In early April, CTC signed a cooperation agreement with the Directorate General of Capture Fisheries of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (DGCF-MMAF) of the Republic of Indonesia regarding capacity building for Fisheries Management Institutions in the Fisheries Management Area (FMI-FMA) of the Republic of Indonesia. The agreement, which is valid until the end of 2025, will serve as the basis for the implementation of all joint activities between CTC and the DGCF-MMAF to support sustainable fisheries in Indonesia. The signing of the agreement was officially done on April 6, 2021 during the DGCF-MMAF Technical Working Meeting in 2021, with the theme “A Synergy to Gain the MMAF Rebound through Increasing the Non-Tax State Revenue on Capture Fisheries and Fishers’ Welfare”. Taking place at the Grand Mercure Hotel Bandung, West Java, the event was attended by MMAF strategic partners – including CTC, which was represented by Senior Program Manager Hesti Widodo. The agreement aims to enhance and improve the implementation of the capacity-building activities of all FMIs in at least three Indonesian FMAs, namely FMA 712, 713, and 714, covering the Java Sea to the Banda Sea. Administratively, these waters belong to at least six provinces, namely Lampung, West Java, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara and Maluku.

As the official partner of the DGCF-MMAF, CTC is required to identify capacity-building needs, design and develop competency-based curricula and specific modules in technical and non-technical fields for FMI personnel, as well as facilitate capacity-building activities to support these FMI personnel to sustainably manage fishery resources according to regional characteristics.

Following the agreement, CTC will submit a quarterly report to the DGCF-MMAF that describes and sums up all capacity-building activities done in the past three months.  In addition to this, a regular evaluation and monitoring mechanism of all implemented activities will also take place at least once a year. Therefore, both CTC and the DGCF-MMAF can continue to improve the needed capacity-building activities in the long run.

To date, CTC has trained more than 5,000 marine practitioners from across the Coral Triangle and has designed 26 learning modules and training courses that are customized to the specific needs of various geographies and participants. In Indonesia, the trainings are mostly attended by marine conservation area managers and fishery extension officers whose duty stations are spread evenly across Western, Central and Eastern Indonesia.

Photo Credit: Yoga Putra/CTC