VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia successfully held ‘Our Ocean Conference 2018’ -2018 OOC which took place in Nusa Dua, Bali on 29-30 October 2018. The conference which was closed on Tuesday (10/30/2018) produces 287 commitments worth US$10.7 billion dollars to answer the challenges of ocean management. In addition, the conference also produces a MPA-protected marine area reaching 14 million square kilometers.

A number of countries expressed their commitment in saving the environment during the 2018 OOC. Micronesia, for example, is committed to realizing 100% transparency in the tuna fisheries business. The country also calls for other Pacific countries to do the same thing. President of Micronesia, Peter Christian said that his country is targeting to achieve the commitment by 2023 through a combination of electronic and manual monitoring of large-scale fishing vessels operating in its territorial waters.

The European Union –UE reiterated 50 program commitments worth 550 million Euros, which encourage marine protection, such as handling plastic waste, building a more sustainable ‘Blue Economy’ and increasing marine research and surveillance activities.

Indonesia, which hosted the 2018 OOC, also gave a surprise by delivering 23 commitments. In the implementation of the 2017 OOC in Malta, the Indonesian government only delivered 10 commitments. For this year's OOC, the value of commitments delivered by Indonesia to carry out marine protection actions reaches around US$500 million dollars.

In addition to the government's commitment, a number of global companies also expressed their commitment in saving the ocean. Multinational company, Coca-Cola also contributed to this commitment. The company launched a global commitment called ‘World Without Waste’, with a target of 50% of its product packaging using recycled materials in 2025. By 2030, the target is 100% of the packaging that can be recycled. This commitment will be carried out globally in all countries where the business entity is located, including in Indonesia.

Although, there is no formal binding agreement for them to fulfill this commitment, Vice President of Conservation International (CI) Indonesia, Ketut Sarjana Putra believes that the commitment remains important. CI Indonesia, for example, made a commitment to the OOC 2016 to realize the Blue Eternal Fund as sustainable funding for marine conservation. He also claimed that the commitment had been reached and managed by the Kehati Foundation. In the OOC 2018, CI Indonesia made another commitment named ‘Blue Hello S’. This commitment is an incentive from the fisheries industry to provide funding for conservation areas in the core conservation zone surrounded by fisheries.

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