Indonesia launches Southeast Asia's biggest marine park

[Coventina]

Source: Reuters

MANADO, Indonesia, May 14 (Reuters) - Indonesia has opened Southeast Asia's largest marine park in the Savu Sea, a migration route for almost half the world's whale species and home to vast tracts of rare coral, the country's fisheries minister said.

Environmental groups, The Nature Conservancy and WWF will help set up the reserve, where efforts will be made to stamp out illegal practices such as dynamite and cyanide fishing. Tourism activities and subsistence fishing by locals will be allowed but restricted to certain areas.

The Savu Marine National Park, launched at the World Ocean Conference in Manado, Sulawesi, will cover 3.5 million hectares (8.649 million acres) in an area of 500 species of coral, 14 species of whales and 336 species of fish living in the Savu Sea near Flores in eastern Indonesia.

"(It is) potentially one of the largest marine protected areas in the Coral Triangle," Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Freddy Numberi said on Wednesday.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSJAK396065

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More good news...

[Turborama]

1. Good news indeed, thanks fo sharing it. However...

"However, enforcement is one of the key questions we need to work out. It could be a combination of community-based and government patrols."

Let's hope they can protect it better than the forests...

:kick & R