Journal of Coastal Develpopment ISSN : 1410-5217 Volume 15, Number 3,June 2012 : 234-242 Acrredited : 83/Dikti/Kep/2009 234 CHALLENGING FOR SEAGRASS MANAGEMENT IN INDONESIA Nadiarti 1* , Etty Riani 2 , Ita Djuwita 2 , Sugeng Budiharsono 2 , Ari Purbayanto 2 , Harald Asmus 3 1 Department of Fisheries, Faculty of Marine Science and Fisheries, Hasanuddin University, Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan Km 10, Makassar, Indonesia. 2 Study Program of Management of Natural Resources and Environment, School of Graduate Studies, Bogor Agriculture University, Jl. Puspa Kampus IPB Darmaga, Bogor, Indonesia 3 Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Wadden Sea Station Sylt, Hafenstrasse 43, D-25992 List, Germany Received : August, 16, 2011 ; Accepted : December, 20, 2011 ABSTRACT Seagrasses, one of the important ecosystems in Indonesian coastal waters, have declined mostly due to a variety of multi-sector (i.e. ecology, socio-economy, technology and institution) anthropogenic disturbances. The decline and loss of seagrass meadows will have an effect not only on biodiversity and fisheries productivity within the ecosystems but also on the adjacent ecosystems (coral reef and mangrove forest), and even the effect will spread out far to the outside of the areas where seagrass grow. Seagrass ecosystems management in Indonesia is urgently required as part of fisheries management. However, this concept has not been understood by most of Indonesian people, including some government officials. Consequently, the seagrass ecosystems are still marginalized in the coastal resource management practices in Indonesia. In order to sustain fisheries productivity, knowledge of impact scales of each seagrass-related multi-sector human activities are very important as one of basic requirements in designing an effective seagrass management. Keywords: anthropogenic disturbance; challenging ; Indonesia ; seagrass decline ; seagrass management. Correspondence : Phone : +62- E-mail address: artinurdin@yahoo.co.uk INTRODUCTION Seagrasses have been known as one of the most important marine resources, because they provide a great ecological and economic important marine ecosystem services, including their capacity in sediment stabilization, water quality improvement, and their role in carbon and nutrient cycling, as well as their function to provide habitat for a variety of life forms in coastal waters and they serve as nursery, shelter and feeding area for many species, including numbers of commercially important fish and shellfish (Hemminga and Duarte, 2000). Additionally, seagrass meadows also play an important role in coral reef and other fisheries productivity (Unsworth and Cullen, 2010). The seagrasses are also known as one of the most productive marine ecosystems following the mangrove and coral reefs (Blankenhorn, 2007) because of their relatively high biodiversity and primary productivity. Although they are important, unfortunately, seagrasses are seldom given the attention or protection they deserves. Seagrass decline and destruction has been commonly experienced by many countries, including Indonesia. The seagrass disturbances are coming from natural causes and the most is due to anthropogenic pressures. Growing population and economic development in the coastal area of Indonesia, especially in the small islands where the communities are dependent upon biodiversity-based livelihoods, will result in high accessibility to the marine living resources and so that increase the anthropogenic threats and disturbances to the coastal biodiversity, where seagrass ecosystems are included. Hence, seagrass ecosystems management is important. In order to provide biodiversity protection and sustainable use of the Review