The 2023 IFish Project Steering Committee meeting was held on May 31 in Jakarta. The IFish project is a collaboration between the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), with financial support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

This project aims to mainstream biodiversity conservation and sustainable use in inland ecosystem of high conservation value. Working in five demonstration sites throughout Indonesia, the project focuses on three priority species such as Belida, Sidat, and Arwana.

IFish project is a pioneer of inland aquatic ecosystem projects in Indonesia—the country with the largest wetlands in Asia after China, with more than 40.5 million hectares of wetlands. Not only supporting inland biodiversity, wetland ecosystems also provide habitat and food for humans. However, unsustainable activities have threatened these inland aquatic ecosystems and reduce the area of existing wetlands.

 “Being the 1st large-scale freshwater project in Indonesia IFish Project has overcome many challenges. With strong collaboration with stakeholders in local and national level, the project has developed building blocks for a better management of inland aquatic biodiversity,” said Rajendra Aryal, FAO Representative for Indonesia and Timor Leste.

The project supports the five priority programs of the MMAF for the implementation of the blue economy, mainly related to the conservation of inland water diversity, food security and community welfare. Therefore, the project received its no-cost extension for another fifteen months.

"IFish has produced strategic outputs and outcomes that need to be further improved in the future so as to provide real results for the community," explained the Head of BRSDM-KP, I Nyoman Radiarta. "I hope this meeting can produce constructive decisions, to advance and develop everything that we want to achieve from the implementation of the IFish project."

Several strategic results have been achieved by the project through three main components. The first component relates to the mainstreaming of sustainable management of inland aquatic biodiversity, which have supported regulatory frameworks at the central and regional levels, including the establishment of policies related to the management of sidat, belida and arowana. The second component involves demonstration activities of sustainable management practices in several districts, such as the ground-breaking fishway development in Sukabumi and sustainable sidat fisheries for small scale aquafarmers. The third component deals with data collection from all five demonstration sites, to create a comprehensive lesson learned for future inland aquatic biodiversity works.

The PSC meeting was also attended by the Secretary of BRSDM, Kapusriskan, Kapuslatluh, KaBBRSEKP, officials and representatives from Echelon I and II within the scope of KKP, representatives from Bappenas, Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Representative of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Services for Riau, West Java, Central Java and Central Kalimantan Provinces, Representatives of Fisheries Services for Kampar, Sukabumi, Cilacap, Kapuas and South Barito Districts, Lead Technical Officer of the IFish project, FAO Regional Asia Pacific, Project Implementation Support Specialist, Director General of Climate Change Control as well as the Global Environment Facility Operational Focal Point (GEF-OFP) for Indonesia, and the IFish Project Management Unit.