Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad launched two books on climate change at his office over the weekend.

In the company of Environment Minister Gusti Mohammad Hatta, presidential special assistance for climate change Agus Purnomo, and Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Greg Moriarty, Fadel said the books, "Coral Reefs and Climate Change" and "Blue Carbon", would be

used as a reference for climate-change-related education in Indonesia.

According to the maritime affairs and fisheries minister, the two books would greatly assist Indonesia in monitoring the threat of global warming which was underway in Indonesian waters.

"With these two books, Indonesia will be able to protect the ocean and coastal ecosystems as mandated in Manado Ocean Declaration in 2009, adopted by 76 countries," Fadel said.

The minister said the first book, Coral Reefs and Climate Change, did not only provide information about coral reefs and climate change, but also contained a message for the public to keep protecting the existence natural resources for

the needs of future generations.

It also contained simple coral health charts, developed by the University of Queensland, Australia, and information on the way how to reduce and solve the problem of climate change.

While the second book, Blue Carbon, explained the important dimension of the ocean to capture carbon.

The second book explained how the carbon was captured by the beaches and oceans in the world.

It said most of the carbon was stored in the mangrove ecosystems,

sea grass beds, and salt water marsh wetlands, known as beach vegetation.

The blue carbon plays an important role in reducing carbon-dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere by carbon molecules for metabolic process. The carbon molecules will be stored in sediments with a very long period of time. (*)

Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
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