WORLD OCEAN CONFERENCE
MINISTERIAL/HIGH-LEVEL INTERACTIVE MEETING
KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY
H.E. DR. SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA
MANADO, 14 MAY 2009
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim,
Assalamu'alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh,
Salome,
Peace be upon us,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is so good to see all of you here today. On behalf of the Government and people of Indonesia, I am pleased to welcome all the delegates to the World Ocean Conference, and to thank you for coming to Manado. I know it must be such a huge sacrifice for you to leave the comfort of your home to come to this sunny beach town, only a short boat ride from Bunaken, widely known as among the best diving spots in the world.
You know, Indonesia is known the world over for the magical splendor of Bali. But, Bali is only one part of the wonderful mosaic of Indonesia. Here in Manado, you will also find the world's best kept secret: an incredibly pristine marine and coral life. This is why Manado is the perfect place to hold the WOC and remind the world of our responsibility to preserve our oceans.
We gather here today for a hugely important challenge: to live up to our common responsibility to protect our oceans, and to ensure that the seas and mankind will continue to be in harmony.
We have come together here because our oceans are terribly in distress; over-fishing, over-exploitation, the extinction of many marine species, pollution, the rise of sea-level, the warming of the oceans, coral reef destruction, climate change.
All this is happening right before our eyes. We have recently learned that a massive iceberg in the Antarctica is about to break off - this iceberg is said to contain fresh water that is equal to 30 % of the world's annual water consumption. And if present trends continue, we can expect more bad news to come.
We must come to the rescue of the oceans. We must save them from the ravages of abuse and overexploitation by humankind, from the havoc due to pollution and the dire effects of climate change. We must care about the oceans because without them we would not be here or anywhere else.
There was a time, billions of years ago, when the world was one boiling ocean. According to scientists, it was there that living organisms, life as we know it, began to form some hundreds of million years ago.
Until today, the sustenance of human life still depends heavily on the oceans. Civilizations have been connected by way of sea explorers, and many cultures and way of life around the world have been shaped by their love of the ocean. Covering two-thirds of the earth's surface, the oceans today make a global economy possible. Seaborne trade is almost 80% of global trade.
Without the oceans as a source of protein and other nutrients, half of the human race would go hungry and starve. Without the food security that the oceans make possible, we cannot effectively fight poverty and reach Millennium Development Goals.
And yet, these precious resources of humankind are being degraded - through the unsustainable exploitation of coastal areas and the oceans, through destructive fishing practices and over fishing, through the human-inflicted pollution of marine waters. A great deal of these resources are already lost forever.
Compounding this is the impact of climate change on the oceans and their ecosystems. Sea temperature is rising and bodies of marine waters are becoming more and more acidic. The sea level is also rising. Extreme weather events due to climate change have become a reality we must live with.
This is why tomorrow, we will also hold the Coral Triangle Initiative, or CTI Summit, that will be attended by the leaders of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, The Philippines, Solomon Islands and Timor Leste. We will discuss what we can do collectively and individually to preserve the rich marine biodiversity of the coral reef triangle, which is also known as the "amazon" of the seas, where some 120 million are depended upon for their livelihood.
Indeed, we are living with many climate-related hazards-like floods, droughts, storms, landslides and wild fires. Changes in weather patterns have undermined the livelihood of many coastal communities.
For instance, fishermen in Maluku province, which is not far from here, can no longer tell the time and specific places to make their usual catch of fish. The normal cycle in the life of the fish has been disrupted-to the great frustration and loss of the fishing folks.
This is a life and death issue for the community of nations, including to Indonesians, who pride ourselves as the world's largest archipelago.
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Our country has more than 90,000 kilometers of coastline and some 17,000 islands. A rise of one meter in the sea level, which is possible if the trend of global warming is not arrested, will decimate those valuable parts of our national territory.
Some 405,000 hectares of coastal land will go under water and many low-lying islands, along with nearby coral reefs, will simply disappear.
I personally have experienced the early impact of climate change: they include the floods that have brought tragedy to many residents of Jakarta, a tragedy that is repeated almost every year. And of course, Jakarta has no monopoly of this kind of tragedy- as we constantly see in the news, it is becoming more commonplace in other coastal cities in the world.
