WAKATOBI DISTRICT CHIEF ATTENDING GLOBAL WARMING MEET IN MANILA

Kendari, S.E.Sulawesi, Sep 23 (ANTARA) - Wakatobi District Chief Hugua is currently attending a meeting between the Philippine Coastal District Heads Association and a few European Union countries as well as United Nations representatives in Manila.

In a telephone talk from Manila on Thursday, Hugua said the meeting which started on Wednesday (Sept 22) and would end on Saturday (Sept 25) was to devise a strategy to overcome global warming-related problems that would be further discussed at a meeting in Wakatobi in December.

"The strategy drawn up in Manila will be discussed further at a Coastal District Heads Association meeting of six countries in Wakatobi in December 2010," he said.

The six countries would be Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Timor Leste, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.

Hugua said the coastal district heads association meeting in Wakatobi would be a follow up to the results of a meeting held in Manila in 2009.

At the 2009 meeting in Manila initiated by USAID as many as 300 coastal district chiefs agreed to hold a follow-up meeting in Indonesia.

Hugua said Wakatobi was chosen as the venue of the follow-up meeting because it was the center of the world's coral triangle in which live 750 species of corals that need to be preserved.

In order to preserve the corals all the coastal districts in the six countries had the same responsibilities and interests.

"If the coral reefs in the world's coral triangle are disturbed and continue to be destroyed, it would affect the marine biota ecosystem in the areas of the coastal districts," Hugua said.

Hence, the coastal districts concerned would maintain and conserve the coral reefs existing in their respective territories, he added.