Newsletter

July 2017

Handline fishermen in Salumpaga, Tolitoli, Central Sulawesi. Photo credit: MDPI

It’s a pleasure for me to reach out to you all and inform you all on

our progress over these last 3 months. We are 6 months into our

year and in one way it feels like we have achieved so much, at the

same time it feels like there is still so much more to do!

Some highlights to inform you on include the progress we have

made in expanding the reach of our DMC-Co-management

program. This year we went from 3 active co-management groups

to 5 and one more to be established in the coming months. A

strong focus will be linking these provincial level groups to WPP

(Fisheries Management Area) level groups currently being

developed by the National government. Additionally, we have

continued to focus on Harvest Strategy development for Tuna in

archipelagic waters in collaboration with KKP and CSIRO, which

aims to meet some basic results and implementable actions for

archipelagic fisheries management within 2017! The Fair Trade

program is as ever growing and achieving tangible impact in the

communities as well as increasing acknowledgement and demand

from the market. We continue as before to work on issues

including data collection, vessel registration, FAD registration,

Fisheries Improvement and industry engagement.

A big event looming in the coming days is an international Think

Tank on moving Small Scale Fisheries towards Legal Reported and

Regulated status. This is the first time that MDPI, (with partners

Wageningen University, Walton Family Foundation and the

USAID Oceans project) has attempted to host an international

event of this size and it is daunting! We are excited about the

caliber of people who will be joining us here as we try to come up

with solutions for small scale fisheries and aim to identify ways

that ensure this sector can continue to strive.

I look forward to informing you on what we hope will be exciting

results and more updates in the next edition,

Momo Kochen

Program Director, Masyarakat dan Perikanan Indonesia

Our Programs

Fisheries Improvement Data Management Committee (DMC)

MDPI facilitated 1 DMC meeting in each Nusa Tenggara Timur

(NTT) and Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB), and 2 DMC establishment

meetings in Sulawesi Utara and Sulawesi Selatan during April –

June. DMC is a co-management initiative to gather stakeholders

from government, universities, NGOs, industries and fishers to

discuss management of the fishery in their region, especially for

tuna and skipjack. It is a meeting where stakeholders can discuss

the data management in their region, the I-Fish data reporting,

data ownership, aspects of fisheries management and regulation

and further collaboration and contributions from each

stakeholder for the future DMC meetings.

MDPI would like to appreciate all fishermen and stakeholders who

participated in the latest DMC meetings: 1) NTT: BKKPN, WWF,

UD. Tunas Harapan, Universitas Kristen Artha Wacana, Stasiun

PSDKP Kupang, Universitas Muhammadiyah Kupang, PT. Primo

Indo Ikan Larantuka, DKP Provinsi NTT, PT. Nelayan Hidup

Makmur, CV. Armada Sanjaya Kupang, CV. Charlie Era Pranata. 2)

NTB: DKP Provinsi NTB, Universitas Mataram, Dinas

Pehubungan Provinsi NTB, DKP Kabupaten Lombok Timur, UD.

Usaha Mina Sumbawa, TNC Fisheries, UD. Rizki bersama, Dinas

DPMPTSP Provinsi NTB, Pelabuhan Perikanan Labuhan Lombok,

UD. Eka Tirta, WCS, Syahbandar Labuhan Lombok, PSDKP

Lombok Timur, UD. Erpa Utama, Universitas 45. 3) Sulawesi

Utara: WCPFC, PSDKP Bitung, BPPP Bitung, Poltek Bitung, DKP

Kabupaten Bolaang Mongondow, DPMPTSP Provinsi Sulawesi

Utara, Universitas Sam Ratulangi, CTI, Pelabuhan PPS, DKP Kota

Bitung, DKP Provinsi Sulawesi Utara, PPP Tumompa, PT. Sinar

Pure Food, PT. BMB, DKP Kabupaten Minahasa Utara, Dinas

Perhubungan Provinsi Sulawesi Utara, DKP Kabupaten Minahasa

Tenggara, PT. Sari Tuna Makmur, DKP Kota Manado, BAPPEDA

Provinsi Sulawesi Utara, DKP Kabupaten Bolaang Mongondow

Selatan.

DMC Establishment in Sulawesi Utara. Photo credit: MDPI

Assessment in North Maluku

MDPI conducted a tuna potential assessment in North Maluku on

May 3 – 9 for USAID SEA Project. The purpose of this assessment

is to see the potential and volume of tuna-rich area, the related

supply chains, and to see the updated condition based on data that

we collected from KKP, WCS and other research results in North

Maluku prior to the assessment.

