Indonesia's Maritime and Coastal Resources

Indonesia has a total maritime area of 5.8 million sq km and coastline of some 81, 000 km, and is rich in maritime natural resources. This sector can be one of the substantial economic movers in the years to come. In addition, Indonesia has 18 % of the world’s total reefs. It has more than 620 species or more than 75 % of the world’s total hard coral species.

With these facts in mind, maritime resource management is one of the priorities for the Government of Indonesia. Indonesia’s coral reefs are a major productive and ecological asset. Their protection and sustainable management is crucial for fisheries, tourism, and natural heritage protection. At the same time, issues of deforestation, wildlife trade, pollution, and over fishing are challenging Indonesia’s environment and threatening the country’s natural resources. These issues are exacerbating social problems including poverty, population density, and poor governance.

Despite Indonesia’s heavy reliance on agriculture, inadequate income from farming has encouraged workers to shift from agriculture to fishing. This shift in labor has not only been unsustainable, but has further strained marine resources through destructive fishing using cyanide and dynamite. In the long run, these social, environmental, and economic issues are major problems that Indonesia has to overcome as a way to work within a very dynamic Asian market place.

Dr.James McVey, Former Chief Scientist at the NOAA and Michael Abbey, the NOAA Fisheries (Agency) Lead for Technical Capacity Building in Asia-Pacific will give an overview of the Indonesian Maritime Resources; the recent condition, challenges and future actions to optimize the value of Indonesia’s marine.

For anyone seeking to learn more about the environmental resources and policies in Indonesia, this event is one you will not want to miss. Please join us on May 11th, 2011 at 2 pm for this Open Forum, to be held at USINDO’s Washington Office.