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  The Jakarta Post 4 Jul 06
Activists say coastal damage exacerbating disasters
By Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta
thanks to alert from Debby Ng

Environmental activists are calling on the government and the public to halt the degradation of marine resources in order to prevent the kinds of disasters that have already caused suffering for millions of people.

Riza Damanik, campaign manager for marine and coastal areas at the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said the rapid damage to coastal areas has left 750 villages along some 81,000 square kilometers of the country's coastline subject to chronic erosion. Indonesia has the world's second longest coastline.

"These villagers are also hit by increasingly frequent floods. In 2003 alone, some 12,000 villages were inundated, which is a sharp increase from 1999, when 7,000 villages were affected by floods," he said.

A study by Walhi showed that 90 percent of the disaster-hit villages were located in areas where coral reefs and mangrove forests were damaged.

The 2005 State of the Environment report says that of the country's 51,000 square kilometers of coral areas, only 5.8 percent are well-preserved, a decrease from 2004 when 6.8 percent were in good condition.

Meanwhile, about 57 percent of the country's 9.2 million hectares of mangrove forests are in critical condition.

Experts say mangrove trees could halt erosion and mitigate the negative impacts of large sea waves on coastal areas, where some 16 million Indonesians live.

"These villagers are suffering from ecological disasters, a natural result of our accumulated failures in preserving the environment and managing marine resources," Riza said. He blamed the government for not stopping the conversion of coastal areas into big fishing ponds, which has decreased the ability of coastal areas to mitigate the impacts of disasters.

"Last year, my study estimated that fish farming areas totaled 800,000 hectares, increasing at an average rate of 14 percent per year," he said.

Marine and Fisheries Ministry spokesman Aji Sularso said the government was fully aware of the situation and had drawn up various community-based programs to improve conditions.

"We are working not only to increase yields from the fishery industry but also to practice preservation," he said.

Among dozens of programs created by his office, Aji said that the Coral Reef and Management Project and Marine Coastal Resources Management Project, both funded by foreign donors, had been successful at sustaining marine resources.

As for the fish farming industry, he said it was up to local administrations to regulate them. "In line with the decentralization system, some conservation programs are now under the regional administrations' authority," he said.
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