The Director of Ecosystem and Aquatic Biota Conservation of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, M. Firdaus Agung Kunto Kurniawan, said the debt transfer process had been going on for several years and agreed in July 2024.
In a statement from his office on Saturday, Kurniawan informed the funds from this debt transfer will be focused on protecting and conserving coral reef ecosystems in the Bird's Head Seascape and the Sunda Banda Sea.
"These two were chosen because they are included in the world's coral triangle. This is an area of high biodiversity value. Several studies showed that almost 75 percent of the world's coral reef species are in this coral triangle area," he remarked.
He said that the debt transfer agreement was made through two international non-profit conservation organizations, namely The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Conservancy International (CI).
The two organizations have partnered with Indonesian counterparts, namely Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara (YKAN) and Yayasan Konservasi Cakrawala Indonesia.
The CEO of the Nature Conservancy, Jennifer Morris, said the fund prioritizes its allocation to four sectors.
Funds allocation will prioritize coral reefs and their surrounding coastal marine ecosystems, which are important to maintain the ecological integrity of coral reefs, such as seagrass, mangroves, and also ecosystems on the sandy seabed where various organisms live and interact.
Other priorities are marine protected areas, habitat connectivity zones and potential future conservation locations, and endangered, threatened and protected marine species.
In the same statement, YKAN Executive Director Herlina Hartanto said the main activity of this fund utilization is community involvement.
Hartanto conveyed that the community will receive capacity building to face environmentally damaging challenges.
"The community will be the main actor to implement this program. This is important to realize sustainability in protecting coral reef ecosystems," she said.
The funds from the debt transfer will later be managed by the Supervisory Committee in a trust fund account.
The Supervisory Committee is led by the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, consisting of the Finance Ministry and several other non-profit organizations.
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Translator: Prisca Triferna, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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