Jakarta, June 10 (Antara) - The next president who will be elected in
the upcoming July 9 presidential elections is expected to further
develop the country's marine resources so that this sector will
contribute to improving public welfare.
So far, Indonesia has not yet tapped the maximum potential and is still
weak in protecting its marine sector, which has a revenue potential of
US$1.2 trillion a year.
Weak control over the marine wealth has enabled foreign poachers to
steal the country's fish, which according to FAO amount to Rp300
trillion per annum.
Illegal fishing in Indonesian waters
increases each year. Between 2011 and 2013, there were 6,215 cases of
illegal fishing. Of that amount, 60 percent or 3,782 cases occurred
since November 2012.
Inappropriate exploitation of the marine resources also caused damage
to fish habitat and weakened the life of fish species and other marine
biota.
"Many people are not aware of the fact that the country's fish habitat
for various species and marine resources is no longer functioning well.
Threat to fish habitat in the sea will in the end become a threat to the
survival of human life," Secretary General of the Marine Affairs and
Fisheries Sjarief Widjaja said on Monday.
Sjarif said the habitat for fish species and other marine biota needed concrete actions to protect it.
"We need concrete actions to safeguard one of the biological strengths
of this earth. We should preserve and maintain more marine lives, such
as fish species and other marine biota in a sustainable manner for the
safety of the world," the secretary general said.
In addition to fish habitat, the country's fish resources should also
be protected, particularly from theft by foreign poachers.
According to Abdul Halim, the secretary general of the People's
Coalition for Fishery Justice (Kiara), early this year, there are about
100 foreign vessels poaching in the Indonesian waters every year.
This is due to the weaknesses of the country in supervising its waters
as admitted by Marine Resources and Fisheries Minister Sharif C
Sutardjo. He said the government's control over the country's waters was
still weak due to a small budget for ship operations.
He said there were only about 27 ships for supervising the country's
territorial water, which covered an area of about 5.58 million sq
kilometers. Two-thirds of Indonesia's areas are water, including 104,000
kilometers of shorelines.
"What is saddening is the fact that the budget for ship operations to
supervise the sea continues to decline from year to year. Previously, we
could still launch operations for 200 days in one year, now we can only
conduct marine patrols for 120 days," the minister stated before
hundreds of students from fishery faculties of various universities at
the Brawijaya University in Malang, East Java, on Sunday.
Indonesia also has extensive sea exclusive economic zones (EEZ), which
are rich in fish and other marine resources. However, it is saddening
because Indonesia only has seven ships to supervise the country's
economic exclusive zones.
Therefore, the people hoped that the next president will be able to
focus attention on the development of the marine sector, which has the
potential to bring prosperity to the country.
A number of community leaders in Banten for instance expressed their
hope that the next president will help tap, develop and further tap the
country's marine resources.
"We think that the marine resources have not yet been tapped to its
maximum for the welfare of the people," Baijuri, a noted community
leader in Lebak District, Banten said on Sunday.
Compared with the marine resources potential worth of US$1.2 trillion,
the country's marine production of fish for example is still quite
small.
According to Secretary General Sjarief Widjaja, his ministry has in
2014 set a production target of 20.95 million tons of fish, with an
expected export of US$5.65 billion.
"The production target consists of 6.08 million tons of catch fish and
13.97 million tons of cultured fish," Widjaja said in a press release in
February.
That is why, according to Baijuri, whoever is elected in the upcoming
July 9 presidential election should be able to develop and exploit the
country's marine resources for the prosperity of the Indonesian people.
There are now two presidential and vice presidential candidate pairs
who will contest in the July 9 presidential race: Prabowo Subianto -
Hatta Rajasa and Joko Widodo - Jusuf Kalla. No matter who is elected
between the two, they are expected to adopt policies for the maximum
development and the utilization of marine resources for the welfare of
the people.
"We are sad to see our marine resources and a number of islands being annexed by other countries," Baijuri said.
He said the government had not yet been able to utilize the country's
large marine potential. His fellow community leader of Lebak, Al Idrus,
also expressed hope that the next president will take firm steps in
protecting the country's marine resources.
He said the president had not yet taken stern measures against fish
theft in Indonesia's waters, which can reach Rp300 trillion a year.
"We hope that the next president will help tap the marine resources and
protect outlying islands from annexation by neighboring countries," he
added.
The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) will develop a
road map to be presented to the elected president.
"Kadin will hand over a road map to the next president," Kadin deputy
chairman for marine affairs and fisheries Yugi Prayanto said on Monday.
He said the road map emphasized the development of the marine sector
and fisheries because the marine potential had not yet been exploited to
the maximum for the interest of the domestic economy.
Currently, there is a large amount of homework to be done, such as the
issues of the diesel fuel subsidy, empowerment of those involved in the
fishery business and improvement of fishermen's prosperity, fishery
investment climate, infrastructure and utilization of fishery potential.
"All our efforts are already strong but not yet at the maximum, because
the nation's fishery potential is large," the Kadin deputy chairman
said.
He reminded that Indonesia's fishery production was still lower than
that of China and the United States. This is ironical because
Indonesia's coast is the second longest in the world after that of
Canada. Its economic potential can reach Rp255 trillion per annum.
In the world's fishery trade in 2012, Indonesia was ranked seventh. "As
a producer, possibly we are the largest one in the world, but unluckily
the economic value of our fishery production is not yet that strong,"
he added.***1***
(T.A014/INE/B003)
EDITED BY INE
(T.SYS/A/BESSR/Bustanuddin) 10-06-2014 19:12: |
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