Indonesia and Timor-Leste conducted a series of activities to strengthen transboundary partnership to protect the sustainability of Indonesian Seas Large Marine Ecosystem (ISLME) region. The activities, carried out in September 2023 involved fisheries and marine authorities and experts from both countries.

The ISLME region, situated in the confluence of the Pacific and Indian oceans, encompasses an area of 2.3 million km² and includes the territorial waters of Indonesia (98 percent) and Timor-Leste (2 percent). For this visit, the following activities conducted under the Global Environment Facility/FAO-supported ISLME project were designed with an aim to facilitate discussions for concrete actions to address key threats to ISLME resources and to facilitate transfer of experience and expertise to accelerate progress and impacts from project implementation, which was started in 2019.

The Third Regional ISLME Strategic Action Programme (SAP) meeting in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara on 11-13 September 2023. At this meeting, fisheries and marine authorities and expert participants from both countries discussed the finalization of the ISLME Strategic Action Programme (SAP) document that lists concrete initiatives with clear timeframe, baseline, targets to achieve and organization in-charge to tackle the five threats to the ISLME region’s sustainability at the national and the transboundary/regional level. The five threats, also called the Primary Environmental Concerns (PECs), were identified in the scientific document, called Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) are namely:

1. Unsustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture practices
2. Degradation and Loss of Marine Habitats
3. Marine and Land-based Pollution
4. Decline of Biodiversity & Key Species
5. Responses to Climate Change Impact

The participants included the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) and the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, and Forestry (MALFF), expert members of the National Scientific Advisory Groups (NSAGs), the TDA-SAP guide Dr. Rudolf Hermes, former Bay of Bengal LME Chief Technical Advisor and a team of technical editors from Padjajaran University.

Exposure visits to several locations: (i) The Integrated Multitrophic Aquaculture (IMTA) in Central Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara. At this IMTA site, MMAF, FAO and Mataram University initiated farming of four species, namely sand lobster, silver pomfret, abalone and seaweed in one aquaculture facility since September 2022. In this IMTA system, wastes from lobster and finfish provide nutrients for abalone and seaweed; and therefore, limit the impacts to the surroundings. Seaweed requires 45 days to harvest and this IMTA system allows seaweed farming in cycles, so that farmers can obtain regular earnings until all species are harvested.  So far, the system has shown good progress and farmers managed to harvest at least 100 kg of seaweed in November 2022 and some of the sand lobsters are found bearing eggs. This IMTA system has good potential for wide adoption at the community level. MMAF Dir. Gen. of Aquaculture, with FAO support, is developing an IMTA module to facilitate IMTA adoption by small-scale farmers; (ii) The seaweed aquaculture pilot site, managed WWF, MMAF and FAO in Serewe Bay, East Lombok. This is the site where the Ecosystem Approach to Aquaculture (EAA) is tried out as a pilot; (iii) Nizam Zachman Oceanic Port to discuss port management in North Jakarta, Port State Measures Agreement to end IUU Fishing; (iv) Karang Antu port and fish landing in Banten. The delegation also attended presentation sessions highlighting lessons-learned from the implementation of the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM), elogbook, quota-based fishing; and Fisheries Management Plan, Harvest Strategies and Harvest Control Rules development and implementation.

Indonesia – Timor-Leste bilateral consultation for transboundary cooperation related to utilization of fish resources, management of marine habitats and to combat the Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing, was organized in Bogor, 18-19 September 2023. The IUU fishing caused around USD 20 billion of economic loss in Indonesia and USD 40 million in Timor-Leste with negative impacts to sustainability of the fish resources, the ecosystem and the livelihood of those in the fisheries sector, specifically small-scale fishers which are the main character of fishers in the ISLME region (95 percent in Indonesia and 100 percent in Timor-Leste).