The result of assessment will become the reference for site

establishment in North Maluku for data collection year 2018 as

part of USAID SEA Project in Fisheries Management Area

(Wilayah Pengelolaan Perikanan, WPP) 715.

Fishermen in Tidore, North Maluku. Photo credit: MDPI

About USAID SEA Project: The Indonesian Sustainable

Ecosystems Advanced (SEA) Project is a five-year project (March

2016 – March 2021) that supports the Government of Indonesia

(GOI) to improve the governance of fisheries and marine

resources and to conserve biological diversity at local, district,

provincial, and national levels. By using an ecosystem-based

approach to management (EBM) and engaging key stakeholders,

the objectives of the project are: (a) to support enhanced

conservation and sustainable use of marine resources by

reforming fisheries management and promoting marine protected

areas to enhance fisheries productivity, food security, and

sustainable livelihoods within the target areas; and (b) to support

the strengthening of the leadership role and capacity of the

MMAF and local governments to promote conservation and

sustainable fishing.

Endangered, Threatened and Protected (ETP) Species

Awareness

ETP Species Awareness in Parigi Village. Photo credit: MDPI

MDPI Conducted ETP Species Awareness in Sesar Village, Bula

District, Seram Bagian Timur Regency on May 19 and in Parigi

Village, Seram Utara District, Maluku Tengah Regency. In Sesar

Village, there were 13 people attended from fishermen and DKP

while in Parigi village, there were 44 people attended from

fishermen.

MDPI presented about ETP Species, their role in the environment

and the related regulations. After the presentation, MDPI asked

fishermen to share their experience when they encountered ETP

Species during fishing trips and many fishermen were excited to

share information about the ETP species they saw in their area.

The event was closed by a movie screening about sea ecosystems

to participants and to general audience in the village.

Both Mr. Darwis from DKP and the head of village in Parigi

appreciated this activity because it will give awareness to people

about ETP species and they hope that after this socialization,

people will have the knowledge and tools available to them to

adhere to government regulation regarding ETP species and to

know where to report illegal activity if they encounter it. During

this activity, the head of village also emphasized to fishermen to

not litter while at sea, including the carcass of tuna.

Communication &

Development Diskusi Santai Tentang Ikan bersama Nelayan

Communication and Development (CD) team visited Tolitoli,

Maluku and Lombok to conduct several activities: I-Fish Data

Communication Cruiseship, Short Lecture at University/School

and Movie Night. I-Fish Data Communication Cruiseship “Diskusi

Santai tentang Ikan” is a data dissemination event in fishing

community where we discussed I-Fish data with fishermen

involved in data collection activity. This event aims to increase

fishers understanding about the use and the importance of data

and data collection, especially for them. In this interactive event,

MDPI presented I-Fish data from last year to fishers and then

fishers can ask/request about the customized data they need, such

as bait use history per month, highest bycatch per month,

yellowfin tuna length frequency, and more.

Movie Night in Tolitoli, Sulawesi Tengah. Photo credit: MDPI

To complete the event, MDPI screened ocean and environmental

movies in fishing community attended by not only fishers, but also

their wives, kids and general audience in the community. Movie

night event is one of their favorite events because it is like an

entertainment-based education where they can enjoy a big screen

movie while learning about ocean ecosystem and ETP

(Endangered, Threatened and Protected) species.

In Short Lecture event, MDPI presented Sustainable Fisheries

intro, MDPI updates, Fair Trade and I-Fish data. All students and

teachers from Universitas Madako, Universitas Iqra’ Buru,

Universitas Pattimura and SMKN 1 Keruak were very active and

they were delighted on the potential for more collaboration and

interaction in the future between our programs and their

students.

Short Lecture in Universitas Pattimura Ambon. Photo credit: MDPI

World Tuna Day

MDPI celebrated Word Tuna Day on May 2, by conducted

simultaneous events in 12 sites from Sulawesi, Maluku, Nusa

Tenggara Barat, Nusa Tenggara Timur and Papua. In total, there

were 424 elementary students and 50 teachers involved in this

event. There were also 6 fishermen joined this event by sharing

their fishing experience in front of the class to give a general idea

about fishing life. It is very important to grow the love of the

environment, and sea in particular, because Indonesia is a

maritime country.

