JAKARTA, Indonesia. Indonesia and Timor-Leste vow for continued cooperation to sustainably harness and protect the wide array of fisheries and marine resources within the Indonesian Seas Large Marine Ecosystem (ISLME) region from various pressures caused by human, economic activities and climate change impacts.

The sustainability of ISLME region, covering the territorial waters of Indonesia (98 percent) and Timor-Leste north coast (2 percent) is a top priority for both countries to boost fisheries sector contribution to community and national development.
“It is hoped that the fisheries and marine sector can be the driving force for national economy and create inclusive economic growth,” said Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Sakti Wahyo Trenggono at the signing of the ISLME Strategic Action Programme (SAP).

The State Secretary of Fisheries of Timor-Leste, Domingos da Conceicao dos Santos said that the ISLME SAP is a good opportunity for Timor-Leste to promote fisheries, aquaculture and managing marine habitats sustainably. “It also provides more opportunities to work closely with Indonesia," he said.

The SAP was formulated to address the five Primary Environment Concerns (PECs) to ISLME sustainability, identified in a scientific document called the Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA). Both TDA and SAP were developed through a rigorous process with strong participation of fisheries-marine authorities, a pool of experts and expert members of the National Scientific Advisory Groups (SAP) from both countries, under the lead of a senior technical expert as ISLME TDA-SAP guide.

To tackle the PECs, the SAP outlined five key objectives: (i) Maintaining sustainable fisheries, (ii) Restoring marine habitat biodiversity, (iii) Reducing marine pollution, (iv) Conserving Endangered, Threatened and Protected (ETP) and other key marine species and (v) Responding to impacts of climate change.

To achieve the objectives, the SAP details 63 action plans for Indonesia, 25 action plans for Timor-Leste and 97 common action plans with an estimated cost around USD 49 million (USD 44 million for Indonesia and USD 5 million for Timor-Leste) over a five-year period. Each of these concrete action plans has clear target, timeframe, and actor(s) to facilitate implementation, track progress, allow adaptive management to address challenges.

The TDA and SAP development was conducted as Component 1 of the 5-year GEF/FAO-supported ISLME project that ends in January 2024. The project’s Component 2 aimed at strengthening national capacity to Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management and Aquaculture (EAFM and EAA), while Component 3 focused on facilitating sharing of knowledge and experience with national and regional forums.

The ISLME project helped promote EAFM and EAA, the Blue Economy, the measurable capture fisheries, set direction for monitoring-control and surveillance (MCS) to combat IUU Fishing and improved data collection and management through the partnership between Indonesia and Timor-Leste, ISLME Regional Coordinator C.M. Muralidharan explained.

“With the SAP endorsement, efforts towards sustainability can continue and allow both countries to further tap into the multifaceted potentials from the various marine, fisheries and coastal resources in the region to build long-term prosperity and promote Sustainable Development Goals,” said Rajendra Aryal FAO Representative for Indonesia and Timor-Leste.

The ISLME region spans across 2.3 million km2 with around 150 million population living in the coastal areas (BPS-Statistics Indonesia, 2022). The region is a global biodiversity hotspot. The Indonesian Throughflow (ITF), as its unique feature, is characterized with warm surface temperature that support the region’s rich biodiversity, high fisheries productivity and play a role in global climate regulation. Located in the Coral Triangle, the region is home to 2,500 species of fish, 569 species of coral reefs, 55 mangrove species and 15 seagrass species, providing favourable environment for spawning, feeding, nursery for various marine life. It has high potentials for high value commodities from capture fisheries (i.e. snapper, grouper, lemuru sardines, lobster, crabs and tuna among others) and aquaculture (i.e. shrimp, seaweed, milkfish, crab, lobster). The region’s other high potentials to harness growth are from marine/coastal tourism, trade, research-education, transportation; and to support carbon sequestration and disaster mitigation.

Among the various threats that contribute to the 5 PECs include rapid population growth, increasing demand for food, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, overfishing, overexploitation, land conversion, non-selective fishing, high level of development of coastal regions, lack of waste management, compounded by the impacts of climate change.

References:
-Hadi, T. A., Giyanto, P. B., Hafizt, M., & Suharsono, A. B. 2018. Status Terumbu Karang Indonesia
(Status of Indonesia's Coral Reefs). P2O. pp. 22
-BAPPENAS. 2016. Indonesian Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (IBSAP) 2015-2020. Retrieved from
https://www.bappenas.go.id/files/publikasi_utama/Dokumen_IBSAP_2015-2020.pdf