DEVELOPING COUNTRIES HIT WORST BY IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE

    Manado, May 14, 2009 (ANTARA) -The developing countries are hit worst by the impact of climate change because they depended more on natural resources, according to Alfred Nakatsuma,  director of the Environment office of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) said here on Thursday.

          While the developed countries depended more on industries and information services than on natural resources, he said when speaking to journalists participating in the OANA Workshop on "The Role of the Media in Preserving the Global Environment".

          Nakatsuma pointed out at that Indonesia's marine tourism revenue reached US$2 billion per year and the country earned around US$2.2 billion from fish exports in 2008.

           About 120 million people depended on oceans and coastal areas in earning a living, he said.

         However, the situation regarding oceans and coastal areas as well as  marine biodiversity was worse than people thought, he said.

         Oceans which were very important, were very distressed among other things because of overfishing, over exploitation, pollution, and global warming.

         He emphasized the importance to improve fishing licensing, fishing practices, and reduce illegal fishing.

         He said  temperature rise induced more frequent El Nino (nature phenomenon which could cause droughts),  coral bleaching, and sea level rise.  
   The OANA workshop is being organized here May 13-15, coinciding with the implementation of the World Ocean Conference (WOC) which is also being organized here, May 11-14.

           The Workshop is organized by the OANA Secretariat at ANTARA News Agency, with the cooperation of the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Indonesian Communications and Informatics Ministry.

           In the last day of the workshop, journalists will join a field trip to the Bunaken marine park, around 10 km from Manado, to see the rich marine biodiversity of the protected marine park.

          OANA (Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies), which was established in 1961 with the support of UNESCO, now has 40 member news agencies from 33 countries.

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(T.F001/H-NG/A/E002)