BALI (ISL News) - As a form of Indonesia's active role and commitment in protecting the maritime environment, the Indonesian Government through the Ministry of Transportation cq. The Directorate General of Sea Transportation is proposing to designate the Lombok Strait, which is flanked by Conservation Areas, namely Nusa Penida and Gili Matra Islands, as a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA). The proposal for this determination is planned to be submitted to the 82nd International Maritime Organization (IMO)-Marine Environmental Protection Committee (MEPC) Session on 30 September to 4 October 2024.
To finalize the document for submitting the Lombok Strait as PSSA, we held a national FGD last May, and this was followed by an international FGD today.
This was conveyed by the Secretary of the Directorate General of Sea Transportation, Lollan Panjaitan, when opening the International FGD Preparation for Submission of Lombok Strait PSSA Documents which was held at the Padma Hotel & Resorts, Legian Bali, Tuesday (4/6/2024).
In contrast to the National FGD held last May, this International FGD also invited representatives from IMO Member States in Jakarta, other maritime countries that have interests in the Lombok Strait such as Japan, China, Australia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Timor. East, as well as related Ministries/Institutions and stakeholders.
"We hope to get support, input and views from IMO member countries and neighboring countries who have interests in the Lombok Strait. "Apart from that, we also hope to get technical input from experts to prepare the assessment that will be carried out by IMO," explained Lollan.
At this International FGD, Lollan explained, his party presented 3 (three) experts related to PSSA. The first is Edward Kleverlaan who once served as Head of the London Convention and Protocol Office at IMO, Head of the KKP Area Conservation Team Amerh Hakim, and a researcher from the Surabaya Institute of Technology (ITS).
Lollan emphasized the importance of designating the Lombok Strait as a PSSA as a form of Indonesia's responsibility to play an active role in protecting the maritime environment as a Member State of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) as well as a Member of the IMO Council for the 2024-2025 period.
According to him, efforts to propose the Lombok Strait as a PSSA began in 2016 through a proposal submitted by the Indonesian Government at the Third Regional Meeting of the IMO-NORAD Project on Prevention of pollution from ships through the adoption of PSSAs in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara. These efforts were then continued with the submission of an Information Paper at the 71st IMO-Marine Environmental Protection Committee (MEPC) Session in 2017.
"The Lombok Strait was proposed as a PSSA because of its strategic location, as well as the fact that the area is home to more than 2000 (two thousand) species of marine animals, including 6 (six) of the 7 (seven) protected species of sea turtles in the world," he explained. .
Lollan is optimistic that the establishment of the Lombok Strait PSSA can become a pilot project for establishing other potential conservation areas in Indonesia. According to him, this is in accordance with IMO Resolution A.982(24) concerning Revised guidelines for the identification and designation of Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas, which is the basis for determining various PSSAs in the world, and is in line with Indonesia's commitment to protecting the maritime environment.
“The establishment of PSSA by IMO can be a mechanism that can be used by coastal countries to protect maritime areas that are considered vulnerable to the negative impacts of international shipping activities. "I hope that this effort can further demonstrate Indonesia's seriousness towards protecting the marine environment and fulfilling various IMO conventions and instruments, both at the national, regional and international levels," said Lollan.
For information, PSSA is a very sensitive sea area that requires special protection through regulations or action from the IMO because it has ecological, socio-economic conditions or scientific reasons that can easily be damaged by international shipping activities. In 2005, IMO adopted Resolution A.982(24) concerning Revised guidelines for the identification and designation of Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas (PSSAs).
To date, there have been 18 (eighteen) water areas in the world that have been designated as PSSA, including the Jomard Entrance Papua New Guinea which was designated in 2016 and the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park of the Philippines which was designated in 2017. The latest designation is North- Western Mediterranean Sea, France, Italy, Monaco and Spain in 2023.
The proposal to establish the Lombok Strait PSSA was first made through the IMO Lombok Strait PSSA Determination Proposal and the Norwegian Agency for Development (NORAD) Project (2014-2017), where in this Project there were 4 (four) countries that proposed to designate one of their sea areas as PSSAs, namely the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia.
Indonesia proposed establishing the Lombok Strait PSSA, especially the Gili Islands and Nusa Penida Island at the 3rd Regional Meeting of the IMO-NORAD Project on Prevention of pollution from ships through the adoption of Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas (PSSAs) within the East Asian Seas Region, which was held in Lombok in July 2016. Indonesia confirmed its proposal for the Lombok Strait PSSA in the form of an Information Paper through document MEPC 71/INF.39 at the 71st Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) Session in 2017.
Currently, Indonesia has prepared a submission document for determining the Lombok Strait PSSA in accordance with the IMO Guidelines, but it needs to strengthen the proposal, especially regarding the attribution section to further convince the urgency of determining the Lombok Strait as a PSSA. The submission document will be submitted to the IMO for discussion at the 80th MEPC Session in London on 30 September 2024 to 4 October 2024.
(Editorial ISL News/PR HUBLA/MYN/MM/BOH).
