RI's fisheries diplomacy in Southwest Pacific

RI's fisheries diplomacy in Southwest Pacific

Siswo Pramono, Graduate Program, School of Social Sciences,
The Australian National University, Canberra

Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda presented
Indonesia's new foreign policy on the Southwest Pacific region at
the Australian National University. As outlined in his speech,
the policy operates on three levels.

The first is cooperation between Indonesia, East Timor and
Australia. The second is the Southwest Pacific Dialogue
initiative, involving Indonesia, East Timor, Australia, New
Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines. And the third is
the Pacific Island Forum, which Indonesia has just obtained the
status of dialog partner.

This new policy underpins the strategic importance of
Indonesia's eastern region, which shares common boundaries with
Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Australia. Indonesia's eastern
region is home to the largest concentration of Melanesians in the
world and could strengthen existing ties between Indonesia and
the South Pacific region.

Thus, the issue now is how to implement the new policy on the
Southwest Pacific into projects that could benefit Indonesia's
eastern provinces.

Fishing could be a useful start for cooperation.

Tuna, especially skipjack, yellowfin and big eye constitutes
the largest bioresource of the South Pacific region. Tuna and
skipjack are also the main fish caught in West Nusa Tenggara,
East Nusa Tenggara, West Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, South
Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, Maluku and Irian Jaya.

Taken together, the exclusive economic zones of Indonesia,
Australia and the South Pacific island states encompass a total
maritime area of more than 42.7 million square kilometers --
which yield more than a million tons of tuna a year.

Indonesia and southern Pacific island states are developing
fishing nations. While small-scale fishing accounts for more than
90 percent of total fish caught, industrial fisheries contribute
considerably more in terms of value, because they are focused on
tuna stocks of high commercial value. Nevertheless, the capacity
of Indonesian and southern Pacific fishing fleets to harvest
tuna, either by using longliners or purse seine vessels, is quite
limited.

In the western and central Pacific Ocean, out of 6.5 million
tons of tuna taken by purse seine, Vanatu, the Solomon Islands
and Indonesia only catch less than 3 percent. Philippines is the
only regional fishing nation able to catch 10.3 percent of the
tuna stock.

On the contrary, Japan catches 22.2 percent, Taiwan 21.4
percent, the U.S. 18.7 percent and South Korea 16.2 percent. The
region clearly needs to improve the capacity of its coastal and
shore-based fishing fleets in order to compete with fishing
nations from beyond the region.

Indonesia is nevertheless among the top 10 leading exporters
of fish and seafood in the world. In 1998, despite the economic
crisis, the gross value of fishing output was US$4.2 billion, of
which the value of exports was about $1.6 billion. Canned, fresh
and frozen tuna formed an important part of Indonesian exports.

Fishing in Indonesia employs 4.6 million people. However, more
than 80 percent of those in the fishing industry live below the
poverty line.

Indonesia should follow up its progressive foreign policy on
the Southwest Pacific by intensifying "tuna diplomacy".
Indonesia, Australia and most of the South Pacific island states
are parties to the Law of the Sea Convention and thus share a
common view in exploring, exploiting and conserving tuna stocks
in the region.

Indonesia should initiate cooperation to enhance the capacity
of the shore-based fishing fleets by promoting a regional
environment conducive to foreign investment. A comprehensive
regional fishing policy is also needed to improve the region's
bargaining power when dealing with fishing companies from further
afield. While a tuna cartel might be politically hard to attain,
better management of the region's fishing industry could improve
the economic situation and preservation of tuna fisheries.

Regional cooperation also needs to be promoted to crack down
on illegal fishing, which has caused losses to Indonesia that are
almost annually equal to its exports.

Australia's role in the region will be central as the main
provider of technology and training. Its Commonwealth Scientific
and Industrial Research Organization and Australian Center for
International Agricultural Research have been helping Indonesia
and southern pacific island states with the management of fish
stocks to avoid overfishing.

Among important cooperation projects are the terubok fisheries
in Sumatra, a tuna baitfish fishery in Ambon, Sulawesi (Manado)
and Halmahera (Bacan) and a barramundi fishery in Papua New
Guinea. This kind of cooperation must be improved in quality and
broadened in its implementation.