Coastal and Marine Resources in East Kalimantan- A case in Balikpapan Bay and Mahakam Delta

Research PaperIndonesia as an archipelagic country with 81,000 Km coastline has the best, wide coastal and marine area in the world. The abundance of resources in coastal and marine area should be a potential capital for the community to improve their livelihood. However, the development activity in the coastal area so far have not been able to increase the welfare of community and tend to be unsustainable and deteriorating the environmental quality (Dit.Gen.Coast,Beach and Small Island,DoMF,2001). Coastal and marine areas extremely threatened by environmental destruction in East Kalimantant are Balikpapan Bay and Mahakam Delta. BEBSiC (2004) shows that during 10 years, 80% of 15,000 hectares mangrove forests in Mahakam Delta have been converted into shrimp ponds. Mangrove forests in Balikpapan Bay are seriously threatened by the increasing conversion for urban and rural development (such as for Ponds, Housing and Industrial Needs) in Balikpapan City and Panajam Paser Utara Regency, as well as by unsustainable management (YSTB, 2004). Therefore, in the case of Balikpapan Bay and Mahakam Delta, human factor is supposed to be the main cause of the environmental degradation