T

he Mataram city administration has prepared a venue and a series of activities for the national Coral Triangle Day, which is scheduled to take place on Ampenan Beach in Mataram city, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) on Sunday.

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Sharif Cicip Sutardjo is scheduled to attend the event, which is jointly organized by World Wildlife for Nature (WWF) Indonesia and the ministry.

'€œWe will be holding the event at the Loang Baloq recreation park on Ampenan Beach,'€ Mataram Mayor Ahyar Abduh told reporters after a coordination meeting on Tuesday, which was attended by officials from local agriculture, maritime affairs and fisheries offices and other relevant agencies.

Ahyar said the Coral Triangle Day in Mataram was not merely a ceremonial event; it would also be followed up with coastal environmental conservation efforts.

He said the Mataram administration had arranged long-term programs regarding coastal restoration along the 9-kilometer coastline of the city, including coastal reconstruction, coastal community empowerment and coastal waste management programs.

'€We also aim to optimize tourism potential through the coastal community empowerment program,'€ said Ahyar.

Mataram Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Agency head Mazhuriadi said the activities were aimed at raising people'€™s awareness about the damage caused to marine areas due to waste.

He said that prior to the event, a series of activities would be carried out on Saturday, including a cleanup by members of the coastal community followed by a disaster mitigation campaign and a sasak shadow puppet show featuring famous puppeteer Lalu Nasib.

'€At the peak of the event on Sunday, a tree-planting ceremony will be held,'€ said Mazhuriadi.

The event will also be enlivened by a carnival involving 100 fishing boats, a sea tug-of-war competition and beach parade featuring various traditional arts, such as gendang beleq, rudat, bale ganjur, tawak-tawak and peresean.

'€The activities are aimed at entertaining the guests and residents and help to make the Coral Triangle Day a success,'€ he said.

One of the reasons Mataram was chosen as the venue for the Coral Triangle Day ceremony is due to its integrated waste management program called the Mataram Waste Bank.

The program encourages members of the public to help collect and sort domestic waste and hand it in to the waste bank. The program has been a success because residents directly experience the economic benefits of responsible waste management.

Mataram Waste Bank director Suhirman Adita said that based on analysis conducted by various parties, the biggest problem at sea was waste. The worst effects are caused by toxic plastic waste, which is eaten by fish and then ingested by humans.

'€The waste bank program helps to reduce waste on the beach by cutting its flow upstream by householders,'€ he said.

On the coraltriangleinitiative.org website, the Coral Triangle is part of an area encompassing Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and the Solomon Islands.

The area is home to 600 coral species, or around 75 percent of the world'€™s total coral, thus making it a coral reef area with the highest bio-diversity in the world. The Coral Triangle is also often called the undersea Amazon Tropical Forest.

Among the six countries that are part of the world'€™s coral reef protection center called the Coral Triangle Initiative, Indonesia has the most extensive coastline, spanning 80,791 kilometers.

In comparison, the Philippines '€” which is ranked second '€” has only 22,540 km of coastline.