Marine and Fisheries Sector Strategy Study

Client:  Asian Development Bank (ADB)

Team Leader:  Nick Willoughby

Time:  2005-2006

In late October 2005 the Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded a consortium led by Uniconsult International Limited (UCIL) of Bangladesh, to undertake a Marine and Fisheries Sector Strategy Study (MFSSS), on behalf of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF), Jakarta, Indonesia. The study was to provide guidance to the government for the next 5-10 years of the Ministry’s development. It utilised 26 consultants and was completed in September 2006.

Dr Nick Willoughby of theNRGroup led the team of consultants.

The Consultants and their Roles

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Nine international and seventeen national consultants were employed. They were directed to consider:

Concept
The preparation of the Sector Strategy Study was a very inclusive process. MMAF agreed that representatives of all key ministries, sectoral groups and relevant NGOs should be invited to important meetings. Furthermore project staff visited important provincial centres to explain the strategy development process and seek representative participation and views. Finally, an international workshop on future research requirements and opportunities was hosted by the project. All these initiatives were made to help provide ownership of the plans by affected groups, in the hope that the study would not merely be an exercise to be undertaken and forgotten.

Synopsis of Major Strategic Recommendations
These were split into areas covering the whole of MMAF, those specific to particular directorates-general, and those in relation to collaboration with other ministries.

A. Intra-MMAF Issues
MMAF should
• move away from expecting ever-increasing fish and marine produce production, to considering long term sustainability and environmental integrity.
• pay urgent attention to key cross cutting issues relating to (i) decentralization and (ii) extension worker provision, and
• consider urgently the need for substantial attention to timely and accurate data provision.

B. Directorate-General Issues
Twenty-nine specific recommendations were made to improve operations within the seven directorates-general. These D-Gs are Secretariat, Capture Fisheries, Culture Fisheries, Marine, Coasts and Small Islands, Fisheries Product Processing and Marketing, Monitoring, Control and Surveillance and Research.

C. Extra-MMAF Issues
MMAF should:
play a greater role in the management of Marine Protected Areas, in the ornamental fish trade and in sea salt production as an alternative income ‘crop’;
• play a lesser role in wreck management and in coastal/under-sea sand extraction; and
• continue to play an important part in setting aquatic EIA targets, in marine tourism (especially for small island communities) and in MCS activities.
In addition to the 28 sub-sector reports, the consultancy team prepared more than 50 concept notes for possible submission to donor agencies for funding. Sustainability through environmental protection was a key consideration at all times in these proposals.

Indonesia comprises 13,677 islands straddling the equator, 6,000 of which are inhabited.
Indonesia comprises 13,677 islands straddling the equator, 6,000 of which are inhabited.