Tama Salim and Fedina S. Sundaryani, The Jakarta Post 7 Oct 15;
Almost a year after placing a ban on renewals of licenses for large, foreign-built fishing vessels, the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry is devising a post-moratorium national plan of action (NPOA) that will focus on strengthening Indonesia’s maritime policies in the context of regional integration.
The NPOA will focus on policies promoting sovereignty, sustainability and prosperity, as well as optimizing the ability to detect, respond and punish perpetrators of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
In order to ensure the success of its policies, the government is pushing for the recognition of IUU fishing as a transnational crime.
According to Mas Achmad Santosa, the head of the ministry’s illegal fishing prevention task force, the government is looking to enable the handling of IUU fishing and fisheries-related practices across national borders.
Illegal poaching, Ahmad said, was almost always accompanied by related crimes such as human trafficking, modern slavery or the falsification of documents.
“A network of illegal poachers at sea is usually controlled by identifiable entities or individuals. In Indonesia’s case, the strings are being pulled [by parties] in Thailand and China — and it starts out as a ploy with other countries to blur the legality of transfer ownership,” Achmad told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.
Since November last year, the government has enforced a ban on all foreign-built fishing vessels over 30 gross tons (GT) under the suspicion that the operation of these ships might be a ruse for poaching.
A total 1,132 ships owned by 187 fisheries firms underwent an analysis and evaluation (Anev) audit by the illegal fishing prevention task force, in which it was revealed that 907 ships — roughly 80 percent — had committed operational and administrative infractions.
As a result, the ministry revoked 15 business licenses (SIUP) and 279 operational licenses (SIPI/SIKPI), in addition to pressing criminal charges against 18 large fisheries firms.
Achmad claimed that IUU fishing practices in Indonesia took advantage of lax border control and discrepancy in maritime policies among neighboring countries, raising a pressing need for governments to synchronize their maritime law enforcement policies.
As a result of previous discussions, he continued, the government had started working on a multilateral framework involving Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea and Australia to combat poaching in the Arafura Sea.
“We have to strengthen cooperation among these countries so that we have a common standard for legal enforcement,” said the former antigraft activist.
Separately, Ono Surono, a member of the House of Representatives’ Commission IV overseeing agriculture and fisheries and the environment, supported the initiative to have IUU fishing recognized as a transnational crime.
Ono urged countries sharing maritime borders — especially members of ASEAN, Timor Leste, PNG, China and Australia — to establish an institution for collectively handling IUU fishing practices, thus overcoming nations’ limited capability to monitor their territorial waters.
Last Friday, National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti said that the police force had joined efforts to establish illegal fishing as a transnational crime.
During the 10th ASEAN Minister Meeting on Transnational Crime (AMMTC) held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia two weeks ago, Badrodin explained, Indonesia had highlighted the issue.
“We stressed that illegal fishing was a transnational crime, as it is a violation related to national borders and [occurs] across countries,” he said at the National Police headquarters in South Jakarta.
ASEAN’s eight priority areas of transnational crime comprise counterterrorism, illicit drug-trafficking, trafficking in persons, money laundering, sea piracy, arms smuggling, international economic crime and cybercrime.
“Our focus is not on decreasing [illegal fishing] but on law enforcement. In law enforcement, for example, if a group of people suspected of a crime was caught here but several of them ran away to another country, or if someone was convicted of a crime here but fled the country, then how would we catch them?” the police chief asked.
Indonesia, Australia agree on fisheries cooperation
Tama Salim, The Jakarta Post 8 Oct 15;
In line with its plan to synchronize maritime law enforcement policies with its neighbors Indonesia has secured the support of Australia to protect the country from incursions by foreign fishermen who illegally enter the country’s vast territorial waters.
Australia has agreed to strengthen its cooperation with Indonesia on combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices, and to engage at the operational level and promote sustainable fisheries governance.
Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti met with Australia’s Agriculture and Water Resources Minister Barnaby Joyce on Wednesday to sign a joint communiqué on the cooperation to combat IUU fishing.
“We want to strengthen this cooperation for collective gain — Australia will also sign the declaration to combat illegal fishing in Asia and the Pacific, especially on Indonesia’s borders with Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea and Fiji,” Susi told reporters during a press conference at her office on Wednesday.
Susi welcomed the improved cooperation with Australia in the maritime sector, acknowledging that without its southern neighbors, Indonesia would have a hard time monitoring the vast waters in the eastern part of the
archipelago.
“Our hope is that we will be able to enhance our cooperation to ensure that no one will poach fish on our borders with Australia, PNG and Timor Leste,” she explained.
Meanwhile, Minister Joyce praised Susi’s work in the sector and said that he looked forward to collaborating more in a global setting to better manage the fisheries sector.
“We are very happy with the work that Australians are doing with the Indonesians in making sure that we find out who is sneaking into other people’s places and stealing their fish,” Joyce told reporters on Wednesday.
“All I can say is it’s lucky that we caught them before Ibu Susi bombed them or burned them,” he added.
Joyce also stressed the importance of doing further work together in the fisheries sector so that all fishermen in the region got a fair deal.
“Otherwise it’s just going to get fished out and other people are going to steal a product that sustains their way of life, sustains their economic income — and that is just not fair,” he added.
As part of the proposed cooperation, Indonesia has invited Australia to expand coordinated patrols near the maritime borders of Timor Leste and PNG, as well as providing all necessary support and assistance in combatting IUU fishing.
Indonesia also asked Australia’s border officials to provide intelligence to assist in its crackdown on poaching.
In return, Australia will receive Indonesia’s support — among others — in its recently updated Sedentary Organisms Proclamation, in which Australia will be able to lay claim to areas “proximate to Indonesia and [which] sits beneath waters” within Indonesia’s fisheries jurisdiction under current arrangements.
The cooperation takes into account the Regional Plan of Action (RPOA) to promote responsible fishing practices, the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI-CFF) and the declaration on strategic action programs for the Arafura and Timor Seas Ecosystem Action (ATSEA), as well as other regional frameworks such as the Australia-Indonesia Fisheries Surveillance Forum (AISF).
Mas Achmad Santosa, the head of the IUU fishing prevention task force, said the government was due to meet with representatives of Timor Leste, PNG and Fiji in the coming months.
“We have to strengthen cooperation among these countries so that we have a common standard for legal enforcement,” he said.
