VZCZCXRO9103
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHJA #2334 2361025
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 241025Z AUG 07
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5927
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 0693
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 4235
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 1051
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 4141
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS JAKARTA 002334 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/MTS, EAP/RSP AND EB/IFD/ODF 
TREASURY FOR TFCA - BERG 
DEPARTMENT FOR OES/IET and OES/ETC 
NSC FOR CEQ CONNAUGHTON, VAN DYKE 
 
E.O. 12598: N/A 
TAGS: SENV EAID KGHG ECON PREL ID
 
SUBJECT: INDONESIA SEEKS SUPPORT FOR CORAL TRIANGLE INITIATIVE 
 
¶1. (U) Summary. Indonesia seeks U.S. support for its proposed Coral 
Triangle Initiative, a new multilateral partnership that Indonesia 
will raise at the upcoming APEC summit in Sydney.  President Susilo 
Bambang Yudhoyono's adviser Dino Djalal last week presented visiting 
Chairman of the Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ) James 
Connaughton a letter from SBY to President Bush on the proposed 
initiative (text emailed to OES/IET).  The Minister of Maritime 
Affairs and Fisheries Freddy Numberi also briefed the U.S., 
Australian, Filipino, and Malaysian Ambassadors on August 23 and 
solicited their support for the initiative.  The exact details of 
the initiative's objectives are not yet apparent, but the GOI has 
set up a working group to prepare for the possible launch of the CTI 
at the COP 13 Conference in Bali this December. End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) During the August 15-16 Council on Environmental Quality 
visit (septel), Dino Djalal presented Chairman Connaughton with a 
letter from President Yudhoyono to President Bush concerning the 
CTI.  The letter seeks U.S. support for the new multilateral 
partnership and President SBY hopes to discuss the CTI at APEC in 
September and raise it formally at the Conference of Parties 13 (COP 
13) in Bali. Connaughton responded that the U.S. would be pleased to 
discuss the issue.  President SBY sent similar letters to the 
leaders of the five other countries within the Coral Triangle (the 
Phillipines, Malaysia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon 
Islands) and to Australian Prime Minister Howard. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Freddy Numberi 
invited Ambassador Hume together with the Ambassadors from 
Australia, Malaysia and the Philippines to a breakfast meeting on 
August 23 to discuss the CTI.  Numberi briefed them on the CTI and 
solicited their support.  Numberi said that scientists consider the 
Coral Triangle area within the Indo-Pacific as the marine equivalent 
of the Amazon and Congo basins, with the highest levels of coral 
diversity (500 or more coral species) and richest marine life, in 
the world.  The Coral Triangle supports the livelihoods of some 126 
million people living within this area, who depend on seafood as 
their major source of protein.  Unsustainable fishing methods, 
land-based sources of pollution, and climate change all threaten the 
area's marine life. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Neither President SBY's letter nor Minister Numberi's 
presentation provided specifics about how the CTI would be organized 
or what the specific objectives of the initiative would be.  We 
understand that the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MOMA) 
has created a CTI interagency working group that would include 
representatives from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Forestry, 
Environment and the National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS). 
 The group's mandate will be to discuss how to bring CTI into the 
COP 13 agenda in December. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Comment. The Government of Indonesia sees this as a 
high-priority initiative and intends to raise it at the September 
APEC meeting, at a November APEC fisheries/maritime meeting in 
Sulawesi, and at the December COP 13 meeting in Bali.  In January 
2008, the USG and Mexico will co-host an International Coral Reef 
Initiative (ICRI) meeting.  We will follow the progress of the 
Indonesian interagency working group to identify opportunities for 
U.S. involvement.  One possibility: Congress is currently 
considering legislation to include coral reefs in the Tropical 
Forest Conservation Act (Indonesia is eligible for up to $19.6 
million in debt swaps under that program).  If Indonesia is 
interested, we may be able to incorporate coral reefs into a future 
TFCA program.  End Comment. 
 
 
 
2