Millions of Indonesia’s traditional fishermen have left their jobs to become motorcycle taxi drivers, street vendors or trash pickers because they are no longer able to sustain themselves by catching fish.
A recent survey by the People’s Coalition for Sea Justice (Kira) found that 116 fishermen across the archipelago change jobs every day, and in the last seven years 1.3 millions fishermen have migrated to other occupations.
The survey of thousands of fishermen across the nation earlier this last month found that their numbers dropped from four million in 2004 to 2.7 million last year, Kira chairman Reza Damanik told a national conference of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) in Balikpapan on Thursday.
Fishermen have been forced to leave their traditional occupations because marine degradation has reduced fishery stocks, while private ownership of islands has also shrunk the area in which fishing is permitted.
The government’s lack of interest in providing fishermen loans to buy equipment and boats has driven them to abandon the sea and look elsewhere for ways to make a living, Reza said.
To make matters worse, extreme and unpredictable climate change has endangered their lives, he said.
Unusually rough seas last year claimed the lives of 147 fishermen, up from 84 in 2010, according to Kira’s data.
Reza said that all the problems encountered by fishermen arose because there were no policies supporting them.
Fishermen’s livelihoods will become worse in the coming years as millions of them will end up living in poverty due to falling incomes, he said.
The falling number of fishermen has also driven down the national fish supply, forcing the government to import fish from neighboring countries.
Indonesia had to import some 300,000 tons of fish in 2011 and is projected to import some 400,000 tons this year.
Traditional fishermen contribute 92 percent of the 10 million tons of the national fish output, with commercial fisheries only contributing the remaining 8 percent, Reza said.
Budi Laksana, secretary general of the Indonesia Fishermen’s Association, told the same conference that there were currently no laws protecting the country’s traditional fishermen.
That’s why our fishermen continue to suffer and seek other jobs to make a living. The government must do something to protect them, he said.
The government’s 15-year Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesia’s Economic Development (MP3EI) identifies key fishing zones in the country’s east, in the waters off Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua.
2011 JakartaGlobe