GMA off to Indonesia for 70-nation ocean talks

MANILA, Philippines - President Arroyo is going on a two-day trip to Manado, Indonesia on Wednesday to join other heads of state in the region in an unprecedented meeting on protecting the world’s oceans, including the critical Coral Triangle ecosystem in Southeast Asia, to mitigate the effects of global warming.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said Mrs. Arroyo will “take a very quick trip” to Manado for the World Ocean Conference (WOC) to push the advocacy of the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) that promotes “preservation and the protection of our marine resources and our coral reefs, and that in essence is the objective of the President’s trip.”

“We have mutual interests in
 marine preservation and protection,” Remonde said, referring to nations that are part of the Coral Triangle, including the Philippines, Timor Leste, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

The six nations make up around 70 percent of the world’s tuna catch, including threatened species such as big eye and yellowfin tuna.

Experts said the Coral Triangle, which covers an area of nearly 7.5 million square kilometers, sustains the lives of nearly 130 million people and contains key spawning and nursery grounds for tuna and other fish species harvested for food.

Its waters hold an array of over 600 reef-building coral species, encompassing 75 percent of all species known in the world.

Reports said the meeting will be attended by officials and experts from 70 nations and help influence the talks on climate change in December in Copenhagen.

The WOC will also underscore the oceans’ role in mitigating the effects of global warming such as disappearing islands, extinction of marine life and food shortages.

“The conference will be non-binding but it is the highest political level ocean conference done so far,” said Indroyono Soesilo, the Indonesian official in charge of organizing the event on Sulawesi Island.

“If we are able to put oceans into world climate change policies, it will be a success for us because it has never happened before. Because of global warming we will have sea level rises that will make some island nations disappear, so let’s do something about that,” he said.

Last year, Mrs. Arroyo assured world environmental groups and stakeholders, including the CTI, in Washington that the Philippines would not sacrifice the environment for its economic development.

She said the CTI is ‘’proof positive that a sustainable environmental model not only is possible, it is (also) necessary.