The Coral Triangle Initiative | Indonesian conservation area

The 20,000-hectare (49,500 acre) area around Nusa Penida, Nusa Ceningan and Nusa Lembongan islands will be protected from destructive fishing, waste dumping and coral mining, project leader Marthen Welly told AFP.

Indonesia has targetted to create up to 20 million hectares of conservation area by 2020 as part of a concrete step to implement the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI), Antara news agency reported Marine Affairs and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad as saying Monday.

Currently Indonesia has 13 million hectares of conservation area, he said in in a press statement. Fadel said the creation of conservation areas in Nusa Penida and the rest of the country was a concrete step taken by the government to implement the CTI launched by Indonesia, along with the Philippines, Malaysia, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands.

The district government will provide 300 million rupiah (33,600 dollars) and aid agency USAID and TNC will each provide 50,000 dollars a year to run the project, TNC Indonesia director Arwandrija Rukma said. The Coral Triangle is an expanse of ocean covering 2.3 million square miles (5.7 million km2). This area, sometimes referred to as the "Amazon of the Seas", is the epicenter of marine life abundance and diversity on the planet.

The Coral Triangle Initiative, which was formed in 2007, calls for stronger international cooperation to combat illegal fishing and environmental destruction in an area half the size of the United States and home to half the world's coral reefs.

In December 2007, at the CTI meeting in Bali, the six countries agreed on a plan of action to move the initiative forward and ensure the region's marine resources sustainability.

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