, especially given that Bunaken is Sulawesi’s and Indonesia’s premier marine resort. We have prepared 100 personnel to work together with the community and other contributors to clean up Bunaken,” said eighth naval base commander First Adm. Sugianto. “If left unchecked, the marine biota in Bunaken Marine Park could be damaged,” he said.

The TNI AL will work together with the Manado municipality and North Sulawesi provincial administration to continue the cleanliness campaign. “Bunaken is our mainstay, so we expect residents in North Sulawesi to care more about it,” said North Sulawesi Cultural and Tourism Office head Harvey Sendoh.

Based on a survey conducted by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) in 2009, around 33.17 percent of the 841 coral reef areas in Indonesia are damaged.

Indonesia allocated 13.5 million hectares as marine conservation areas in 2009, or 35 percent more than the initial target of 10 million hectares.

Manado hosted the World Ocean Conference (WOC) in 2009, during which participants agreed on the Manado Ocean Declaration (MOD) and Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI). The subsequent meeting between Coral Triangle heads of state included Malaysia, the Philippines, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and Indonesia.