SEA News Brief January 2021

1. MMAF Plans to Develop a Handbook on Stock Assessment Methods Introduced by USAID SEA

Screenshot Indonesia’s National Commission on Fishery Resources Assessment (Komnas Kajiskan) Annual Meeting 2020. Photo credit: Komnas Kajiskan

Indonesia’s National Commission on Fishery Resources Assessment (Komnas Kajiskan) has expressed appreciation for the work done by USAID SEA to help the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) develop research capacity for stock assessment.

Through a series of trainings and workshops, USAID SEA introduced to MMAF researchers the Stock Assessment methods it has tested and used to assess small pelagic stocks in Fisheries Management Area (FMA) 715 and reef fish stocks around the Maluku islands of Halmahera and Seram within the FMA. USAID SEA was invited and presented these methods to the Komnas Kajiskan annual meeting held on 15-16 December 2020.

The meeting agreed that the estimation of potential yield and stock status would be conducted every three years and every year, respectively. Commission members noted that the data-limited catch-only and length-based assessment methods introduced by USAID SEA would be particularly useful to manage data constraints in the 2020 Stock Assessment.

There are also plans to develop a handbook on the data-limited Stock Assessment methods that have been tested by USAID SEA, the Commission Chair said, adding that these methods are an important lecture subject for local universities and would help streamline Stock Assessment analysis in Indonesia.

2. Provincial Marine and Fisheries Office, USAID SEA Conducted Advanced Training for Community-Based Surveillance Groups

Screenshot presentation related to marine tourism. Photo credit: USAID SEA

Working alongside the Provincial Marine and Fisheries Offices of Maluku, North Maluku, and West Papua, USAID SEA conducted last month advanced training for community-based surveillance groups (Pokmaswas) to ensure that these groups are able to effectively perform their functions. Done online for North Maluku (7-8 and 14-15 December 2020) and on site in Sawai, Maluku (11-12 December 2020) and in Sorong, West Papua (14-16 December 2020), the training was designed to enable each Pokmaswas to carry out socialization, monitoring, and reporting activities.

It also aimed to develop an effective monitoring network supporting Marine Protected Areas and local fisheries management, building self-reliance, and providing support systems that can help each Pokmaswas to continue to function well into the future. Provincial trainers who passed the national-level training of trainers were tasked to deliver the training, which consists of 10 modules that can be adapted to meet local contexts: 1) Pokmaswas organizational principles, 2) marine biota protection surveillance and reporting, 3) fisheries law violations and reporting, 4) Marine Protected Area zoning compliance, 5) Pokmaswas logbook, 6) effective communication, 7) Pokmaswas contribution to the village, 8) building self-reliance, 9) surveillance network, and 10) protection for members.

USAID SEA provided the training participants with the Pokmaswas Handbook, and encouraged them to explore other information materials that were not included in the training but may be required in their work.

3. North Maluku Has Three New Nationally Designated Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

The maps of Guraici, Makian-Moti Island and Widi MPAs. Photo Credit: WCS Indonesia

Three marine protected areas (MPAs) in North Maluku have been designated by ministerial decree after months of arduous collaborative work by USAID SEA with the Wildlife Conservation Society and the North Maluku Provincial Marine and Fisheries Office. The MPAs, located at Widi, Guraici, and Makian-Moti Islands, are designed to protect important fisheries and coral reef, seagrass, mangrove and other critical habitats of manta rays, sharks, turtles, dugongs, and various reef fish species.

The designation process took months of iterative revisions of the proposed maps. It started with the submission of the MPA documents to the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) on 4 May 2020, followed shortly by the first technical meeting with MMAF’s Directorate of Marine Biodiversity Conservation and then another technical meeting in July with the legal unit of the Directorate General of Marine Spatial Management that resulted in recommendations to revise the MPA maps.

