As many as 12,510 villages or 15.32 percent of the total 81,616 villages in Indonesia are located in coastal areas. About 90 percent of the coastal villages rely on fish resources as the main livelihood of the population
By
SIWI NUGRAHENI
·5 minutes read
SALOMO TOBING
Siwi Nugraheni
As an archipelagic country, 62 percent of Indonesia's territory consists of sea. With a coastline of 99,083 kilometers, Indonesia is the country with the second longest coastline in the world after Canada. Unfortunately, the great potential of the marine sector has not been reflected in the lives of fishermen in coastal villages and Indonesia's macroeconomic indicators.
Fishermen are one of the low-income community groups in Indonesia. Data issued in 2021 show that out of 10.86 million poor people in Indonesia, around 1.3 million (12.5 percent) live in coastal areas. If seen from the aspect of extreme poverty, namely the inability of the people to meet the most basic necessities of life, the extreme poverty rate in coastal areas is 4.19 percent. This is higher than the national extreme poverty rate of 4 percent.
Several macroeconomic indicators also do not show the great potential of Indonesia's marine sector. In 2021, Indonesia's fishery product export market share in the world market was only 3.5 percent.
In 2021 and 2022, the contribution of the capture fisheries to Indonesia's GDP amounted to only 2.83 percent and 2.54 percent, respectively, while their contributions to Non-Tax State Revenue (PNBP) were only Rp 788 billion and Rp 1.26 trillion, respectively. The small contribution of the fisheries sector to GDP and PNBP is often associated with the problem of illegal fishing by foreign vessels in Indonesian waters.
In the midst of various problems in the capture fisheries, the government has launched five policies which are the priority agenda of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry (KKP). Two of the five policies are the focus of this article, namely quota-based measurable fish catch and cleaning up plastic waste in the sea through the fishermen's participation movement.
Priority
Government Regulation (PP) Number 11 of 2023 concerning Measurable Fish Catch is one of the steps to fulfill policy priorities in the marine and fisheries sector. However, the issuance of PP No 11/2023 has raised pros and cons. The quota in the fishing zone is set for three groups, namely industry, local fishermen and noncommercial activities.
The government argues PP No 11/2023 aimed to achieve a more sustainable development of the capture fisheries. The objective is to increase its optimal economic impact (increasing its role in the national economy) while still paying attention to the ecological carrying capacity of captured fish resources and improving the welfare of fishermen.
Those who oppose argue this regulation is a form of liberalization of the capture fisheries by allowing the entry of foreign capital to fish in Indonesian waters. It is not only about the great losses of small fishermen caused by large vessels with more modern fishing gear, but also concerns the impact on the sustainability of Indonesia's captured fish resources.
Quoting Thomas Nugroho (Kompas, 14 April 2022), this liberalization step in the fisheries sector will force the domestic capture fisheries industry to face free competition, while Indonesia is considered not ready yet. The credibility and integrity of actors in the capture fisheries sector is the key to implementing fishing policies that rely on monitoring the number of catches.
In fact, that is where one of Indonesia's weaknesses lies. Therefore, a measurable fishing policy has the potential to be ineffective in preventing overfishing and instead widen the welfare gap between fishermen and those who catch fish with large capital.
Plastic waste
On the other hand, being one of the largest marine plastic-waste producing countries seems to make us uncomfortable. Therefore, one of the policy priorities in the maritime sector is to clean the Indonesian seas from plastic waste. The government also proclaims the active role of fishermen as cleaners of plastic waste in the sea.
I think, even without being declared, every fisherman will try to overcome the waste problem in their "field" because waste will make fish, their source of livelihood, disappear.
One can recall the fate of the coastal residents of Muara Gembong in Bekasi regency, West Java. Their livelihood has changed from fisherman to scavenger because the sea, which was previously their fishing area, has become a pile of garbage. This is a clear example of the damage to the marine ecosystem of the Jakarta Bay, which has an impact on the welfare of the population.
The accumulation of garbage in coastal areas is a sign of the wrong management of waste on land. Fishermen become the victims, not those who throw the waste. The garbage problem must be solved on the land, where the problem occurs. Giving the fishermen in coastal villages task of dealing with waste is just like shifting the responsibility of those who live on the "mainland" in managing waste to coastal residents, who have actually lost their livelihood.
Every 6 April, Indonesia commemorates National Fishermen's Day as a form of appreciation to fishermen as providers of food sources. Hopefully the commemoration of Fishermen's Day was not only filled with ceremonial events without concrete actions to improve their lives.
Fishermen who live in coastal villages are waiting for government policies that are truly in favor of improving their welfare.
Siwi Nugraheni, lecturer at the School of Economics, Parahyangan Catholic University
