COASTAL ZONE UTILIZATION AND POLICY ANALYSIS IN BITUNG, NORTH SULAWESI, INDONESIA

Abstract

Coastal regions and their resources are very important to humans and marine life. Approximately 60% of the human population live within a distance of 100 km from the coast and depend directly or indirectly on coastal resources for food and ecosystem services respectively (Vitousek, 1997).Excessive exploitation and unregulated economic activities in coastal lands and waters affect long term sustainability of socioeconomic growth in various countries of the East Asian Region. South-East Asia has a coastline of over 90,000 km and a population highly dependent on coastal resources. Integrated Coastal and Marine Management is obviously of paramount importance in an archipelagic nation like Indonesia where more than 75% of the national area is sea and the 24% of the land is fragmented into over 17,000 islands. The 81,000 kilometer shoreline is the world’s second longest (after Canada), and most accessible. Around 140 million Indonesians live within 60 kilometers of the coast; many of these within the large coastal cities that occupy a predominant position in the national economy (Dahuri, 2001). Located in the Northern coast of North Sulawesi in Indonesia, Bitung coastal zone is home to a multitude of species of fish, marine and terrestrial mammals, endemic aquatic and terrestrial plants. Bitung City coastal area has a 134.9 km long coastline, with 13 big and small islands, both occupied and unoccupied. Like any other coastal area in the world, Bitung city also faces environmental pressure from development plans. The city also supports indigenous subsistence coastal communities. Improper management of the city would damage the coastal ecosystem. Since there are several communities relying on Bitung’s coastal resources for their livelihood, coastal degradation will also affect their lives. Bitung city has a good City Master Plan but the regional management and space arrangement (zoning) plan has not been implemented very good in Lembeh Straits. The current coastal area, however, tends to degrade its environment quality. This can be seen from the use of the existing land for dwelling place, warehouse, and industries that spread in disorder. There is a need to review and make some amendments for land use zoning in Bitung City area.