Australia Supports the Coral Triangle Initiatives

Jakarta – The Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI-CFF) received the commitment of $6 million from the Government of Australia. 

The announcement was made in a high level side-event titled “Celebrating Achievements in the Coral Triangle”, which took place at the World Park Congress, Sydney, Australia, hosted by the CTI-CFF partners and led by the Government of Australia on November 13, 2014, in collaboration with the CTI member-countries and CTI-CFF Interim Regional Secretariat. This new funding builds on $7.2 million that Australia has provided to the Coral Triangle Initiative since 2009. Hon. Greg Hunt, MP, Minister for the Environment of the Australian Government, said that they are strongly focused on developing a platform for the sustainable financing of the CTI.

A short presentation made earlier by Dr. Andrew Chek, a representative from Department of Environment of the Government of Australia during CTI-CFF 10th Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) on November 7, 2014, in Dili, Timor-Leste detailed the proposed regional scale investments. One of the supports’ main component is Seascapes integrated management in which the Government of Australia will consider the support of a dedicated “seascapes coordinator” to work with the Seascapes Working Group, permanent Regional Secretariat, and the spatially-explicit EAFM and MPA WG, to support integration of terrestrial inputs to marine ecosystems as part of the seascapes framework and guidance.

Other area being the target of Australia’s support is the regional ecotourism. It is expected that the assistance can explore and, if appropriate, help establish the enabling framework for public and private sector to work together to identify, propose, and strategize the development of landscapes to be listed and promoted within a select grouping that is aimed at the global ecotourism market. Last but not least, the support will provide resources for interconnected small grants, microfinance, and fellowships programs at community level.