Progress in Creating a Marine Reserve System in Indonesia

Indonesia, the world's most heavily populated archipelago, has begun to take steps toward understanding and managing its substantial marine resources. As one part of an integrated program of marine conservation, a system of marine reserves is in the preliminary planning stage. This system will include recreational marine areas, such as the proposed Pulau Seribu Conservation Area near Jakarta, as well as areas suited to special interest international tourism, such as Pulau Menjangan in Bali. The system will also involve integrating adjacent marine ecosystems into existing or proposed terrestrial reserves, where such marine resources are an important ecological component themselves, or where they may provide a significant buffer to the terrestrial reserve. The Komodo National Park is an example of such an island/sea complex.

Specific threats to these proposed marine reserves include coral reef mining, explosives fishing, uncontrolled aquarium fish collection and disturbance to mangrove swamps. The Indonesian Directorate of Nature Conservation, charged with management of wildlife, national parks and reserves, is now actively trying to increase the quality and number of marine representatives in the national system, as well as to improve its ability to plan, develop and manage such units for nature conservation and tourism benefits.