Indonesian government to adopt marine concession area system for fisheries

The Jakarta Post 2 Sep 09;

The Maritime and Fishery Affairs Ministry will go ahead with plans to introduce cluster-like territorial water areas for fisheries where concession rights will be allocated to firms by tenders, arguing that this will not be detrimental to small-scale fishermen.

The ministry’s head of central data, statistics and information, Soenan H. Poernomo, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that the planned cluster division system would in fact facilitate healthy competition among fishermen and fishing companies.

“The cluster divisions are basically also intended to help preserve natural resources in water territories,” he said, adding that the planned cluster divisions were based on the Ministerial Regulation No. 5/2008 and may take effect as early as next year.

He said the system, similar to that of Forestry Ministry concessions for rights where holders can exploit a certain area of forest for a certain period of time, would be based on the concept of environmental sustainability.

“This will let big-scale and small-scale fishermen exploit water resources to a certain extent only, which will be decided after the research is completed,” he said, adding that the first results of the related research would be published by the end of this year.

The research will also determine details on the sizes of the clusters, the maximum period of the fishing rights in each cluster, detailed mechanisms for the tenders, arrangements between central and local administrations, monitoring systems, and related issues.

The Indonesian Fishery Industry Association (Gappindo) however has already voiced its objections on concerns that the proposed system would pave the way for big industry players to dominate the country’s proposed territorial water divisions.