Indonesia Coral Reefs And That Hope
In 2016, I participated in a coral reef survey in the Sekotong district on the Island of Lombok. At that time, the phenomenon of massive coral bleaching was happening. I was very surprised when I saw that almost all of the coral reefs in the waters of Sekotong had bleached. That is a small example of the part of coral reefs in Indonesia that was damaged. Then how exactly is the condition of coral reefs in Indonesia today?
LIPI or Indonesian Science Institute issued a report on Indonesia’s coral reefs in 2018 and is the latest series of coral reef reports issued. In the report, it was reported that from 1067 data collection points, there were only 70 or 6,56% points that had coral reefs with excellent categories, 245 points or 22,96% with good categories, while the remaining 366 points or 34,30% had fair status, and other 386 points or 36,18% have a poor category.
In the previous report, in 2017. LIPI stated that there were 6,39% of the coral cover area in Indonesia which had an excellent category, 23,40% with good category, 35,06% of the cover area had fair status and the remaining 35,15% had a poor status category.
From the two reports, we can see that there has been a decline in the quality of coral cover in Indonesian waters. Although the area of coral cover with poor status is reduced, it cannot cover the reduction in the percentage of coral cover that has an excellent and good status. Not all damage to coral reefs occurs because of nature, most of the damage actually comes from human effectiveness, such as fishing that is not environmentally friendly (especially with bombs and cyanide) often occurs in the eastern and central regions. In the western region, common problems faced are sedimentation, water quality degradation due to domestic waste and land use. In addition to these general problems, there are also specific problems that may only occur in certain locations, such as in Kendari and Tapteng there is the phenomenon of Acanthaster planci which attacks many-branched corals. By knowing the problems that occur in each region and how to deal with them, the management of coral reefs and coastal areas is expected to be more effective.
So, is there hope for our coral reefs? the answer is yes, the hope comes from the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Affairs or KKP. This hope is the addition of marine conservation areas in Indonesia planned by the KKP, which since 2017 amounted to 19 million hectares, in 2020 it will increase to 20 million hectares. This action will reduce the damage to coral reefs caused by humans. Also, increased public participation and attention to the environment is hope, such as the diver clean action movement that is often carried out by various NGOs and the diving community.
Corals can also be recovered more quickly by transplantation. However, transplants are only successful as long as humans are not tempted to damage the reef. Coral is generally destroyed by bombing and tourist activities that do not pay attention to the environment. With the KKP’s breakthrough to increase the area of marine conservation areas, it can be more easily avoided than before, and transplant activities focused on areas that are included in conservation areas will be more easily monitored. Hopefully, all these expectations happen, so that Indonesia’s marine wealth can be maintained.
