The Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Sharif C. Sutardjo, who directly accepted the award, said, "I encourage the global community to undergo the systemic, comprehensive, synchronized efforts which will lead to the establishment of the policy in the coral reef utilization and management."
On the same occasion, two Indonesian coral reef activists, Nyoman Sugiarta and Abdul Manap were named the winners of Coral Conservation Prize presented by Coral Reef Alliance for their significant roles in saving and conserving the coral reef. They eliminated seven nominees from Fiji, Hawaii, Honduras, Mexico, and Palmyra.
The coral reef is inexplicably beneficial, both ecologically and economically. From the pearl sector alone, it makes Indonesia the largest pearl producing country since 2005, which claims 50% of the world's pearl production with the export value of more than US$ 29 million.
On that occasion, Sharif reminded the attendees that the exploitation that is not backed up by the sufficient and sustainable long-term conservation will increase the risk of the coral extinction . According to the report of Washington's World Resource Institute (WRI), it is predicted that if the overexploitation lasts with no change at all, the world's coral reef will eventually be extinct in 2050.
To overcome all kinds of the threats, MMAF constantly protects and manages the marine and fishery resource sustainably through a number of the marine conservation initiatives. The commitment has also been realized by the establishment of the Marine Protected Area reaching 16 million hectares. MMAF is also actively engaged in a number of both regional and multilateral forums, such as Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI), World Coral Reef Conference (WCRC), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Leibniz-Zentrum für Marine Tropenökologie (ZMT), to name a few.
Editor: PR Wire
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