TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A research conducted by the Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI) revealed the damaged extent suffered by coral reefs in a number of locations. Observations on 1.135 locations showed that 30.4 percent of the marked location suffers the damage, while 27 percent of the locations have healthy coral reefs. Other six percent of the locations have excellent coral reefs.

The size of coral reef area in Indonesia is 2.5 million hectares or about 14 percent of the world's coral reef. Researchers at LIPI have conducted their study on the coral reefs since 1993. In 1998, a coral reef rehabilitation and management program (COREMAP) was executed.

"COREMAP runs in 15 cities and regencies that include 30 percent of the total coral covers in Indonesia," said Dr. Giyanto, a researcher at the Oceanography Research Center, during a discussion at LIPI yesterday.

Although the size of the damaged area is significant, Giyanto said there had been a positive trend, in terms of coral reef rehabilitation. Based on an observation conducted since 2004, the coral cover in western Indonesia has been increasing at a rate of four percent per year. While in eastern part of the country, the growth of coral cover is at three percent per year.

"There were declines in coral cover in Biak Numfor due to storm in 2009 and coral bleaching in 2010," Giyanto said.

Suharsono, LIPI’s lead researcher of coral reefs, said coral reefs that were damaged by natural causes will rehabilitate themselves. Their ability to restore themselves after a disaster is considerably well.

"The coral reef structures can restore themselves within seven or eight years," he said.

While coral reef damages due to human activities, including blast fishing, trawling fishing, cyanide, and pollutions would be difficult to be rehabilitated.

"Coral reefs in Jakarta bay can’t be restored because the pollution in the area is severe," Suharsono said.

GABRIEL WAHYU TITIYOGA