Future Opportunities and Challenges in Developing Sustainable Offshore Indonesian Fisheries

Abstract

In recent years, Indonesia has asserted its national sovereignty over the resources in its Exclusive Economic Zone (eez). The government has dealt severely with foreign Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (iuu) fishing, sinking over 315 vessels since 2012. Indonesia has also banned foreign-crewed trawlers and foreign-owned transport ships involved in transhipment of catch, with over 700 vessels impounded. These measures have sent a strong message to those involved in iuu fishing, many of whom were based in countries neighbouring Indonesia. Going forward, how should Indonesia take up the opportunity to sustainably develop and maintain its fisheries that were previously harvested by iuu fishing? This article discusses issues in domestic fishery development and describes the opportunity and the challenges facing Indonesia to realise the potential of their offshore fisheries. Deriving domestic economic benefits from fishing will require substantial capital investment in fishing vessels by Indonesians to access offshore fisheries, as well as in on-shore processing infrastructure. These investments may enable Indonesians to better capture the domestic economic benefits available to them from replacing the previous iuu fishing activity. However, securing these economic benefits beyond short-term horizons relies strongly on the development of more sustainable and restrictive fisheries management strategies that effectively support capital investment, while controlling the levels of fishing effort in Indonesian waters. The replacement of the iuu fishing offshore with Indonesian-driven initiatives can enable new fishery management approaches to be applied in a more context-appropriate corporate framework with full domestic industry involvement. To achieve these future economic benefits, Indonesia needs to further develop its human capacity. This will involve training for the fishing industry, seafood processing sector, export marketing and also in sustainable fisheries management. Indonesians led fishing industry expansion is just beginning, and will require important national investment and policy decisions. However, several international domestic fishery development experiences overseas illustrate the need to preclude over-investment and overfishing by Indonesian nationals. This should not dissuade Indonesia's domestic fishery development; however, a staged approach to introducing vessels to the offshore area should be taken in order to avoid capital investment exceeding the sustainable capacity of the fish resources in the longer term. There is a need to implement a more restrictive fishery management framework that controls catch and excess effort and promotes sustainable investment. If this can be achieved, then there can be greater sustainable economic and social benefits from fish resources for the people of Indonesia in the coming decades. Show more