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Indonesia proposes joint commitment on mangrove restoration
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Pristine: An aerial view of the mangrove forest zone in Teluk Bintuni regency, West Papua. (JP/Jerry Adiguna)
I
ndonesia has invited five countries that have mangrove forests — Australia, Kenya, Mexico, Jamaica and Ghana — to make a joint commitment to restoring and rehabilitating mangroves as an effort to overcome the adverse effects of climate change, according to a ministry official.
The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry’s anti-illegal fishing task force led Indonesia’s delegation at the fifth Sherpa meeting for the High Level Panel (HLP) for a Sustainable Ocean Economy in Amsterdam last week.
The High-Level Panel was initiated by Norway and consists of 14 countries: Norway, Indonesia, Australia, Canada, Chile, Fiji, Ghana, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, Namibia, Norway, Palau and Portugal. In addition to representing a combined 60 percent of the world’s total sea area, they also represent about 30 percent of the world’s mangrove areas.
At the event, Indonesia highlighted the importance of mangroves, which can store five times more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to terrestrial forests.
“We proposed a joint commitment of the six HLP countries to restore, rehabilitate and manage mangroves properly,” task force head Mas Achmad Santosa said as quoted in a press statement.
“When combined, the total area of mangroves owned by the six countries covers one third of the world’s mangrove areas, or around 5.4 million hectares.”
Achmad said Indonesia wanted the commitment to be included in the ocean-based climate action document, to be declared by the 14 HLP member countries at the UN Climate Action Summit on Sept. 23 in New York, the United States.
