GAF successfully completes consultancy for Coral Reef Information

Works started in January 2005 and has been performed under a contract for the Coral Reef Rehabilitation and Management Program (COREMAP), Phase II.Indonesia has 17,600 islands with 80,000 km of shorelines and is known to have the richest coral reefs in the world. The coral reefs of Indonesia serve many purposes for their adjacent coastal communities: natural barriers that protect the beach; natural barriers that are there to be modified to make boat launching less difficult; habitats for locally consumed seafood and habitats for seafood harvest and cage rearing for net income generation to the village. The coral reefs, however, are facing immense threats from human activities such as overexploitation, destructive fishing, and pollution, which have become widespread throughout the country. Using coral reef resources properly will sustain and increase their value to coastal villagers in the long term as habitats for diverse fisheries, sources of building materials, and protectors of shorelines.

Community based resource management (CBRM) is the underlying concept for COREMAP in the management of coral reefs. CRITC has supported the CBRM processes in the following sectors :

• ‘characterize' (compiling specific local information for preparing a coral reef management plan),
• ‘design' (providing support in preparing coral reef management plans including zoningmaps, regulations and alternative income generation schemes).
• ‘Implement' (supporting role by collaborating in public awareness and education) and
• ‘monitor' (CRITC`s major ongoing activity as Benefit Monitoring and Evaluation using the indicators of reef health and socio&economic well-being.

Major contributions were made for the development and refinement of the ‘Coral Reef Management Information System (CRMIS), reflecting the National CRITC's important role as the central coral reef information repository for Indonesia.

David Peters, GAF representative in Indonesia observes: "The successful completion of CRITC project is an important milestone for GAF, now providing technical assistance services to this geographic area from its new representative office in Jakarta. The CRITC project underlines the emphasis GAF is now devoting to environmental consulting in the coastal and marine domains." CRITC is funded by a loan from the Asian Development Bank, Manila. Works have been performed under contract to LIPI, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences by GAF AG as the lead firm in association with Coffey International Development of Australia and PT. Geosys Intipiranti of Indonesia. In total 101 person months of on-site technical assistance and consulting were provided.
For more details on CRITC please visit the project website at www.coremap.or.id/tentang_critc/intro.