A

fishery advocacy group has questioned the environmental award presented to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for promoting coral preservation in eastern Indonesia.

The People’s Coalition for Fisheries Justice (KIARA) stated the President’s receipt of the “Valuing Nature Award”, presented by The Nature Conservancy (TNC), World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in New York on Sept. 24, did not reflect the real condition of conservation activities in the area known as the coral
triangle.

“It is improper for President Yudhoyono to receive that award,” KIARA secretary-general Riza Damanik told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

According to Riza, conservation initiatives had restricted local fishermen from catching fish in the area that was once their source of income, and had caused a 230 percent increase in the import of fish for domestic consumption.

As such, Riza disagreed with the move to recognize the President’s efforts in promoting the establishment of the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI-CFF), a multilateral partnership aimed at working to sustain marine and coastal resources.

Citing a report issued by USAID, Riza said that many indicators of success for the CTI-CFF partnership had not been fulfilled.

WRI president Andrew Steer said that some world leaders wanted to first deal with economic growth, which they deemed as “most important”, while others wanted to see social justice and environment protection prioritized.

Under Yudhoyono’s leadership, however, Indonesia had shown that accurate environment, growth and social policies could strengthen each other, he said.

“The world is now witnessing and admiring efforts Indonesia has made to champion those three policies,” said Steer in a statement made available to the Post last week.

Glenn Prickett of The Nature Conservancy said there was an urgent need to increase speed and collaboration in marine conservation as existing challenges could not be tackled by only one country.