Transboundary Marine Conservation in the Coral Triangle: Integrated Ocean Management of the Ombai Strait

1. Transboundary Marine Conservation in the Coral Triangle:Towards Integrated Ocean Management of the Ombai Strait, the Indo-Pacific migratory corridor between Indonesia and Timor Leste. Benjamin Kahn APEX Environmental Coral Triangle Oceanic Cetacean Program IUCN Species Survival Commission - Cetacean Specialist Group IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas Kahn.Benjamin@gmail.com

2. The Coral Triangle - Overview • The CT includes the coasts, reefs and open seas of six countries: • Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia (Sabah), Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Timor Leste.  • These waters are regarded by experts as the world's richest marine environment and account for • 30 % of the world's reefs, • 76 % of global reef building coral species and • more than 35 % of coral reef fish.   • Endangered, threatened and/or protected (ETP) Marine Megafauna in the CT includes: • 6 species of marine turtles, • Several species of large elasmobrachs: whale sharks, mantas • the dugong and • over 30 species of dolphins and whales - including Bryde’s, sperm, humpback, beaked and blue whales. • Over 120 million people directly dependent on CT marine resources.

3. The Coral Triangle’s deep-sea waters The vast majority of CT waters are over 200m in depth. Over 85% of the CT’s delineated surface area can be considered deep-sea… * * * * * * Green and Mous 2008

4. Coastal-oceanic habitat proximity within the Coral Triangle Ombai Strait 5 nm Beach Abyssal plain (0 - >4000 m Savu Sea, Banda Sea) Beach 25 nm Deep sea trench (0 - 8300 m – ‘Planet Deep’, Solomon Sea, PNG) Increasingly under-represented habitats within Marine Protected Area Networks. (proximity = opportunity)

5. The Indonesian Seas – A unique location at the nexus of two tropical oceans • Large-scale characteristics: • Indonesian Through Flow (ITF) • Tropical oceanic exchange (unique) • Monsoons - strong seasonal influences. • Complex bathymetry, extreme seafloor features. • This results a highly dynamic system with • diverse coastal oceanic and deep-sea habitats: • Coral reefs and mangroves • Seasonal upwellings • Persistent Pelagic Habitats (PPHs – tropical tuna) • Critical Habitats for wide ranging endangered, • threatened or protected “ETP” species such as the • Lesser Sunda migratory corridors

6. Habitat diversity and proximity • ‘near-shore yet deep-sea’ • Opportunities: • Easy access for research on Endangered, Threatened and Protected (ETP) spp, field training, site-based conservation and tourism activities. • Threats: • Oceanic species as by-catch in coastal fisheries, habitat degradation from coastal development and pollution, near-shore extractive industries. Foraging sperm whales off Manado Tua – Bunaken NP

7. Coastal and oceanic habitats overlap: MPA opportunity: The Indo-Pacific migratory bottlenecks of the Coral Triangle The narrow yet deep inter-island passages of the Savu Sea (eastern Indonesia and Timor Leste) function as vital migration corridors for endangered species including the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus). Photo: Anneke Augustinus

8. Coastal and oceanic habitat overlap: Trapped blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus; n=5) in a shallow reef lagoon along a mangrove coast line 21-27 October 2014 1 blue whale died overnight on 23 Oct; 4 blue whales rescued in the following days using an Underwater Noise Barrier technique; Kahn in prep)

9. Ombai Strait Transboundary CorridorOverview Transboundary waters between Indonesia and Timor Leste: the Ombai and Wetar Straits migratory corridors. The total area = 89,245.0 sq km. Nested within the Lesser Sunda Seascape, which has been designated as high priority by the Coral Triangle Initiative (Goal 1). Covers eastern-most part of this high priority CT Seascape and includes exceptional bio-diverse coastal and oceanic ecosystems of regional importance and high connectivity.

10. OSTC: National jurisdictions with maritime mandates • Two countries • Indonesia, Timor Leste • Two provinces • NTT and Maluku, both in Indonesia) • 12 districts (5 IND+ 7 TL) • Maritime jurisdiction of Timor Leste district governments are currently being finalised under legal reforms. Possible outcome expected in 2015. • 4 Fisheries Management Areas (FMAs) • FMA 573 (Java – Nusa Tengara) • FMA 714 (Banda Sea) • FMA 715 (Arafura Sea) • 4 International Sealanes • IMO vessel separation schemes and • Archipelagic sealanes) • All within a CTI Priority Seascape

