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Aqua culture touted to lift outer islands from poverty
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Traditional 'rumah panggung' (wooden-stilt houses) in a fishing village in Palopo, South Sulawesi. The government is seeking ways in how to improve the welfare of people living in disadvantaged regions, including those in the country’s outer islands. (JP/Elly Burhaini Faizal)
T
he Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Ministry is planning to develop aqua culture in an effort to improve conditions in the country’s impoverished far-flung outer islands.
Local residents will be involved in tapping its marine potential for their welfare in the new business projects that will include pearl culture, fishpond development, capture fishery, salt production, seaweed cultivation and downstream processing.
Three regencies—the Morotai Islands in North Maluku, Western Southeast Maluku in Maluku and Sabu Raijua in East Nusa Tenggara—have been earmarked for pilot projects in the next three years.
“We will oversee the business lines from production, downstream processing, packaging and marketing,” the ministry’s director general for the development of specific areas, Suprayoga Hadi, told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a meeting in Jakarta on Thursday.
The projects are expected to help promote conservation in the regions, where blast fishing has been blamed for widespread destruction of marine resources.
Once the projects were in place, Suprayoga said, the ministry wanted to see stricter law enforcement on the environment. (rez/bbn)
