•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries is offering state enterprises and private companies the chance to “adopt” 20 small islands as part of their corporate social responsibility programs.

The program is aimed at developing the economies of the islands by empowering entrepreneurship based on their marine and fisheries’ resources.

“Indonesia has abundant maritime resources and fisheries that could provide a living for the people, but in reality many of our coastal communities are underdeveloped,” Fadel Muhammad, the maritime affairs and fisheries minister, said on Wednesday.

“This situations shows that our maritime and fisheries resources are not yet being properly managed to bring maximum benefit to the people.”

He added that a lack of human resources, the slow adoption of marine and fisheries technology and a lack of marketing networks were the main obstacles to developing small islands.

The 20 islands that are part of the adoption program include Lepar Island in Bangka-Belitung, Enggano Island in Bengkulu, Maradapan Island in South Kalimantan and Siantan Island in Riau.

Also in the program are Pasaran Island in Lampung, Dullah Island in Maluku, Koloray Island in North Maluku, Alor Island in East Nusa Tenggara, Mansuar Island in West Papua, Battoa Island in West Sulawesi and Lingayan Island in Central Sulawesi.

East Kalimantan has two islands included in the program — Maratua and Sebatik. In North Sulawesi, the islands of Manado Tua, Gangga and Mantehage are part of the program.

Seven of the islands are among the country’s outermost islands and nine of them have already been adopted by mining or oil and gas companies with operational interests in the area.

Fadel said there were lots of opportunities for state-owned enterprises and private companies to help the islands. 

Companies could help rehabilitate the islands’ ecosystems, the minister said, or develop the facilities to support their local economies.

They could also providing start-up capital for micro-enterprises or develop disaster mitigation programs.

Data from the ministry shows that 65 percent of the exploration and exploitation activities of 248 extractive industry companies in Indonesia take place on the country’s numerous small islands.

And often these activities create friction with the local populations.

Hardiono, deputy chairman of the country’s upstream oil and gas regulator, BPMigas, said conflicts with local populations had in numerous cases severely hampered oil and gas contractors’ exploration projects.

The island adoption program, he said, could be a way to break the ice between the companies and local residents.