Asian coastlines in crisis
This advice was given by Professor Ken Ruddle, of Kwansei Gakuin University (Japan), at an international conference held at Rockingham Campus recently.
The Sustainable Development in Asian Coastal Zones conference, which was jointly organised by the Kwansei University and Murdoch University's Institute for Science and Technology, brought together researchers in many scientific fields from Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and Australia.
Coastal areas in our region face massive problems that have started to threaten human and animal life, Professor Ruddle said.
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| "All the solutions to the fishery problem are not in the water where we are looking, but on the land," |
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"That poses incredible incompatibility and it's becoming unsustainable."
In addition to destructive fishing practices like overfishing, dynamiting reefs and cyanide poisoning, there were land-based problems associated with extreme human poverty and urban congestion that affected marine resources and wildlife.
"All the solutions to the fishery problem are not in the water where we are looking, but on the land," he said.
ISTP Director Professor Peter Newman welcomed a multi-disciplinary approach to tackling the problems facing our coastal areas.
He pointed to cases in which Murdoch researchers had found practical solutions to pollution problems in Indonesian river systems.
One involved the development of small-scale waste water treatment units for urban communities; another provided a means for poor, upstream rubber farmers to purify their rubber themselves to get better prices and reduce down-stream industrial processing.
Professor Newman gave the examples as a new approach -- "We need to tackle the big issues directly, not confine them to disciplines."
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