FEATURE: Nations adopt Manado Declaration

Seventy-five of the world's nations have adopted the Manado Declaration on the final day of the World Ocean Conference talks in Indonesia.

The declaration is aimed at protecting the world's oceans and coastal communities from global warming.

During the conference, six nations from the Asia Pacific region signed the landmark Coral Triangle Reefs declaration in an attempt to protect ocean resources such as reefs, fish and food in the area.

Gavin Fang, Indonesia Correspondent

Last Updated: Mon, 18 May 2009 16:08:00 +1000

Climate change talks in Indonesia wrapped up with 75 countries agreeing to adopt the Manado declaration to protect the world's oceans and coastal communities from the devastating effects of global warming.

There are no specific commitments in the declaration, but countries have promised to do more to protect the world's oceans and press together to work for future climate change talks to give more consideration to marine ecosystems.

Even getting that requirement some negotiations and the final commitment was watered down after differences over the sharing of technology between developed and developing countries

Australia's environment minister, Peter Garrett played down talks of a split between developed and developing nations.

"We will be on the same page on what we agree are the critical and key issues to address," he said.

"Its not just about writing things down and having a declaration even though this will be a very important declaration - it's about making sure we do the work together."

Indonesia had been pushing for the effects of climate change on oceans to be a key part of the post-Kyoto framework to be discussed in Denmark later this year.

Any mention of those talks was also removed from the final declaration.

The agreement comes after a report by Australian scientists warned climate change was having a destructive effect on reefs and marine life.

The report called for an 80 per cent cut in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Saving the Coral Triangle

During the talks, six countries from the Asia Pacific region agreed to work together to protect an area of ocean they share called the Coral Triangle.

The leaders of East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and the Solomon Islands signed off on proposals to expand maritime sanctuaries and no-fishing zones during talks in Indonesia.

"Our six countries have formally recognized that the Coral Triangle is the very center of marine life abundance and marine life diversity on the planet," said Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Under the initiative, the six nations countries agreed to expand protected ocean reserves by millions of hectares (acres) and establish joint strategies for identifying key ecosystems and species for conservation.

The initiative calls for fishing to be banned from 20 percent of each major coastal habitat in the Triangle such as coral reefs, mangrove forests and seagrass areas.

It also sets targets ranging between 2012 and 2020 for the designation and establishment of "priority seascape" marine reserves, stronger legislation and planning to curb overfishing and protect threatened species.

The World Wildlife Fund for Nature's' director general, Jim Leape, says the regional agreement is a landmark event.

"What comes out of this commitment is a plan of action which allows, mandates, the ministers, ministries in each of these countries to work together to begin to conserve the tuna stocks that are so important here, to begin to save the endangered sea turtles that live here, to begin to better manage the coastal ecosystems on which so many of their people depend."

Natural treasure

From Indonesia in the west to Solomon Islands in the east and the Philippines in the north, this marine environment is one of the most biodiverse regions in the world.

More than three quarters of the world's reef building coral species and a third of the world's coral reef fish can be found within these waters.

Scientists have warned that climate change could destroy the area within 50 years and cause mass migration from coastal communities who rely on the ocean for food.

A new report led by Australian scientists from the University of Queensland says global climate change is taking its toll.

"If we travel down that road and we don't take action against climate change to the level that we should, we see a world about 50 years from now where coral reefs are a remnant of what they are today, said Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, the Director of the Centre for Marine Studies at the University of Queensland.

"In fact they may be functionally extint, we see mangrove systems that support fisheries gone and what we see is food security plummet."

It is the loss of food stocks that has scientists like Professor Hoegh-Guldberg most concerned.

More than 150 million people, many already poor, live on the shores of the Coral Triangle, relying on its bounty for food.

Meanwhile, Australia has promised $US2 million to help combat overfishing and to protect coastal communities from the effects of climate change.

"We want to see some support go in the first instance to Indonesia and Papua New Guinea," said Austalia's environment minister, Peter Garrett.

"We want to provide the opportunity for additional information learnings, for communities that will be doing this work, and we want to see strategies in place which will really start to deliver the on ground actions which are necessary to protect the Coral Triangle itself."

In the whole scheme of things, what these talks have demonstrated is how difficult it is to get any kind of agreement on climate change- and that should serve a warning ahead of the critical talks in Copenhagen later this year.