I M P A C T S
~20 years of blast fishing has created a huge loss in potential economic growth for Indonesia, mainly with tourism. It is estimated that every square-km of coral reef that has high tourism value and coastal protection is worth $306,800. Even coral reef with low potential value is worth a whopping $33,900 per square-km of coral reef. The most significant costs of blast fishing are through loss of the coastal protection function, lost benefits of tourism, and lost benefits of non-destructive fisheries. The economic losses to society are four times higher than the total financial gain from blast fishing (in areas with high potential value of tourism and coastal protection)! The political will to ban blast fishing from Indonesian waters is low, which is what is preventing this from stopping. Moreover, it prevents an evaluation of possible management
solutions. Without the management solutions more and more coral will continue to die- for people are note-taking into account their costs and the socio-economic framework that caused coastal fishers to start using explosives.
-From these potential economic value statistics on coral, it can be assumed that the loss of even more coral from other factors has a huge potential and actual economic loss.
~The effects of land erosion from lack of coral to protect it has already become apparent in the nations capital, Jakarta. Land subsiding from the city is anywhere from 3 to 18 cm annually in various parts of the city and a lack of mitigation would lead to 30 percent subsidence in 2050. This is largely responsible to the poor treatment of the coral reefs, which as mentioned in Australia provide a natural buffer against the oceans waves. The rapid development of Jakarta tore down mangroves, a natural filter for water that help support coral reefs (mangroves also prevent land erosion- but it is just “their responsibility”).
-The lack of natural wave buffers (coral) also results in an increases of floods and a loss of local fish populations due to the salinity difference waves cause.
~The food source, fish, that many small coastal communities are reliant on would dwindle in number without coral/ food security is lost as coral is lost.
~The economy of fishing communities would wither away without the abundance of fish that coral provides. For example, in Wakatobi (a group of four tiny islands with a huge coral reef) there are over 12,000 fishers- some of which live in small communities that quite literally need fish to survive.
~Coral reefs provide needed tourism for Indonesia’s economy through dive resorts. Most dive resorts solely dive in coral reefs, and thus cant stay in business without them. Diving resorts are on of the leading tourism destinations- and around 9% of Indonesia’s workforce is employed in the tourism industry. The tourism industry provides 5% of Indonesia’s total income (which is currently aimed at increasing to 8% by the end of 2019). It can be assumed from these numbers that coral has contributed a significant amount to the economy of Indonesia, just in the tourism industry- which could all be lost without coral.
~A section Indonesia’s exporting industry is purely based off of coral- making Indonesia the largest coral exporter in the world. The branch would obviously struggle without coral.