This simple activity is one of MDPI attempts to spread as wide as

possible the awareness about the importance of marine and

fisheries, not only to mature audiences, but also to young

audiences. It is also as an event where MDPI can engage with

community and to give fishermen an opportunity to share their

story to a broader audience.

Fishermen in front of the class. Photo credit: MDPI

Fair Trade Safety First: Fair Trade Fishermen are Now Equipped with

GPS (The Global Positioning System)

Fair Trade (FT), is an eco-certification with a difference… it is not

focused solely on the sustainability of the resource but also

supports improvements socially in the community and the supply

chain. The standard considers the stakeholder relationships; the

effects of fishing activity on the environment; the method of

fishing; the recording of fish catches; product traceability; the

factory and its workers, social standards, safety in the workplace

and more.

GPS purchasing. Photo credit: MDPI

Fishers Associations (FA) involved in the FT program and in efforts

to meet the standards to achieve FT certification will receive FT

premium fund paid by consumers who buy Fair Trade products.

This premium fund will go to the account of the Fair Trade

Committee (FTC) and not into fishers’ personal pockets and will

be used for community projects, including a 30% contribution to

environmentally focused projects.

Talking about safety in the workplace, FT wants to ensure that all

FT registered fishers already have good access to safety whether

they are at sea or on land. Until now, they already passed the

safety at sea training and first aid training, but they don’t have

important safety at sea tools like medicine box, buoys, compass

GPS and rain jackets. For that reason, FA Darah Tuna Haruo Abadi

in Haruo Village, Seram Island, decided to use FT premium fund to

buy GPS because there are many fishers who have the potential to

get lost at sea. Besides safety reason, additional benefit of using

GPS is time efficiency in finding the FAD (Fish Aggregating

Device) location and landing site location. In the FTC meeting,

they calculated the premium fund and agreed to purchase GPS for

all 22 registered vessels within their fisher association. Thanks to

the excellent collaboration of the FA Darah Tuna Haruo Abadi,

now all registered vessels enjoy the benefit of GPS. Time-efficient,

energy-saving and fuel-efficient makes fishers happy!

Fair Trade Training in Manila, Philippines

On May 24 – 26, MDPI Fair Trade (FT) team Jaz and Widi

attended a FT training in Manila. It was also attended by FT team

from Sri Lanka, Cote d’Ivoire, Maldives, USA and Philippines.

The training material including Fair Trade implementer exchange

where they discuss, share and learn from each other’s key

challenge and successes. In this event, MDPI who works in

seafood, learnt from other FT works in coconut and chocolate.

FT Manager, Yasmine Simbolon, in Manila. Photo credit: MDPI

On the last day of training, the agenda was FT Producer Visit to

continue the learning and exchange. One of the FT Certified

coconut producers hosted the participants on a farm visit. In this

opportunity, they discussed about premium fund investment.

Vessel Registration in Tolitoli, Central Sulawesi

On May 19, Dinas Perhubungan (Ministry of Transportation of

Republic Indonesia) Tolitoli held a small-scale fishing vessel

measurement activity. This activity was supported by Dinas

Kelautan dan Perikanan Tolitoli, MDPI, suppliers, CV. Mina Jaya

Bahari (fish industry) and Fair Trade (FT) Fishers Associations

(FA). The objective of doing vessel measurement is to combat IUU

Fishing (illegal, unreported or unregulated in the Fisheries

Management Area of the Republic of Indonesia – WPP RI).

Vessel registration in Tolitoli. Photo credit: MDPI

There were 68 vessels measured and this activity was attended by

59 participants: 2 people from Dinas Perhubungan Tolitoli

Regency (Pak M. Yusuf and Pak Zulkarnain), 1 person from CV.

Mina Jaya Bahari (Debriga), 2 people from MDPI (Hendri and

Anto) and suppliers, fishermen and fishermen’s wives.

Hopefully this activity can be one of the inspirations to fishermen

in other areas to start supporting Indonesian government in

combatting IUU Fishing and that working together we can get

compliance increasing in our fisheries.

Supply Chain

Think Tank: The Discussion Related to Small-scale Fisheries

and moving them toward being Legal, Reported and Regulated

(LRR) fisheries.

MDPI, along with our collaborating partners Wageningen

University, the Asia Pacific based USAID Oceans and the Walton

Family Foundation plan to host a Think Tank on “Moving Towards

Legal, Regulated and Reported Status for Small Scale Fisheries"

from July 18 – 21 in Bali, Indonesia.

