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ndonesia needs to strengthen its commitment to safeguarding the marine biodiversity in the Coral Triangle, which is threatened by destructive natural resource exploitation and climate change, the leader of a transnational organization set up to protect the area has said.

During a recent visit to The Jakarta Post, Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI-CFF) Regional Secretariat executive director Widi Pratikto said Indonesian leadership and improved coordination among participating states were needed to ensure all members implemented the commitment to the organization’s initial declaration in 2009.

Indonesia, he said, should take a leadership role as it was the country with the largest area of coral reef.

“The most immediate challenge Indonesia has to face is to ensure harmony between the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry and the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister,” Widi said without elaborating any further.

Widi claimed that challenges related to domestic harmony had added obstacles to coordination and integration among countries grouped under the CTI-CFF, which consist of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Timor Leste.

The Coral Triangle Area consists of 43,682 square kilometers of coral reef stretching from the Philippines in the north to the Solomon Islands in the south. The area is home to more than 600 species of coral — over 75 percent of the global total — and more than 3,000 species of reef fish — almost 40 percent of the global estimate. Nearly 50 percent, or 19,868 sqkm, of the area is located in Indonesia.

The Coral Triangle Area, whose marine waters bridge the natural resources of the Pacific and Indian oceans, is also the largest area of marine biodiversity in the world, as well as the area with the third richest biodiversity in the world after the Congo basin in Africa and the Amazon region in South America.

Since the inception of the CTI-CFF in 2007, some bold initiatives have been taken to respond to the commitments outlined in a declaration issued by the six countries in 2009, such as the establishment of a secretariat in Manado in North Sulawesi in 2014.

“Now it depends on how Indonesia, as the big brother in the Coral Triangle region and a major driver of economic development in the Asia Pacific region, leads the effort to safeguard the marine ecosystem,” Widi said.

Muhammad Lukman, the technical program senior manager with the CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat, said destructive natural resource exploitation and climate change were the biggest challenges confronting efforts to safeguard the Coral Triangle.

“Destructive fishing techniques such as capturing juvenile fish are a major threat to the marine ecosystem,” Lukman said.

Lukman added that climate change had warmed the waters in tropical coral reefs, a condition that could cause coral bleaching.

In Indonesia, the scale of coral reef destruction is alarming. Research from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) conducted in 2015 found that 73.91 percent of coral reefs in eastern Indonesia were damaged, compared to 66.13 percent in western Indonesia.

LIPI claims there has been a major increase in coral reef destruction in eastern Indonesia, estimating that the figure was only 58.72 percent in 2000.

Another LIPI finding in 2014 suggested that only 5.29 percent of coral reefs in Indonesia could be classified as being in a good condition, compared to 30.4 percent in a bad condition.

Currently, Indonesia is facing another challenge in how to mitigate the damage to 13,532 square meters of coral reef in the popular scuba diving destination of Raja Ampat in West Papua after the British-owned Caledonia Sky cruise ship entered shallow waters there and destroyed reefs in the area earlier this month.