The Coral, Fish and Food

Astrid Sri Haryati

Though it has fresh coastal air, it is a bit daunting to walk through the conference halls in Nusa Dua, Bali, let alone share the stage with thoughtful leaders at the Coral Triangle Initiative conference on sustainable marine tourism this week.

What lies between the lines is that we have not done enough for the reefs, the fisheries and the security of our food.

This is certainly not a simple eat, pray, love personal moment. The six-country commitment for the coral triangle region — located along the equator at the confluence of the Western Pacific and Indian oceans — is crucial for what has been deemed by scientists as the global epicenter of marine life and diversity. What has made economic sense to businesses in the region to date makes no sense to a new understanding of our seascape.

The US$2.3 billion estimated annual value of the coral reefs, mangroves and associated natural habitats in the coral triangle region shows there is an unquestionable economic benefit from ecological preservation.

The well-cited benefit to coastal communities and to the 363 million people who reside in the region ranges from natural protection from storms and tsunamis to the multi-million dollar annual trade in live edible reef fish.

The focus then eventually points to tourism — a sector that rings a realistic bell in Indonesia with a faster return per dollar investment than heavy industry, not to mention its excellent absorption rate of our human capital.

The tourism sector in each of the coral triangle countries ranks among the top four sectors of goods and services export. The conference reported that the industry generates an estimated $12 billion annually and creates thousands of jobs. About 9.4 million international visitors enter Indonesia annually, with one million of them engaging in marine activities and spending to the tune of $152.22 per person per day on average.

There are other industries, such as construction, infrastructure, shipping, energy and even Information and Communication Technology (ICT), that define basic services and enable us to access innovation. But why then we have not seen even the smallest comforting result?

While we still seek a common language among stakeholders to beat what feels like an age-old culture of distrust and frivolously draft user-friendly manuals, we should focus on the lack of exposure.

Then a more realistic economic model that fits the entire vision could help form more positive opinions among investors and buyers. The willingness to pay could ride along the emerging blue economy that covers our integrated sustainability and economic management of water bodies and thus intervene with our traditional land-based economy, whether green or not.

Without mainstreaming the realistic new economic model to the sustainable tourism industry, the power behind our working capital will run out of steam fast and we will fail to live up to expectations outlined in the Regional Plan of Action.

Core to our needs is a marketplace of ideas with a built-in call-to-action potential that reaches all corners of the globe. Instead of depending on individual callings and an overnight dream to be a do-gooder, a clear regional priorities and a roadmap should be our focus and impetus for organizing.

Clear guidelines and performance criteria for the coral triangle region should then embrace and enable different stakeholder participation. Creating a system with reasonable shades of green — blue to be precise, and allowing people to jump on and stay on board at any stage and gradually improve their compliance is key. We don’t want to end up having only you and me who would play by the rules in a pond as big as the waters of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Solomon Islands and Timor Leste.

We should continue removing barriers to financing, improving facilitation for impact investment in unpopular zones, reducing taxes and fees in bringing in innovation and training professionals who can lead action.

We should involve other industries and urban development affecting the health of marine and coastal resources. With 80 percent? of coral reefs in the region at risk, depleting important coastal fisheries and commercial pelagic fish stocks, particularly tuna and mackerel, will increase hazards, not only to the marine population, but also to the people in the archipelagic nation.

In the meantime we must bring forth compelling voices of action and utilize web and social media platforms to move the mountain of barriers and political stop buttons. We have done it before when electing our current President. We should connect more dots, even non-traditional ones, with an action-oriented vision and increase followers as if we were launching a new rock band that feeds off the energy from the crowd.

The crowd is certainly what is missing here. I walked through the conference halls feeling a bit lonely. I did not see the veteran or emerging faces in the regional physical development scene. They may be busy devising plans to avoid a further plunge of our currency or helping the government spend more to boost the economy.

Instead of writing about the personal commitment wall after one roundtable discussion I participated in, I’d be better pledging to provoke my colleagues in the business community to show their voices in a forum such as this one. They negotiate and take action on the ground on a daily basis. They should hear what everyone is saying about our marine and coasts and be heard too.
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The tourism sector in each of the coral triangle countries ranks among the top four sectors of goods and services export.
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The writer, an award-winning architect and CEO of Terra Lumen Indonesia, is former deputy to leading green city mayors in Chicago and San Francisco and former expert staffer to a member of the previous Indonesian Cabinet.