The goal of the Think Tank is to identify solutions for proactively

dealing with growing demands for transparency, traceability and

compliance for developing world fisheries, given the increasing

demands being placed on international seafood supply chains by

major import markets. We will then explore whether and how

developing world fisheries can reverse the burden of proof of IUU

to develop LRR fisheries.

Until now the move towards LRR fisheries has predominantly

been in large scale fisheries, with projects and investment

targeting large vessels and their associated supply chains to meet

increasing regulation and requirements. Initially large scale

fisheries are seen as 'low hanging fruit', as well as the idea of

targeting large volumes with minimal effort have been the driver

for this. However, it is becoming increasingly obvious that LRR

fisheries are not only relevant for internationally focused supply

chains but is also extremely important within domestic fisheries

and supply chains and within small scale fisheries. In short, to meet

the demands of importers capacity and knowledge is needed that

is geared towards the dynamics of small scale fisheries.

The Think Tank will bring together 20-25 experts from various

backgrounds for a 3 day meeting (18th, 19th, and 20th of July).

Participants will be led through the development of several

solutions with which to develop an advocacy and action

programme with, including communication to a wider community

of donors, implementers, entrepreneurs. Our focus is global – we

are looking for ideas and solutions for small scale fisheries around

the world.

SeaWeb Seafood Summit 2017 in Seattle

Seaweb Seafood Summit in Seattle. Photo credit: Devin Harvey, SeaWeb

The SeaWeb seafood summit is an annual coming together of the

key players working on seafood sustainability, including

representatives from seafood business, NGO and academia. This

years’ conference theme was ‘Evolving Today’s Trends into

Tomorrow’s Sustainable Markets’. The topic of transparency and

traceability was clearly a trend with 5 sessions dedicated to this

topic and many other sessions commenting on the importance of

traceability for addressing a variety of seafood challenges.

Noteworthy is that in 2015, the SeaWeb seafood summit agenda

contained 1 session on traceability, in 2016 this increased to 4

sessions and this year the 5 sessions clearly show that traceability

is a topic that many people in the seafood industry are working on.

On Wednesday June 5, MDPI’s Stephani participated in the

conference’s first full female panel titled “Finding the One? How to

Pick a Traceability Provider… or Providers“. Stephani shared

MDPI’s experiences in implementing traceability technologies at

different nodes of handline tuna supply chains in Indonesia.

Following the panel discussion a world cafe was hosted where

session participants engaged the panellists in discussion about the

challenges and opportunities of traceability and factors that

should be taken into account when implementing traceability

initiatives and choosing a traceability provider.

Stephani described how MDPI used focus group discussions to

identify what technologies and data could mean for fishers,

middlemen and processors. Fisher for example, identified safety at

sea as a key challenge. The traceability technology ultimately

piloted by MDPI helps others know where a fisher is at sea.

Stephani also identified that the major challenges with

implementing technology in remote communities include poor cell

connection, hardware repairs and logistics for training. Additional

reflections highlighted the importance of ensuring that

technology meets needs rather than fulfilling functions that are

already available.

General Operational Team Strategic Meeting

MDPI Operation Team. Photo credit: MDPI

The strategic planning meeting for all operational staff was held on

Friday, June 16, 2017.

The purpose of the implementation of this strategic planning

meeting is to provide an overview of the contribution of

operational areas to achieve the vision and mission of the

organization; discussing operational observations of the new

system that has been implemented; improve the Standard

Operating Procedure of all operational divisions; discuss other

relevant operational issues; and of course to strengthen the

working relationship of all operational staff. In addition, a SOP

operational document / handbook will also be prepared based on

input from all operational teams to be provided to all MDPI staff

both at the Bali office and in the field.

MDPI Annual Report is out!

We are very proud to share the 2016 MDPI Annual Report,

summarizing many activities and achievements from our field sites

and in our organization throughout the previous year.

In MDPI, we are focused on achieving responsible and sustainable

small-scale fisheries in Indonesia by harnessing market forces.

Currently, we have 11 sites with 63 staff and we are extremely

excited to share the stories about our programs from our

departments: Communication and Development, Fair Trade,

Fisheries Improvement and Supply Chain.

Our staff, board, donors and partners are the key to our success,

and together, we are striving to improve the sustainability of small-

scale fisheries in Indonesia. Many thanks to you for your support

of MDPI to be a better organization.

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