Protecting Indonesia's vital marine resources

Mark Erdmann, Contributor, Manado, North Sulawesi

In recognition of the importance of Indonesia's vast marine resources to its future, I've been invited to write an Environment Day perspective on the current status of marine law enforcement.

Reflecting upon the last 10 years in Indonesian coastal management, I believe there is reason for cautious optimism, yet a tremendous amount of improvement is still needed in this field.

Much as the country's policymakers have belatedly realized the importance of enforcement against illegal logging to protect state assets and prevent ecological and human tragedies caused by rampant deforestation, illegal exploitation of marine resources is finally beginning to receive attention as well.

Over the past decade, the hard work by local and international conservation NGOs and a range of donor-funded coastal management projects have succeeded in broadly exposing the damage wrought by destructive fishing practices such as blast and cyanide fishing -- to the point that these practices are now widely recognized as illegal by most fishing communities.

In some of the best-known protected marine areas, including the Komodo, Wakatobi and Bunaken national parks, strong enforcement systems have largely curtailed these destructive practices. Moreover, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries has prioritized enforcement against illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing, resulting in a dramatic increase over the past several years in the arrests of foreign vessels poaching in Indonesian waters.

Unfortunately, these bright spots are overshadowed by a range of problems that continue to hamper local marine enforcement.

Many in the country's legal system, from police officers to the judiciary, seem to regard marine resource crimes as unimportant, and even when offenders are captured, they are often released within hours with nothing more than a reprimand.

Ironically, many local environmental NGOs blindly champion the "rights" of blast and cyanide fishers, seemingly oblivious to the rights of the 99 percent of the Indonesian traditional fishermen, whose livelihoods are destroyed by the destructive and lucrative activities of a tiny minority. These NGOs are also often harshly critical of any attempts to enforce law and order on Indonesia's extensive, but highly threatened, reefs.

These problems and resistance to stronger marine enforcement seem to stem from continuing misperceptions regarding marine resource crimes -- perhaps in part because the majority of the population does not see what is occurring beneath the waves on a daily basis. Below, I address four of the most egregious of these misperceptions:

First, perhaps the most serious misperception is that marine resource crimes are "inconsequential fishing infractions" that are not worthy of serious treatment by the judiciary. Nothing could be further from the truth: Indonesia relies on fish for over half of its animal protein, and destructive and illegal fishing practices directly threaten food security.

Reefs that are bombed and cyanided become barren, lifeless fields of rubble that produce a tiny fraction of the over 20 metric tons per square kilometer of fish that a healthy reef will yield annually.

Moreover, illegal fishing in the country's network of marine reserves greatly compromises their effectiveness as "fish banks", where fish stocks are allowed to recover, reproduce and "export" larval fish to surrounding areas.

A second misperception is that blasting and cyaniding are done by poor fishers with no other alternatives. To the contrary, these illegal methods are highly lucrative and are often backed by powerful businessmen. Given the profitability of these crimes, minimal sanctions are simply considered a cost of business and are not a true deterrent.

A frequent suggestion from local NGOs is that increased environmental awareness of fishers will "empower" them to police their own reefs.

Third, a related misperception is the belief -- or perhaps hope? -- by government agencies in charge of funding enforcement that the need for expensive waterborne patrols will decrease as marine conservation awareness increases.

Unfortunately, this is wishful thinking. As Indonesia's reefs continue to degrade and fish become scarcer and more expensive, the incentive to fish illegally -- and hence the need for professional enforcement regimes -- only increases. Even the most environmentally aware fishers are largely powerless against those using bombs and cyanide.

In Komodo, for example, blast fishing was largely perpetrated by well-organized and heavily armed deer poachers from outside the park, who would not hesitate to shoot or bomb any boat that attempted to apprehend them. Enforcing the law against such dangerous criminals is hardly a task for local fishers.

Finally, there is a continuing misperception by policymakers, NGOs and donors alike that coastal fishing villages are opposed to stronger marine enforcement -- so much so that many coastal management programs avoid the "thorny issues" of enforcement in favor of more cuddly initiatives that will be readily accepted by fishing communities.

In my experience, this resistance to enforcement is largely imaginary; most fishing villages openly welcome stronger enforcement, as long as it is evenly applied. Nothing angers fishers more than when they are expected to obey the law, while well-connected individuals disregard it with impunity.

Experience at Bunaken and Wakatobi clearly shows that once villagers see that enforcement efforts are serious, they quickly become the first line of defense in reporting all illegal fishing activities to authorities. These folks fully understand the seriousness of marine resource crimes and the threat caused to their livelihoods.

Not surprisingly, the above situations are not unique to Indonesia. Last year, I chaired a session on marine enforcement at the 2nd International Tropical Marine Ecosystems Management Symposium. The 60 marine managers from across the tropics who participated in this session unanimously reported similar frustrations, and formulated a series of recommendations that centered upon the need for policymakers and judiciaries, NGOs and donors, to finally get serious about marine enforcement.

Specific recommendations include training programs for police and legal system professionals through which to show them the devastating impacts of marine resource crimes firsthand, provision for special environmental courts with trained judges to handle marine crimes cases, and dramatically increased budgets for those agencies in charge of protecting coastal ecosystems.

Given the grave importance of protecting Indonesia's marine resources for the livelihoods of its future generations, it is clearly time to recognize the severe consequences of illegal fishing practices and declare war upon them.

Dr. Mark Erdmann has worked as a marine biologist in Indonesia since 1992. He is the North Sulawesi advisor to the USAID Natural Resources Management Program and a 2004 Pew Fellow in marine conservation.