Indonesia introduces bond to fund marine conservation

The Indonesian government has launched Coral Reef Bond, a funding instrument for marine conservation as an effort to collect up to $200 million per year that it needs to cover marine conservation areas, a minister said on Sunday.

The bond was part of the government's effort to achieve the target of 30 percent marine conservation areas by 2045, Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Sakti Wahyu Trenggono said in a statement.

The bond was first introduced during the Third United Nations Ocean Conference held last week in Nice, France.

There are three priority conservation areas for the implementation of the bond, namely the Raja Ampat National Conservation Area, the Raja Ampat Regional Conservation Area, and the Alor Islands Regional Conservation Area, according to Trenggono.

"Indonesia will manage the funds from the foregone coupon to ensure measurable and sustainable conservation outcomes at those locations," Trenggono said, quoted by local media.

He also said that the Coral Reef Bond was the world's first results-based funding instrument for marine conservation that was obtained neither from state debt nor government funds.

(Cover: An aerial view of Raja Ampat Islands, Indonesia. /VCG)