11. Ombai Strait Transboundary Corridor (OSTC)MSP Overview Reefs at Risk

12. MSP in the Ombai Strait Transboundary Corridor 1/2 • Maritime and ecoregional boundaries

13. MSP in the OSTC 2/2 • Maritime usage • International / Archipelagic Sealanes (ASL), • Fisheries Management Areas (FMA) 2. Marine Spatial Planning for conservation goals. Adopted by BAPPENAS National Development Planning Agency: • MPAs • Existing • Designated • Proposed • Areas of Interest (AoI) • Transboundary AoI • Deep-sea AoI

14. OMST: Overview of MSP Overlap of offshore industries and EBSAs • Large regional scope: CTI and SW Pacific incl. Fiji • (Kahn and Vance-Borland 2013) • 1st study to quantify all areas of overlap and identify the hotspots • Shipping Lanes overlap with Migratory Corridors. • Sections categorised according to estimated ship traffic (density) • Start to asses chronic and acute threats to EBSAs: • Threats: • Direct strikes • Noise pollution • Marine pollution from bilge and ballast waters (MARPOL) • Exhaust emissions (sulphur loading -IMO) • Accidental collisions at sea • Accidental wreckage on coast (reefs) • New port development – support infrastructure Kahn and Vance-Borland 2013

15. Why do we need to plan ahead? The need for Integrated Ocean Management (IOM) and MPAs: Regional issues, local impacts • Fisheries: coastal and pelagic – several projects active • Maritime Transport – • Regional shipping; AU-Asia “resource run” - 10-fold increase of ship traffic • Sea lanes overlaps with migratory corridors for blue and sperm whales (Indonesia, Timor Leste, PNG). • ASL overlap with Banda blue whale habitats • Port development – “Sea corridors” a national priority •  Extractive Industries and Energy sector: • “East and Deep” • Oil and Gas • Deep sea mining • Coastal mining (Submarine Tailings) • Future activities and emerging usage of our CT Oceans…? Deep sea mining (85.1% of the CT is deep-sea)

16. Ombai Strait Transboundary Corridor (OSTC)Overview – Conservation values • Region of dynamic oceanographic processes of global importance (major exit of IFT, heat conveyor belt, climate change adaption) • Reefs to (deep-sea) Ridges approach suitable: extreme and unique habitat diversity and proximity, and maritime cultural significance (traditional sperm whaling community) • Critical corridor of regional importance to multiple species groups – cetaceans, turtles, (whale)sharks, mantas, mola mola, tropical tuna. • Exceptional species diversity (n=18) and high abundance of oceanic cetaceans incl. 4 “great whale” species. • Important Persistent Pelagic Habitat (PPH – Part of the strongest seasonal upwellings in the NE Indian Ocean) • High degree of cold water mixing – reefs resilient to coral bleaching. • Important regional site for EBSA and KBA processes (and IMMA).

17. Ombai Strait Transboundary Corridor (OSTC)Overview – Opportunities • Indonesia and Timor Leste (and the CTI) will make a substantial contribution to their national Aichi Target 11 commitments • Importantly, OSTC will include numerous oceanic and deep-sea habitat categories that are stillunder-represented globally under Aichi Target 11. • Joint progress towards the CTI’s Regional Plan of Action – Goal 5. • The 1st site-based yet transboundary management approach for the region. • Large-scale Marine Spatial Planning is in progress for the region. • National and ecoregional MSP initiatives. • OSTC is well positioned within a priority seascape of the CTI. • Integrated Ocean Management: Corals and Corridors. • OSTC has high conservation values for both coastal and oceanic ecosystems with a well-established transboundary management framework already in place (CTI). • OSTC will provide connectivity between national and regional MPA Networks • Indonesia, Timor Leste, Australia (NW)

18. Ombai Strait Transboundary Corridor (OSTC)Overview – Challenges • Promote awareness amongst all stakeholders about the need and suitability of a transboundary management approach and opportunities for the OSTC. • Large-scale ecosystem-based management approach with limited institutional capacity in both countries. • Define the appropriate management framework: CTI (i.e. Goal 1 - priority seascapes and Goal 5 – endangered species) or a separate bilateral arrangement? • “Start-up”: Small initial investment in the OSTC development phase: • Initial scoping meetings in each country. • Consolidate all current studies on the ecological and socio-economical profile of the OSTC • Quantify total of increased % to Aichi Target 11, as well as habitat-specific %’s – i.e. coral reef, corridor, seamounts.

19. In Summary, The Ombai Strait Transboundary Corridor has a unique set of oceanographic, ecological and transboundary conservation values, at a location that boosts coastal and deeps-sea habitat representativeness within the CTI RPOA and Aichi Target 11 as well as MPA Network connectivity within the broader region.

20. The Coral Triangle Oceanic Cetacean Program Thank you for the opportunity to present at this meeting. More information is available from: www.apex-environmental.com Physeter macrocephalus