We can and must, reverse this trend. We must stop the widespread and rapid destruction of the world's marine and coastal resources. We must protect them from human abuse and overexploitation, and from the injurious impact of climate change. We must preserve them as our legacy for our future generations so that they may live free from the shackles of poverty.
We must remember that under article 192 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), adopted in 1982, all states have the obligation to protect and preserve the marine environment. Thus, this World Ocean Conference could also be regarded as the implementation of the historic UNCLOS 1982. As a long-time promoter of the archipelagic state concept, known as Wawasan Nusantara, and a committed party of UNCLOS, Indonesia will do all we can to faithfully implement UNCLOS provisions for the governance of the oceans.
At the same time, we must also enhance these priceless resources: they can be a large part of the solution to the problem of food security. That means, apart from protecting the oceans, we must learn to sustainably farm them so that they will yield much of what we need for human nutrition-without depleting them.
I am glad, therefore, that so many of you are here. And that you are ready to share your knowledge and experience, as well as technology and tools. Thus, we can effectively address the challenge of sustainably managing our coastal and marine resources in the face of climate change. There is a great deal that we can do together to attain that goal.
We can galvanize and synchronize our ocean and marine research activities, because even as we venture into the outer space, there is just so much we do not know about the deep ocean, and we still do not know enough about the inter-relationship between the oceans and climate change.
We can take measures to maintain the capability of our oceans to serve as the earth's thermostat, regulating our atmosphere and the cycle of the seasons.
We can revive the dying mangrove forests so that once more they can protect our coastal communities from the assaults of storms and even tsunamis.
Through better fisheries management and the sanctuary of marine protected areas, we can make our deep sea and coastal fisheries much more resilient in the face of climate change.
By conserving our coral reefs, and making them particularly resistant to bleaching, we can ensure that they continue to serve as the nurseries of thriving fisheries.
These are some of the ecosystem-based adaptation measures that we can and need to carry out if we are going to reverse the degradation of our marine and coastal resources. These, and many more, have been incorporated into a Regional Plan of Action that we the six Governments of the Coral Triangle will adopt at our Summit meeting tomorrow.
Moreover, tomorrow we will sign a Leaders' Declaration that will launch the Coral Triangle Initiative, which will be the boldest and most ambitious marine action plan ever carried out by a group of governments.
This World Ocean Conference is therefore a most auspicious antecedent to the historic event that will take place here in Manado tomorrow. I therefore have only the most fervent wishes for the success of your deliberations.
For it is my hope that the outcome of this Conference and the historic document of Manado Ocean Declaration that we will issue here tomorrow will form one call that is loud and clear for the world to care for and take care of its oceans.
That call must be heard by the international community and all other stakeholders as we all reach the ultimate destination of the Bali Road Map: the negotiations in Copenhagen toward a new post-Kyoto climate change regime.
It must be made clear that what we do here at the World Ocean Conference is not to produce a new process but to indeed to strengthen and complement the UN Framework of the Convention on Climate Change.
Simply put, the ocean community wants ocean issues to be part of the on-going global climate change solutions. This is critical because, frankly, ocean issues as of yet have not been adequately represented in overall global climate change discussions.
We therefore have to ensure that ocean-sensitive policies be incorporated into that new regime, so that humankind's approach to the challenge of climate change will be comprehensive and holistic.
If the Climate Convention in Copenhagen adopts that approach, and the international community and all stakeholders carry it out faithfully, humankind will have a much brighter outlook.
This is, therefore, a timely occasion for us to make an important statement for the future of our oceans, our planet and our humanity - a message that will resonate way beyond the walls of this convention hall. The last time the world heard a loud political message was during the signing of UNCLOS in 1982, which has dramatically changed the global governance of our oceans. Today, it is time for the world to hear yet another the importance message: that we can only survive the 21st century if we are united in preserving and caring for our oceans.
I therefore wish you every success in your important deliberations here.
Finally, by saying Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, I formally declare the Ministerial/High-Level Interactive Meeting of the World Ocean Conference, open.
I thank you.
Biro Naskah dan Penerjemahan
Deputi Mensesneg Bidang Dukungan Kebijakan
Sekretariat Negara RI