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Environment
and development in coastal regions and in small islands |
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Environment
and development in coastal regions and in small islands |
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Indonesian Coral Reefs —An Economic Analysis of a Precious but Threatened Resource
Indonesia’s coral reefs are currently undergoing rapid destruction from human activities including: poison fishing; blast fishing; coral mining; sedimentation; pollution and overfishing. In this paper, these destructive activities are described and the private gains from these activities accruing to individuals are compared with the associated costs to society. It is shown that the social costs by far outweigh the short-term private gains. Yet, powerful forces have a clear interest in maintaining the status quo of destruction. These forces vary from high risk, high payoff poison fishing to poverty-trap activities such as coral mining. The paper concludes with a discussion on designing appropriate policy responses such as: local threat-based approach; national threat-based approach; integrated coastal zone management; and the use of marine protected areas.
Source: Ambio Vol. 26, No. 6, Sept. 1997, published by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The full article is available at:
Ambio Royal
Swedish Academy of Sciences
Box 50005 SE-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel: +46-8-673 95 51
Telefax: +46-8-16 62 51
E-mail: elisabet@ambio.kva.se
URL:http://www.ambio.kva.se
