There must be a mountain of bones beneath the sea, the young man ventured, reflecting on the fate of fellow slaves thrown overboard and left to drown once they could no longer serve their purpose.
He was one of more than 500 liberated from the island of Benjina in early April. From Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and even Thailand itself, they had been kidnapped, sold or coerced into servitude as boys, before being passed on to suffer the brutalities of Thai fishing masters, some in partnership with unscrupulous Indonesian middlemen who arranged the necessary permits to fish in Indonesian waters.
The Benjina rescue was an outcome of extensive media investigations into conditions in the Thai fisheries industry, which having largely fished out its home waters had expanded operations elsewhere. Yet it also provided an added spur to Indonesian authorities to regain control over fishing operations within the nation’s territorial waters.
Illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing in Indonesian waters has cost the nation a reported US$20 billion a year. Yet IUU fishing also poses a major threat to the sustainability of diverse marine ecosystems and fish populations across the archipelago.
Such irresponsible fishing practices thus endanger the long-term livelihood and right to the environment of fishermen, local communities and indigenous people, many of whom are among the poorest of the poor in Indonesia.
President Joko Jokowi Widodo has spoken of his vision of Indonesia as a great maritime nation fully utilizing the waters of the archipelago. Moreover, according to the Constitution, the state is charged with managing resources for the people.
Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti hopes the regulation on IUU fishing will be issued prior to the President’s visit to Washington at the end of the month.
The US has been supportive in its recognition of the efforts made so far by Indonesia in combating IUU fishing and has reduced the tariff on Indonesian fisheries products to 0 percent through its Generalized System of Preference.
Indonesia cannot tackle the problem of IUU fishing on its own, however, as all too often the culprits slip away to other jurisdictions when identified. This is why it is urging neighbors to synchronize their maritime law enforcement policies and label illegal fishing a transnational crime. IUU fishing is often associated with slavery, trafficking and other human rights abuses.
The above ministry continues to add the finishing touches to its roadmap toward better fishing industry governance. But while it sets the table for more efficiently regulated commercial operations, care must also be taken to ensure that subsistence fishermen and their families can still take their share of the catch.
Economic advancement must not disregard social development, and while the objective is to strengthen a sustainable fishing industry in Indonesia, this must also include a rights-driven approach to improve the social as well as financial conditions of those working in the industry.
By its very nature, the fishing industry is not one that readily lends itself to regular hours and tasks, but its workers’ basic rights should still be respected and industry norms should be set in place.
Thus among regulations for registration and licensing of vessels, recording of catches and sales, setting of quotas, etc, a fisheries standard must also be introduced.
Independent third-party assessors would assure compliance against human rights indicators applicable for the industry. With each entity being responsible for interacting with similarly certified parties, this would forge a strong fisheries supply chain that could proudly label its catch as certified against the Business and Human Rights International Standard for Certification for fisheries in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
This guarantee of an ethically caught product from a sustainable fishery would provide certainty for trading partners; it would also promote demand and command premium prices.
Thus, in regaining control of its fisheries industry, Indonesia would open the door to a fresh opportunity for wealth creation on a national scale. The finite resource of oil has come, and largely gone, while other extractives such as coal are on a downswing. We are finally beginning to make progress in the sustainable forestry and plantation sectors, but these too are subject to belt tightening due to a sagging global economy.
However, as a major source of animal protein just 150 grams provides up to 60 percent of an adult’s daily requirements fish is far less susceptible to downturns in global demand. While sustainability is of paramount importance, added value can also be gained from processing catches for export in Indonesia itself rather than seeing them spirited away to markets and canning plants overseas.
This will likely require investment few Indonesian fishing vessels are equipped with blast freezers, for example but this may well be forthcoming with greater market certainty.
Nevertheless, to realize this dream will require both time and concerted effort. For a start, capacity building will be required throughout the industry, explaining the requirements and promoting the benefits.
Moreover, besides earning the necessary trust and cooperation at each link of the fishery supply chain, there will also be the need to enlist the support of harbor officials, police and the maritime forces of Indonesia and neighboring countries in the fight against IUU fishing.
Lessons must surely be learned from the turmoil in Thailand’s fishing industry where lax regulations and enforcement of laws has resulted in several high-profile cases of human rights abuses.
October marks the end of the six-month period the EU gave Thailand to eradicate its illegal fishing and labor abuses or face a ban on its fisheries exports, which would seriously damage the industry’s standing as the world’s third largest exporter.
Indonesia, meanwhile, has the opportunity to provide a positive example to its neighbors. By doing things right, the government can avoid accumulating a mountain of bones beneath the sea and instead spawn a new sustainable means of harvesting the ocean’s riches in introducing a rights-driven approach to both the governance and operation of its fisheries industry.
2015 PT. Niskala Media Tenggara