The identification of researchable options for the development of policy and management frameworks to combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing activities in Indonesian and Philippine waters

• Department of Ocean Affairs and Fisheries, Indonesia
• Department of Foreign Affairs, Philippines

The level of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activity has escalated worldwide during the past decade. It is of particular concern to both Indonesia and the Philippines, in the following ways: destructive fishing practices such as the use of dynamite and cyanide to harvest fish from reef and inshore fisheries; high impact methods that lead to overfishing of national waters by foreign vessels; fishing activities by Indonesian and Philippine flagged vessels in distant waters.
This project involved workshops, hosted by Australia and involving Indonesia and the Philippines, to highlight the issues of IUU fishing. In particular the two countries needed to address the impasse over management of fisheries in the Sulawesi Sea.
Australia had hosted previous international workshops on these issues, and built on that foundation to provide the impetus, environment and assistance for bilateral negotiations to resolve the problems.

The project aimed to identify researchable options which would assist in the development of policy and management frameworks to combat IUU fishing activities in Indonesian and Philippine waters.

The workshops in Indonesia and the Philippines brought together commercial fisheries operators, enforcement agencies including representatives from the Navy from the two countries, agencies tasked with fisheries management and local scientists. Both workshops revealed a high level of consensus in the issues surrounding fisheries management.
The consensus opened up the possibility of a workable joint framework, and led to an invitation for representatives from Indonesia's Department of Ocean Affairs and Fisheries, the Philippines' Department of Foreign Affairs and other participants to attend a further workshop in Singapore. This workshop represented the first government-to-government dialogue in a decade between the two countries on the issue of fisheries management.

The project was very successful. A strong commitment by both Indonesia and Philippines to collaborate on joint research projects to address IUU fishing in their waters enabled the two countries to agree on the following five core researchable topics:
1) a description (profile) of Indonesian and Philippine fisheries activities in the Sulawesi Sea;
2) a review of legislative and regulatory controls on fisheries activities in the Sulawesi Sea;
3) a coordinated approaches to monitoring, control and surveillance, with the Sulawesi Sea as a trial;
4) cooperation on joint assessment of fishing technologies, method and processing;
5) development of respective national 'plans of action to combat IUU fishing' and prototype regional plans of action.
A general cooperation agreement was signed between Indonesia and the Philippines, aimed at furthering joint management of IUU fishing. With the beginning of a common framework in place, managing the Sulawesi fisheries in a sustainable manner is now possible. The agreement represents a world first in the joint development of sustainable fisheries management between two countries.
The project also resulted in agreement on future research needs, including a profile of fishing activities to facilitate information exchange, and a review of regulatory controls at all levels. This includes a coordinated approach to monitoring and surveillance that involves joint exploration of technology options such as satellite systems.