The Indonesian government is currently directing its focus of development on the optimum uses of marine and coastal ecosystem services including the marine and coastal tourism. One of the main locus of coastal and marine tourism is the small islands tourism such as Gili Matra Islands among others. Small islands tourism is one of the favourite touristic activities because the destination provides beauty, exotism, aesthetic and a diversity of natural habitats including the warm, clear and attractive water. Tourism is being considered as a development instrument in order to boost a country’s economy and has become part of the global industry. However, tourism is also one of the actors that is responsible for environmental depletion, due to the constructions of buildings and tourism activities. This paper aims to study the level of vulnerability in small islands to tourism as a basis of integrated small islands management in Indonesian conservation area. The group of islands in this study consists of three islands namely Gili Ayer Island, Gili Meno Island and Gili Trawangan Island (known as Gili Matra Islands) that were observed using Small Islands Vulnerability Index (SIVI). The results indicate that Gili Matra Islands have a vulnerability status from low into moderate, ranging from 2.25 to 2.75. Gili Ayer Island has the highest vulnerability with SIVI of 2.75 (Moderate), followed by Gili Meno Island with SIVI of 2.50 (Low) and Gili Trawangan Island with SIVI of 2.25 (Low). The driving factor of vulnerability is the intensive utilization of marine tourism activities. Tourism is the sole stress to Gili Matra Island’s ecosystem due to its direct damaging impact and reducing its environmental quality. The vulnerability index which was built from the coastline, coral reef, live coral reef, and development area was applicable to assess the small island’s vulnerability in Indonesia, especially for coral island

The mangrove ecosystems in East Java are widely exploited and converted for other land. Mangrove forests help decrease carbon dioxide concentration, are very efficient carbon sinks and store them in large quantities in biomass and sediments for a long time. This paper tries to understand the causes and effects of mangroves ecosystem damage on carbon stocks and absorption, with East Java, Indonesia as a case study. The Driver, Pressure, State, Impact and Response (DPSIR) framework, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), and Partial Least Squares (PLS) used to identify and solve these problems. The result shows that the destruction of mangrove forests in East Java has occurred due to land conversion intensification. Accordingly, the mangroves’ average carbon sequestration and storage in East Java can be classified as moderate to low. Illegal logging is the leading cause, so there needs to be a clear policy that involves the government and the community. This result suggests that forming a strategy to prevent illegal logging and increase carbon sequestration and storage must be carried out, and community engagement in decision-making processes to protect and manage the mangrove forests.

Sidabutar T, Bengen DG, Wouthuyzen S, Partono T. 2016. The abundance of phytoplankton and its relationship to the N/P ratio in Jakarta Bay, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 17: 673-678. The occurrence of phytoplankton blooms in Jakarta Bay has increased significantly, and resulted in, the mass mortality of fish and other organisms. Phytoplankton bloom events are indicated by a change in the color of the sea’s surface. Generally, phytoplankton growth is influenced by the levels of nutrients in the water, while spatial distribution is influenced by the pattern of the current. In connection with this phenomenon, research was conducted in 2010, 2011 and 2013, to determine the abundance and distribution of phytoplankton and their connection with the N/P ratio. The results showed that the abundance of phytoplankton ranged from 40x106 cells/m3 up to 1699.1x106 cells/m3, with the highest recorded data was during the east monsoon in 2010 and the lowest during the first transition period of 2011. The predominant phytoplanktons were frequently diatoms such as Skeletonema, Chaetoceros and Thalassiosira. The distribution of phytoplankton seemingly follows the nutrient concentration ratio where phosphate acted as the limiting factor and nitrogen as the triggering factor. The higher the N/P ratio, the more potentially uncontrolled growth of phytoplankton occurred. When the availability of nutrients increased an increase in total algal biomass occurred, however, the alteration in nutrient composition led to a change in composition of community.