INDONESIA SEEKS SUPPORT FOR CORAL TRIANGLE INITIATIVE

UNCLAS JAKARTA 002334 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP/MTS, EAP/RSP AND EB/IFD/ODF TREASURY FOR TFCA - BERG DEPARTMENT FOR OES/IET and OES/ETC NSC FOR CEQ CONNAUGHTON, VAN DYKE E.O. 12598: N/A TAGS: SENV EAID KGHG ECON PREL ID SUBJECT: INDONESIA SEEKS SUPPORT FOR CORAL TRIANGLE INITIATIVE ¶1. (U) Summary. Indonesia seeks U.S. support for its proposed Coral Triangle Initiative, a new multilateral partnership that Indonesia will raise at the upcoming APEC summit in Sydney. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's adviser Dino Djalal last week presented visiting Chairman of the Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ) James Connaughton a letter from SBY to President Bush on the proposed initiative (text emailed to OES/IET). The Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Freddy Numberi also briefed the U.S., Australian, Filipino, and Malaysian Ambassadors on August 23 and solicited their support for the initiative. The exact details of the initiative's objectives are not yet apparent, but the GOI has set up a working group to prepare for the possible launch of the CTI at the COP 13 Conference in Bali this December. End Summary. ¶2. (SBU) During the August 15-16 Council on Environmental Quality visit (septel),Dino Djalal presented Chairman Connaughton with a letter from President Yudhoyono to President Bush concerning the CTI. The letter seeks U.S. support for the new multilateral partnership and President SBY hopes to discuss the CTI at APEC in September and raise it formally at the Conference of Parties 13 (COP 13) in Bali. Connaughton responded that the U.S. would be pleased to discuss the issue. President SBY sent similar letters to the leaders of the five other countries within the Coral Triangle (the Phillipines, Malaysia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands) and to Australian Prime Minister Howard. ¶3. (SBU) Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Freddy Numberi invited Ambassador Hume together with the Ambassadors from Australia, Malaysia and the Philippines to a breakfast meeting on August 23 to discuss the CTI. Numberi briefed them on the CTI and solicited their support. Numberi said that scientists consider the Coral Triangle area within the Indo-Pacific as the marine equivalent of the Amazon and Congo basins, with the highest levels of coral diversity (500 or more coral species) and richest marine life, in the world. The Coral Triangle supports the livelihoods of some 126 million people living within this area, who depend on seafood as their major source of protein. Unsustainable fishing methods, land-based sources of pollution, and climate change all threaten the area's marine life. ¶4. (SBU) Neither President SBY's letter nor Minister Numberi's presentation provided specifics about how the CTI would be organized or what the specific objectives of the initiative would be. We understand that the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MOMA) has created a CTI interagency working group that would include representatives from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Forestry, Environment and the National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS). The group's mandate will be to discuss how to bring CTI into the COP 13 agenda in December. ¶5. (SBU) Comment. The Government of Indonesia sees this as a high-priority initiative and intends to raise it at the September APEC meeting, at a November APEC fisheries/maritime meeting in Sulawesi, and at the December COP 13 meeting in Bali. In January 2008, the USG and Mexico will co-host an International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) meeting. We will follow the progress of the Indonesian interagency working group to identify opportunities for U.S. involvement. One possibility: Congress is currently considering legislation to include coral reefs in the Tropical Forest Conservation Act (Indonesia is eligible for up to $19.6 million in debt swaps under that program). If Indonesia is interested, we may be able to incorporate coral reefs into a future TFCA program. End Comment. 2