National Agenda on Turtle Conservation Declared in Bali

Several officers from various Departments, District Government and environment officials from LSM gathered in Bali to formulate the national agenda which will become the source within conservation and supervision efforts for sea-turtles in the future, entitled “National Workshop of Turtle Conservation”, carried out for 3 days, 30 May – 1 June 2005 at Puri Dalem Hotel, Sanur.

This workshop is based on the cooperation of Direktorat Konservasi Keanekaragaman Hayati – Directorate of Living Variety Conservation, Directorate General of PHKA (Perlindungan Hutan dan Konservasi Alam – Forest Protection and Nature Conservation) Forestry Department together with the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) Indonesia, a national conservation board (LSM). This workshop officially opened by Directorate General of PHKA Ir. Koes Saparjadi, MF.
According to Koes Saparjadi, the meeting is a follow-up by the Indonesian government who have signed the agreement note about Conservation and Supervision on Sea-Turtles and it habitat in Indian Ocean and South East Asia or recognized as IOSEA-MP (Indian Ocean and South East Asia Marine Turtle Memorandum of Understanding). This MoU signing was by Indonesian Ambassador for Thailand Ibrahim Yusuf for Republic Indonesia Government on the last day of the third meeting of IOSEA signing countries – MoU, in Bangkok, 29-31 March 2005.
It asserted, that Indonesia is the 22nd signing country in the world as well as the leading nation within sea-turtle conservation in South East Asia after Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Myanmar and Cambodia. Indonesia’s position became important because in several Indonesian territories like East Kalimantan and Papua are the center of turtle population in South East Asia and South Pacific.
IOSEA – MoU gives the rule of law that conservation efforts on turtles can be done regionally or internationally and involves the entire sea-turtle exploring territory. This amphibian is known as an explorer animal with long range distance, not only from one country to another country but also passing the ocean wide. Indonesia’s membership will effectively become valid on 1 June 2005 which is 3 months after the signing.
IOSEA – MoU instructs the conservation and supervision of the sea-turtle into 6 divisions, the first, to decrease the turtle’s death, secondly, to protect, conserve and rehabilitate the sea-turtle habitat, thirdly, to increase understanding on ecology and turtle population through observation, supervision, and information exchange, forth, to increase awareness and public participation within conservation activity, fifth, to increase national, regional and international cooperation, sixth, to implement the agreement note into the Conservation Arrangement Planning.
The Species Program Director of WWF Indonesia, Nazir Foed said, Indonesia has six from seven world turtle species, which are Penyu Hijau /Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas), Penyu sisik /Hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricate), Penyu Tempayan /Loggerhead (Caretta caretta), Penyu Belimbing /Leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), Penyu Lekang /Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) and Penyu Pipih.
“Nation Committee or Task Force with Ministerial Decree needs to be realized in order that the planning for supervision and conservation which declared within the MoU can be implemented well on the field ,” said Nazir Foed.
Meanwhile, to make the MoU implementation more effective at National level, as the first path, Directorate General PHKA is prepared as the National Focal Point (NFP) to coordinate the MoU realization in Indonesia. “This workshop is expected to produce Action Planning on National Turtle Population Recovery including the action items related with turtle regional campaign 2006,” said Suparjadi. The meeting was followed by about 70 participants from the official Directorate General PHKA, DKP (Department Kelautan dan Perikanan – Fishery and Oceanic Department), Living Environment Ministry, Domestic Affairs Department and also the Chairman of National Parks Department and KSDA (Konservasi Sumber Daya Alam – Natural Resource Conservation). (BTN/Para)