FAO Support for MMAF Breakthrough Project Yields in Agreement to Extend IFish Project Cooperation
The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) and the The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have agreed to extend the Mainstreaming Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use into Inland Fisheries Practices in Freshwater Ecosystem of High Conservation Value (IFish) cooperation for the next 2 years until 2023.
The USD 6.1 million cooperation aims to strengthen management framework for sustainable use of inland aquatic biodiversity in order to increase the protection of high conservation value freshwater ecosystems and their biodiversity in Indonesia.
"We welcome the extension agreement of IFish project by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). This showed commitment and support for the MMAF efforts to foster sustainable inland fisheries governance," explained the Secretary General of the MMAF, Antam Novambar in Jakarta (11/7).
Antam added that in the final draft of the IFish project extension maintained the 4 main components of the project, namely:
- Component 1, mainstreaming of inland aquatic biodiversity into resource development and management policy;
- Component 2, demonstration of conservation and sustainable use of inland aquatic biodiversity;
- Component 3, monitoring and assessment of inland aquatic biodiversity;
- Component 4, project monitoring and evaluation and adaptive management;
"The IFish project’s component is designed to support MMAF's priorities for 2021-2024, especially in building freshwater, brackish and marine aquaculture villages based on local wisdom as suggested by Minister Wahyu Sakti Trenggono," Antam added.
The Head of the Public Relations and Foreign Cooperation Bureau of the MMAF, Agung Tri Prasetyo said that the IFish project strategy was to integrate efforts to mainstream inland aquatic biodiversity into policies, through demonstration activities for conservation and sustainable use of inland aquatic biodiversity for critical habitats in five locations on the island of Kalimantan, Java Island and Sumatra Island.
"IFish is the largest inland fishery management collaboration in Indonesia between MMAF and FAO. It is hoped that it will directly contribute to the target of developing freshwater fishing villages," said Agung.
Furthermore, Agung explained that inland fisheries are generally carried out by small-scale businesses, namely communities/communities along watersheds. He emphasized the importance of inland fisheries in fulfilling the welfare and food security of the community.
“IFish project's main activities include: 1) Implementation of demonstration sites (demosite) for Belida Fish in Kampar Regency; Eel in Sukabumi and Cilacap Regencies; Arowana fish and Beje fisheries in Kapuas Regency and South Barito Regency, 2) Mainstreaming inland fisheries management at the regency level through the Working Group scheme in South Barito Regency, Cilacap Regency, Kapuas Regency, and Sukabumi Regency, 3) Preparation of Fishery Management Plan for Eel, 4) Preparation of Guidebook for Identification of Inland Water Fish Species, and 5) Preparation of Integrated Inland Fisheries Geographic Information System (IIFGIS)," he explained.
"In the future, lesson-learned and best practices gained from IFish project implementation will become a reference for Indonesian inland fisheries management policies development. The availability of better policies and management will act as a catalyst for inland fisheries management efforts in various other types of terrestrial habitats,” concluded Agung.
In a nutshell, IFish project is collaboration between KKP and FAO under the framework of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), which was signed by the Secretary General of the MMAF and FAO Representatives for Indonesia and Timor-Leste in 2017. The initial agreement of the project was from 2017-2021.
Referring to the results of the coordination meeting between MMAF ranks, FAO Representatives for Indonesia and GEF Operational Focal Point Indonesia on June 18, 2021, IFish will be extended until 2023—taking into account the importance of the remaining USD 4 millions grant cooperation for the sustainability of inland fisheries. The discussion on the extension was carried out at the end of June 2021, starting with a sharing session on the application of Theory of Change in global conservation cooperation by USAID Indonesia experts, followed by discussion of the annual work plan, as well as the agreement points for the IFish project extension.