29 Oct Promoting Sustainable Fisheries in Indonesia Through Fisheries Management Councils
On 29 October, 2018, the CTC hosted a side event at the Our Ocean Conference titled “Sustainable Fisheries in Indonesia”, which aimed to facilitate fisheries stakeholders: government agencies, fisheries supply chain actors, fisheries associations, environmental donor agencies, NGOs, fisheries projects/initiatives, and academia, including marine and fisheries donor agencies investing in Indonesia, to improve their collaboration in advancing the operationalization of Indonesian Fisheries Management Councils (FMCs), developing harvest strategies for the identified priority species namely: tuna, blue swimming crab, snappers, groupers and small-pelagic, and developing standard competencies for workforces that support sustainable fisheries management. The side event was opened by the Director General for Capture Fisheries of MMAF, followed by three panels discussions covering the topics above, and ended with a signing of sustainable fisheries declaration by fisheries stakeholders.
The first panel discussion focused on Indonesian Fisheries Management Council with the following panelist speakers: Mr. M. Zulficar Mochtar, S.T., M.Sc (Director General of Capture Fisheries, MMAF), Dr. Jake Kritzer (Lead Senior Scientist and Senior Director, China Fisheries of Environmental Defense Fund/EDF), and Ir. Taufik Hidayat, S.Sos, MM, MEP (Head of Lampung Province Planning and Development Agency). Indonesian Fisheries Management Councils in each of the eleven Fisheries Management Areas (FMAs) of Indonesia has been established through decree of Directorate General of Capture Fisheries. It is acknowledged however that since each FMAs cut across boundaries of several provincial governments, there is a need to strengthen the decree with a higher and stronger regulation such as to adopt the FMCs into Fisheries Law.
The second panel discussion focused on global significance of fisheries management in Indonesia from the perspective of donor agencies with the following panelist speakers: Julie E. Packard (Vice Chair of the David & Lucile Packard Foundation Board of Trustees), Kyle Peterson (Executive Director, Walton Family Foundation), and Matthew Burton (Environment Director, USAID Indonesia). Environmental donor agencies such as Packard Foundation, Walton Family Foundation and USAID Indonesia have been investing in marine conservation programs in Indonesia the past few decades and more recently included significant investments in support of sustainable fisheries management programs recognizing Indonesia’s marine biodiversity and fisheries of global significance. They highlighted their long-term commitment to support sustainable fisheries and marine conservation programs in Indonesia, including capacity building and leadership development to strengthen fisheries governance and management.
The third panel discussion focused on joint support initiatives from NGOs, private sector and sponsors around priority target species, Fisheries Management Areas, Fisheries Management Councils and capacity building with the following panelist speakers: John Tanzer (Global Practice Leader of Oceans, WWF International), Dr. Peter J. Mous (Director, The Nature Conservancy Indonesia Fisheries Conservation Program), and Imam Syuhada, PhD. (SeaNet Project Coordinator, Coral Triangle Center). NGOs acknowledge the needs to immediately develop harvest strategies for the priority species mentioned earlier as informed by the best available science. It was recognized that there is an urgent need to improve data collection programs, including collecting data and information of the fisheries at species level.
The side event concluded with the signing of declaration titled “Towards Sustainable Fisheries in Indonesia: Implementation of Indonesian Fisheries Management Councils (FMCs) and Commitments to Support FMC 715 as the first FMC to become fully active”. This contains commitments of fisheries stakeholders mentioned earlier to focus efforts and investment to get FMC operationalized, develop harvest strategies for identified priority species and conduct need assessments for core competencies on work forces supporting fisheries management beginning with FMA 715.
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