In August, the documents went through further review by MMAF’s Legal and Organization Bureau, before MMAF finally issued on 27 October Ministerial Decrees No. 102/2020, 103/2020, and 104/2020, designating conservation areas in the waters of Widi Island (covering 315,117.92 hectares), Guraici Island (91,538.99 hectares), and Moti-Makian Guraici Island (67,349.00 hectares), respectively. Combined, these three MPAs are expected to benefit about 17,000 people in 31 villages. Their official designation signals the start of their full implementation under provincial leadership.

4. West Papua Formally Accepts Plans for Flying Fish Roe and Anchovy Management Supported by USAID SEA

USAID SEA Fishery Advisor and Head of West Papua Marine and Fisheries Office Signed of the Fishery Management Plan Hand Over Document. Photo Credit: USAID SEA

The Provincial Marine and Fisheries Office in West Papua (DKP-West Papua) has certified their acceptance of the management plans and corresponding regulations developed by USAID SEA for the anchovy and flying fish roe fisheries of the province. The plans, which the USAID SEA Fishery Advisor presented and formally handed over to DKP-West Papua on 21 December 2020, define measures to promote and protect the sustainability of these fisheries, while also providing guidance for addressing uneven economic distribution, which remains a problem to the disadvantage of local fishers.

The documents took three years to complete, involving engagement from local communities, provincial government authorities, and scientists to ensure that the identified measures are relevant and based on the best available scientific and contextual data. The provincial government has shown political will for plan implementation through a budget allocation from DKP-West Papua for 2021. The formal adoption and institutionalization of the plans will ensure that funding and implementation will be sustained over the long term.

5. USAID SEA Partner Wins ‘Women in Marine Conservation’ Photo Contest’

The winning photo, Mama Pola showing the children in her village how to measure fish. Photo Credit: Sandra Tjan/ILMMA

The Indonesia Locally Managed Marine Area (ILMMA) Foundation, a local partner of USAID SEA, was declared winner of the 2020 Tetra Tech Photo Contest under the category ‘Women in Marine Conservation.’  The photo contest was open to all employees of Tetra Tech and its subsidiaries around the world. Last year Tetra Tech was pleased to receive over 1,100 submissions.

Announced on 20 January, ILMMA’s winning photo captured Florence Tanikwele, also known as Mama Pola, showing the children in her village how to measure fish for stock assessment applications. Mama Pola, who received training from ILMMA through USAID SEA Project and was previously featured in the May 2020 issue of the SEA News Brief, works as a fish data collector with ILMMA, where she has built a reputation for diligently reading and understanding the data she collects from fishers and fish collectors. She calls herself “an ordinary mother,” but to the community in her village of Nikulukan on Seram Island, Maluku, she is foremost a dedicated environmental advocate and champion, committed to spreading the message of sustainable fisheries and marine conservation.

Mama Pola actively participates in village policymaking, where she has championed the cause of sea turtles and ensured there is local regulation to address the hunting of these endangered animals.

6. USAID SEA, MMAF Write Op-Ed to The Jakarta Post

A fisher from Morotai, North Maluku, with his catch yellowfin tuna. Photo Credit: Yoga Putra/CTC

USAID SEA and the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) recently contributed an op-ed to The Jakarta Post titled ‘Why effective marine protected areas matter,’ which explained the important role that Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) play in ensuring marine and fisheries sustainability in Indonesia.

Penned by Dr. Alan White, Chief of Party of USAID SEA, and Dr. Agus Dermawan, MMAF’s Senior Technical Expert on Marine and Coastal Ecosystem Management, the op-ed discussed the challenge and urgency of the Indonesian government’s pursuit of effective marine conservation management and highlighted how USAID SEA contributed to addressing the challenge.

The authors said USAID SEA, through its excellent partnership with the Indonesian government, moved rapidly and achieved great success in initiating the establishment of MPAs in Fisheries Management Area 715, where the five-year Project has operated since its launch in 2016. But, with the extensive marine areas remaining that need to be legally protected and the still low rate of effective implementation of legally declared MPAs, they also stressed that much more needs to be done, and they urged the government to use the lessons learned from the Project “to jumpstart progress moving forward.”

The op-ed, which ran in the 19 January 2021 issue of The Jakarta Post, can be viewed online on the Post’s website and has been reposted here.