By Andi Abdussalam
Jakarta, May 11 (ANTARA) - The ongoing World Ocean Conference (WOC) in Manado, North Sulawesi, will formulate efforts to save not only the seas and marine resources but also the lives of people living in coastal areas.
"The adaptation and mitigation framework that the meeting will formulate is aimed at safeguarding not only the seas and the resources they hold but also the lives of people living in coastal areas," Indonesian Minister for Maritime and Fisheries Affairs Freddy Number said when opening a WOC senior officials' meeting in Manado on Monday.
People living in coastal areas of small islands in developing countries are groups of settlers whose lives are seriously threatened by the impact of climate change such as the rising sea surface.
"The rise in the sea surface will submerge some of the outlaying islands, while climate change will also affect the conditions of sea water and the marine biota population ," the minister said.
In this case archipelagic countries and nations with vast coastal areas should cooperate in increasing the people's understanding of the relations between the climate change and the sea and their impact on the ecosystem, bio-diversity and coastal community living in small developing countries.
The need to safeguard the people in coastal areas from the impact of climate change was also expressed by Moses Murihungurire, director for resources management of the Namiban Ministry of Maritime and Fisheries, and Gabriella Bianchi, senior officer of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Both shared the opinion that the dynamic change of ecosystem as a result of climate change affected people in coastal areas whose life and protein need depended on the sea resources.
Excessive exploitation of sea resources by human beings also caused the ecosystem to undergo changes. "For this purpose, ecosystem-based fishery management needed to be applied," Bianchi said.
The ecosystem-based management is basically an integrated fishery management applied by taking into account the sustainability of the ecosystem.
With fishery management model that takes into account the sea ecosystem balance the people, particularly those living in the coastal areas, would be able to utilize sea resources without harming their sustainability.
In order to adopt a comprehensive formula, the participation of the people living in the coastal areas is needed. Chairman of the WOC Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) chairman Eddy Pratomo said meanwhile that a formulation would be sought to involve farmers and people living in coastal areas in future forums like WOC.
"We have yet to involve them, but the time will come when we seek a formulation to involve farmers and people in coastal areas in future forums like WOC," Pratomo said at a press conference at the Grand Kawanua Convention Center.
He said the first WOC this time was specialized for government representatives to obtain political support from WOC participating countries.
"We have a common understanding that people at coastal areas are affected by climate change at sea," Pratomo said.
According to Achim Steiner, executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the world's oceans and seas are now understood to be the biggest sink of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels.
Indeed experts now estimate that up to 40 per cent of the C02 entering the atmosphere is being cycled through the marine environment playing a crucial role in moderating climate change.
But experts are warning that the marine realm cannot continue to soak up man-made pollution forever without consequences. Many marine living creatures from corals and crabs to plankton at the base of the food chain need seawater that is alkali to build their skeletons.
The average pH of water at the ocean's surface has now fallen from 8.16 to 8.05 since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution - small falls, but with potentially huge impacts if this continues.
Steiner said the governments must affirm their determination to 'Seal the Deal' in Copenhagen at the UN climate convention meeting in order to begin steering the world onto a low carbon course.
"We have to improve the health of our oceans. They have to be as fit and resilient as possible, so that they can cope with the climate change burden-- so they can continue to provide us with food and the myriad of other economically-important services," he wrote to ANTARA.
This means governments have to urgently address the multiple challenges weakening our seas, from land based pollution and discharges from ships up to overexploitation of the globe's.
In its efforts to overcome the problem of sea resources, Indonesia, in its part, cooperated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Cooperation between the Indonesian Maritime and Fisheries Affairs Ministry (DKP) and the NOAA maritime issues, which will require funds amounting to US$12 million, will be focused on four sub-working groups.
DKP Secretary General Widi Agoes Partikno said both sides will discuss the four sub-groups of work, namely coastal area and marine resources management, marine and climate change, fisheries and marine explorations.
"For the cooperation in 2009 we have funds valued at US$2 million and in 2010 there will be five to ten million dollars," said.
He said that DKP and NOAA had signed in 2007 a memorandum of understanding of cooperation for the implementation of work frames in four sub-working groups.
In the fields of fisheries, the cooperation would be expanded to cooperation on port preparation, guidance on fishery product quality, hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) training and marketing.
Cooperation on marine explorations will focus on the study of seabed lines to know whether or not they contain oil or other mineral elements.
"In carrying out the cooperation, we are looking forward to 25 or 50 years ahead," he said.***3*** (T.A014/A/HAJM/A/E002)
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar