Govt Shrimp Estate Project to Repeat Food Estate Failure, Says Walhi

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) criticized the government’s plan to develop a shrimp estate project, saying it has the potential to repeat the failure of the food estate program.

Parid Ridwanuddin, Walhi’s coastal and marine campaign manager, said the shrimp farm would threaten the country's mangrove ecosystem. Moreover, the project has the same concept of food estate, which has been proven to fail and damage the ecology.

“The concept of the food estate in the forest area is being copied to the coastal area. We know that it (the project) has failed in the land or the forest and this failure will be repeated in the coastal area,” Parid said in a discussion in Jakarta on Tuesday, January 23.

He explained that the farm focuses on vannamei shrimp given the high market for the commodity abroad and domestically. One of the projects is located in Kebumen, Central Java.

Additionally, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) inaugurated the project in Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara. Parid opined that the vast coastal area being cleared in Sumba could lead to the shrinking of the mangrove ecosystem.

Parid found the shrimp farm project ironic because President Joko Widodo or Jokowi often raises the issue of mangrove conservation. Indonesia was also elected to co-chair the 28th Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP 28) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

At that forum, Indonesia was chosen to lead dozens of countries in focusing on mangrove ecosystems. “But the domestic policies actually conflict or contradict each other, including on the shrimp estate,” Parid added.

RIANI SANUSI PUTRI

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