HEALTHY OCEANS CRUCIAL FOR FOOD SECURITY by Fardah

    Jakarta, April 24, 2014 (Antara) -  The Global Oceans Action Summit (GOAS) for Food Security and Blue Growth has emphasized the importance of maintaining healthy oceans, where around 80 percent of all life on the planet is found, to solve one of the biggest problems of the 21st century - how to feed 9 billion people by 2050.

        "Urgent coordinated action is needed to restore the health of the world's oceans and secure the long-term well-being and food security of a growing global population," Árni M. Mathiesen, Assistant Director-General for Fisheries and Aquaculture at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said before over 500 delegates, including 60 ministers, attending the Summit being held in the Hague, the Netherlands, April 22-25.  

   The Summit co-organized by the Dutch government, the World Bank, FAO and the governments of Grenada, Indonesia, Mauritius, Norway and the United States of America, aimed to bring global attention and increased investment into addressing the three key threats to ocean health and food security: overfishing, habitat destruction and pollution. 
   As a country partner of the GOAS 2014, Indonesia sent a strong delegation headed by Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Sharif Cicip Sutardjo, to the Summit attended by delegates from 101 countries and 182 international organizations. 
   The minister in his speech said the  Indonesian government realized the important role of marine and fisheries resources as a driving force to support national economic development, reduce poverty, absorb carbon emissions, and accelerate marine and fisheries industries through blue economy approach.    
   Blue Economy investment model promotes new ways of doing business by using less natural resources, achieving zero waste and producing diverse products, services, and revenues, according to him.

        He informed the international audience that currently the Blue Economy concept was being applied in the Indonesian marine and fisheries development, in line with the statement of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the Plenary Session of the United Nation Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro, June 2012.

        Yudhoyono in Brazil stated that "Blue Economy is our next frontier, which enables us to maximize the environmental services and sustainable economic values."
   The term "blue economy" stems from the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), and refers to food, jobs and opportunities for development provided by ocean and coastal assets.

        Indonesian waters occupy at least 70 percent of its national territory, and in most parts of the country, there are numerous aspects of livelihoods that are related to and dependent on oceans.   The country's economy traditionally depends on the oceans and its natural resources. 
   Being one of the world`s largest maritime countries with about 5.8 million square kilometers of marine territory, Indonesia has around 92,000 km-long beach and coastal areas.

        "With our mega marine biodiversity as a comparative advantage, Indonesia realizes the responsibility to safeguard the sustainable development of its marine resources," he said.

        On food security, he said the issue remained high on the nation's agenda.  He, however, reminded that food security depended on adequate available resources including fisheries resources which were facing threats from illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices.

        The minister urged close cooperation between governments and the private sector in identifying creative solutions to achieve the vision of a hunger- and malnutrition-free world, and improve the living standards of coastal community, especially in the vulnerable and small countries.

         In the GOAS 2014, Minister Sharif Sutardjo also presented the reports of the Asian Conference on Oceans, Food Security and Blue Growth organized in Bali last June 2013, as part of the preparations for the GOAS.

         The Bali meeting captured the common vision that by 2030, healthy oceans and inland waters of Asia would support global and regional food security and nutrition, through the Blue Growth approach in  the fishery and aquaculture sectors, Sutardjo added.

         He also informed the Summit that Indonesia strengthened its outreach and training programs for fisheries managers to improve ocean governance and in particular to combat IUU Fishing.

         On the second day of the Summit, Indonesia and the Netherlands announced a partnership through joint projects for improved and safer fish products for millions of Indonesian consumers.

         "Far too much fish gets wasted worldwide due to lack of knowledge of storage and cooling techniques. Needless waste of good food out of the ocean. This urges for action now, starting today. We are going to work together and invest knowledge to improve fish products for consumers," Dutch Agriculture Minister Sharon Dijksma said when announcing the joint projects worth 4.5 million euros.  
    Specialists from Wageningen University and Research Center and their Indonesian colleagues will cooperate on project locations on Kalimantan, Sumatra, Java and a smaller project on Ambon as well.

         The goal of the projects which will run until 2016, is to ensure safe and high-qualitative fish products and its availability for internal markets and possibly export. 
    On the sidelines of the Summit, Indonesia organized a
seminar on "Sharing Knowledge: Good Governance - Supporting Food
Security and Blue Growth" and an exhibition entitled "Blue Growth to
Support Food Security."
   Last but not least, Indonesia invited the Summit's participants to join the World Coral Reef Conference (WCRC) 2014 to be held in Manado, North Sulawesi, on 16 May 2014.

         The WCRC would aim to reaffirm global commitment to addressing  the serious degradation of coral reefs, and to call for more concrete cooperation in coral reef ecosystem management, Minister Sutardjo stated.

         UNEP Chief Achim Steiner in 2009 wrote: "We have to improve the health of our oceans. They have to be as fit and resilient as possible, so that they can cope with the climate change burden-- so they can continue to provide us with food and the myriad of other economically-important services."   ***3***
(f001/H-YH)




(T.F001/A/F. Assegaf/A/Yosep) 24-04-2014 22:55:59