Manokwari, West Papua - On November 13-14, 2018, the Government of West Papua succeeded in gathering 121 representatives of Local Government Organizations (OPD), indigenous peoples, academics, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), private parties, SKK Migas, TNI and Porli in the Public Consultation of Documents Between the Zoning Plan for Coastal Areas and Small Islands (RZWP-3-K) of West Papua. This activity is a follow-up to article 31 paragraph (1) of KP Ministerial Regulation No. 23 of 2016 concerning the implementation of public consultations on intermediate documents of RZWP-3-K.

The preparation of RZWP-3-K is mandated by three laws, namely: Law 27 of 2007 Jo Law No 1 of 2014 on the Management of Coastal Areas and Small Islands, Law No 23 of 2014 on Regional Government and Law No 32 of 2014 on Marine. All three mandate the importance of preparing RZWP-3-K which will be the basis for granting location permits and management permits in coastal areas and small islands.

I appreciate the enthusiasm and hard work of the West Papua Working Group to consistently carry out each stage of the preparation of the West Papua RZWP3K in accordance with existing provisions (Permen KP 23 of 2016), "said the Director of Marine Spatial Planning Directorate General of Marine Spatial Management Mr. Suharyanto, M.Sc in the presentation session related to the RZWP-3-K process in general that he delivered.

"This is the first province where the NWG is very enthusiastic in preparing for the public consultation to the point of simulating facilitation techniques before contributing as facilitators tomorrow. I also appreciate the commitment of the Working Group in completing the West Papua RZWP-3-K process," said Dr. Krisna Samudra, head of the regional zoning sub-directorate of the Directorate of Marine Spatial Planning. He expressed his appreciation in front of the Governor's Assistant 1 during the opening of the Public Consultation and during the material delivery session by the Director of Marine Spatial Planning, Mr. Suharyanto.

A West Papua was formed in June 2017 led by the Fisheries and Marine Affairs Office as the technical institution and members consisting of a combination of various cross-OPD policy holders, NGOs, and academics. The focus of its work is to prepare the West Papua RZWP3K, starting from articles 23 to 33 of Permen KP No. 23 Year 2016. WWF-Indonesia as the implementing partner of the USAID Sustainable Ecosystems Advanced (SEA) Project always accompanies the NWG team in every technical process of preparing the document intensively. Especially in processing spatial data, reviewing draft documents until they are suitable to be sent to KKP, and facilitating various series of RZWP-3-K activities such as financial support and human resources.

According to Drs. Natniel D. Mandacan, M.Si, Secretary of West Papua Province, "Making this zoning plan is like making a house with a window as it is, leave it like that. Later the window can be replaced or repaired. Likewise, the zoning plan must be made now, if there are still shortcomings, we will fix it in the future." During the two-day activity, participants participated in a series of group discussions, to discuss the spatial allocation plan map that had been analyzed by the West Papua RZWP-3-K Working Group.

In the Public Consultation, West Papua Province allocated 3,938,922 hectares of coastal and small islands space for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) or 37% of the total area of the coastal and small islands planning area of West Papua province, which is 10,659,885 hectares. The agreement and approval of the spatial allocation plan map and Ranperda RZWP-3-K by all agency representatives is in line with the vision of West Papua Province as a Conservation Province. By comparison, the average total allocation of conservation areas in other provinces that have issued regional zoning plans for coastal areas and conservation small islands is below 30%.