Indonesia's marine resources have been severely affected by human actions such as overfishing, destructive fishing methods, clearing of mangrove forests and uncontrolled discharge of industrial and domestic waste into rivers and the sea (State Minister for the Environment 2006: Ch. 7). Threats to fish and other biota as well as coral reefs and seagrass beds come from both sea and land-based human activity. Indonesia does not have a strong record of adopting and implementing measures to address these threats. Lack of administrative and financial resources is often given as the main reason for weak implementation but obstacles have also arisen from the legal arrangements for environmental and natural resource management. Indeed, the various shortcomings of Law No. 23/1997 on Environmental Management have been discussed for many years by Indonesian environmental lawyers.

Two relatively new laws to govern the exploitation of coastal and marine resources offer a new and more promising approach. Law No. 31/2004 on Fisheries and Law No. 27/2007 on the Management of Coastal Areas and Small Islands offer the possibility of an ecologically based approach to managing fisheries and coastal areas backed by stronger sanctions. The laws mark a move away from maximizing levels of production and exploitation towards management for sustainability. They place a legal requirement on the Minister for Marine Affairs and Fisheries to prepare management plans for the sustainable exploitation of fishery resources and to determine the extent and potential of the country's fish resources. They combine new obligations on government with a more comprehensive range of sanctions for breaches of the provisions to protect fisheries and coastal resources. Moreover, as a result of the Law on Coastal and Small Island Management, areas that were previously not part of spatial planning have been brought into a planning and management regime that acknowledges the need to set functional limits on the exploitation of resources that take account of carrying capacity and ecological processes.

This chapter will start by reviewing some of the legal shortcomings that have been identified in environmental management to date. It will then highlight important new legal developments in coastal and marine resources management but also consider, from a legal perspective, weaknesses that could impede effective implementation.