BALI: Malaysia wants the issue of cross-border imports and exports of fish, particularly to the Philippines and Indonesia, to be tackled at a project to protect reefs in the Sulawesi and Sulu seas.
Sabah Fisheries director Rayner Stuel Galid said the Coral Triangle Initiative – comprising a coalition of six countries including Malaysia – would discuss the conservation and protection of coral reefs as well as fisheries within the region.
“Malaysia is particularly interested in the issue of border control over fish imports and exports,” he said when attending the stakeholders’ meeting here yesterday.
The two-day meeting, held on the sidelines of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, was expected to lead towards a set of guiding principles and a plan of action for the future development of the initiative.
The other countries are Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Timor Leste.
The initiative will encompass some 75,000 sq km of total reef area, home to 600 species of coral and over 3,000 species of fish. This area is also believed to be the richest source for tuna fishing, an industry worth billion of dollars annually.
It also has some 120 million people living along the coasts.
However, there is also growing concern that global warming and the subsequent rise in water temperature has contributed to the degradation and bleaching of coral reefs.
For Malaysia, the project is believed to include protection of the eastern coast of Sabah where tourist dive-spots Sipadan and Litigan islands are located, as well as the mangrove forests along the seashore.
Indonesia’s Marine and Fisheries Research Agency chairman Indroyono Susilo said this initiative was already endorsed by leaders of the participating countries at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Sydney as well as the Asean Summit in Singapore last month.
“Now comes the hard part in implementing the initiative. This area is also the spawning and nesting ground of the world’s largest tuna fishery,” he said.
It is believed that the project would be supported through the Asian Development Bank.
Director of the Malaysia-based Global Environment Centre Faizal Parish said he believed the project would also involve local communities along the coasts and non-governmental organisations.
“There have been problems of over-fishing and unsustainable fishing techniques in these parts,” he said.