Optimization of production, improvement of post-harvest, and governance are three focus areas for addressing root cause in marine fisheries in Indonesia.

These focus areas are discussed in the focus group discussion on experts input to analyze findings of the root cause analysis towards sustainable fisheries in Indonesia led by the Ministry of National Development Planning/BAPPENAS.

This analysis is part of the process towards the operationalization of an inclusive multi-stakeholder platform to coordinate the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goal 14: Life Below Water.

Since they were adopted at the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2015, Indonesia has embraced the Sustainable Development Goals. The Government has shown strong commitment and taken early actions, including linking most of the SDGs targets and indicators to the national mid-term development plan (RJPMN).

The signing of the Presidential Decree no 59/2017 on SDGs implementation was a major milestone, which established the national SDG governance structure and mechanisms for planning and budgeting, monitoring and reporting. While the Ministry of National Development Planning/BAPPENAS leads Government’s efforts in bringing the new agenda to both the national and sub-national levels, the Decree also gives a clear role to non-Government actors such as civil society, the private sector, philanthropy, and academic institutions.

Goal 14: Life Below Water.

As a commodity, fisheries sustainability can effectively be achieved if government align their stakeholders behind a shared vision for the future of the fisheries sectors and engage and commit all actors in efforts to generate change.

Through Indonesia’s SDG governance structure, a multi-stakeholder platform on SDG 14 will be operationalized to bring together government, fishers, civil society groups and the private sector in a safe space to coordinate action to tackle the root causes limiting the sustainability of a fisheries sector in Indonesia.

The root cause analysis will be finalized based on the inputs from experts and presented in the plenary meeting of the multi-stakeholder platform for sustainable fisheries in the mid-2019.

Through the Global Sustainable Supply Chain for Marine Commodities project funded by GEF, UNDP supports the Government of Indonesia to operationalize a multi-stakeholder platform on sustainable fisheries, as well as to generate lesson and model for improving fisheries sustainability through Fisheries Improvement Projects in tuna and blue swimming crab fisheries.