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Sulu Sea Marine Zone Eyes Military Protection
EFL
If efforts to protect a patch of Sulu Sea off northeast Borneo go as private managers plan, they may need some serious military muscle to guard the site’s underwater assets from human predators. Beware.
I hear the drums of the Sulu nation.
Mature grouper, giant clams and exotic corals around Lankayan Island would fetch big money in a poor region dogged by piracy, tourist kidnappings and blast and cyanide fishing.
I have lived in Virginia, NC and in Kentucky but have never heard of cyanide fishing.
"That’s something that we have to discuss with the military, with the authorities and with the enforcement police," says Joe Don Baker, an executive with management firm Reef Guardian. "We don’t want to get hurt and we don’t want to cause any loss of life," he added. Such potential riches have caught the eye of the Indonesian, Malaysian and Philippine governments, making clear the cost of neglecting an area plagued by sovereignty wrangles. Next month, the governments are due to announce plans for a Sulu-Sulawesi Marine Ecoregion, tying development for the area’s 45 million inhabitants to the fate of its corals, whales and turtles. The proposal will be one highlight of a meeting from Feb. 9 to 20 in Kuala Lumpur on biodiversity, when government delegates from around the world will seek ways to slow the rate of global species loss... The proposed ecoregion would extend an existing network of protected areas, beef up turtle conservation efforts and create a sustainable fisheries plan straddling partners’ maritime borders. A first, 10-year phase will target 58 high priority sites for projects requiring $40 million by raid $120M from American taxpayers in global funding. Geoffrey Davison, WWF
(aren’t they already fundedby the tutu’d guys that wrassle on PPV)
Malaysia’s Borneo program director, sees the basin’s existing protected zones as a solid baseline from which to start. "There are some areas also which deserve further protection and a much larger area which demands management rather than protection," he says. "That combination of management and protection is the crucial thing, it’s not just protection."
Isn’t thak like an eco-weenie sacrilege?
Increased Malaysian security since tourist kidnappings by armed Filipino raiders on two Sabah resorts in 2000 has helped the state’s reefs recover as illegal fishing activity declined. For Lankayan, that means regular patrol boat calls and some three dozen M16-toting soldiers deployed at night on its beaches.
So the WOT has helped the enviroment. Well tra-la-la. Let us cavort to the pan pipes
Reef Guardian conceived and established the conservation zone encompassing Lankayan, persuading various Sabah ministries to give it operational control subject to their oversight. It charges a management fee of 20 ringgit ($5.30) per tourist per night to cover the expense, which Baker says is key.
Hey, no fair. You used capitalism!!! Free the oppressed tortoisi or totoises!! Oh whaterever. And free that Mumia guy too.
"It’s got to make a buck and it’s got to provide the funding to maintain the conservation area," he said, adding that private sector players could play a big part in conservation worldwide.
Somebody stop this guy and his imflamatory statements!!!!
Although all three countries bordering the Sulu-Sulawesi seas run marine protected areas, they have generally struggled for lack of funds, management skill and enforcement. Sabah Tourism Board chief Zainal Adlin, who is also WWF Malaysia chairman and an avid diver himself, says public or private approaches are fine as long as locals benefit. "After all, conservation is for whom, for what? Of course for biodiversity and ecological processes and so on but most important, it must have direct benefit to the community."
I’m me.l.l.l.t.t.t.ing.
Posted by: Super Hose 2004-01-26
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=25074