Awareness raising and capacity building with the Octopus Fisherman’s Union (Indonesia) / Persatuan Nelayan Gurita

 

 

The organization and local perspectives on conservation and stewardship

 

The Octopus Fisherman’s Union works with octopus fishermen from two different fishing villages on Lombok Island. They share the fishing ground and most fish using traditional tools. For octopus, they fish seasonally from August to April, although some fish throughout the year. They sell the octopus to local buyers who also assist the fisherman financially. For the last couple of years, locals have concerns about fishermen from other villages that catch fish using destructive fishing methods such as cyanide and bombs. These methods have negatively impacted marine ecosystem conditions and fish catches. Our role (Lembaga Juang Laut Lestari (JARI) Foundation) is to support conservation efforts by improving local understanding about the importance of healthy marine ecosystem and how we can achieve it.

 

Environmental conservation is very important both for the local coastal community and for our organization because fishermen depend on the marine environment for food and income. As an organization that is focused on marine programs, we aim to improve the condition of Indonesia’s threatened marine ecosystems through education, conservation, research, responsible ecotourism and most importantly working together with local communities.

 

Stewardship experience: Marine conservation and education in coastal communities

 

The issue or problem being addressed

The issues being addressed include destructive fishing, damage from tourism activity, and waste from land activity. The reason why the destructive fishing is still on going is due to a lack of awareness among the local coastal communities. Additionally, the coastal community experiences poverty because of unstable income. We want to improve those conditions so the coastal community can utilize marine resource in a sustainable reliable way.

 

The activities

Prior to the program, we conducted surveys on both social and ecological conditions to get information about the current status of the community and the environment. Based on the assessment results, we discussed with all stakeholders in the village how we can improve these conditions. This information was communicated to both local and provincial governments to get support. The program activities include waste management, capacity building such as habitat monitoring training, and ecosystem rehabilitation such as coral transplantation and mangrove replanting.

 

The benefits/impacts including sustainability/environmental effects

Since they understand that the coral reef is habitat for the octopus and other fishes the communities initiated a project to rehabilitate the damaged reef, and locals have gained knowledge and capacity to conserve and sustainably use the resource.

Since this is on going, some activities are not completed. However, it has shown that community started to take action under a unified goal.

 

The success and significance of the activities

Coastal communities generally and fishers especially were gaining their understanding about what the issues or roots of the problems and how to solve those problems. They are willing to improve the marine ecosystem and work together with other fishermen from different villages.

 

Some lessons learned or words of wisdom

You have to have a BIG heart to work with community.

 

 

For more information on marine conservation efforts in Indonesia by the Lembaga Juang Laut Lestari (JARI) Foundation, visit: www.jari-indonesia.org

 

 

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Fishery Facts

(Below are the applicable categories of fisheries, environment, species, gear type and livelihood role.)

 

Fishery characteristics:

• Marine capture fishery (e.g. nearshore/coastal/reef-based/deep sea)
• Single-species

The environment where fishing takes place: 

• Coastal – Nearshore / Coral

Main species targeted:

• Molluscs (including bivalves and cephalopods – e.g. octopus/clams)

Gear types/ methods used:

• Beach seine
• Pot/trap
• Dive

Role of the fishery in local livelihoods:

• Main source of employment
• Seasonal