Indonesia’s Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Sakti Wahyu Trenggono, emphasized that Indonesia’s blue economy policy is in line with the sustainable development goals (SDGs) to realize resilience against climate change.
“Within the context of the importance of maintaining the ocean health as a measure of resilience against climate change, [blue economy] is in line with the 14th SDGs, Life Below Water,” the minister said in Jakarta today, Tuesday, August 29, 2023.
He mentioned that the policy consists of the expansion of ocean conservation areas to boost the habitat of fish spawning and maintain the ocean’s function to absorb carbon dioxide while producing oxygens.
“Until 2022, the conservation area reached 8.7% of the Indonesian waters, or 28.9 million hectares, and the ministry is targeting to expand the conservation areas into 32.5 million hectares by 2030,” he said.
The second program, he added, is the quota-based measurable fishing program to avoid excessive fishing and exploitation.
The third program is the development of a sustainable aquaculture which is in line with the global fisheries trend.
The fourth program is the supervision and control of the coastline and small island areas to sustain the coastline health which has a critical role in supporting the ocean ecosystem.
The last program, said Trenggono, is the beach clean-up program through the Love the Ocean Month campaign. “With the Love the Ocean Month campaign, the ministry invites fishermen to collect plastic waste in the ocean for a whole month,” he said.