Jakarta, 6 November – CMS, UNEP Regional Seas and the UNEP Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok have announced their contribution of half of the total amount of USD 34,000 to support a dugong project in Indonesia. CMS Senior Advisor Douglas Hykle announced this support in the margins of the launch of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway partnership. The CMS Standing Committee fully endorsed this partnership in September. CMS itself has increased its support to USD 6,000 to make this new conservation project possible.

This support is in addition to costs that are being borne by the main project institutions: Leiden University in The Netherlands, the Mulawarman University in Samarinda, Indonesia, and the Research Centre for Oceanography in Jakarta. In the light of more funds that need to be raised Mr. Hykle said: “I call for more donors to fill the financial gap to implement this crucial project for dugongs.”

A scientific proposal on a joint collaborative programme between the Research Centre for Oceanography in Jakarta and Leiden University to research the status of the dugong in Indonesia was submitted earlier to the CMS Secretariat. The integration of the national strategy for Indonesia into the comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for dugongs would support the future implementation of a dugong MoU. This would give Indonesia the possibility to play a major role as a key country to regional cooperation on migratory species.

Australia took the lead in developing a MoU on the Conservation and Management of Dugongs and their habitats throughout their range under the auspices of CMS. The MoU is designed to facilitate national level and transboundary actions to conserve dugong populations and their habitats. The MoU and its associated Conservation Management Plan is the basis for the implementation of conservation actions on behalf of the species in all of the waters of coastal and archipelagic states of the Indian Ocean, East Asia, and western Pacific Ocean, as well as their adjacent seas.

More information on Dugongs can be found - here -.