Developing social and economic monitoring and evaluation systems in Indonesian tuna fisheries to assess potential impacts of alternative management measures on vulnerable communities

This project aimed to assist the Indonesian government (MMAF) and stakeholders in building the basis for system-wide monitoring and evaluation of alternative management measures in terms of their impacts on vulnerable, tuna-dependent communities.

Tuna fisheries in Indonesia are extensive and multi-sectoral, ranging from small-scale to industrial vessels, with high levels of dependency on these fisheries for livelihoods and food among low income groups. Considerable social, economic and biological risks are associated with implementing management measures that are not tested in a modelling setting first. In particular, linkages and interdependencies between multiple sectors make trade-offs complex in Indonesian tuna fisheries, and raise the prospect of unintended consequences, including the possibility of substantial impacts on poor and food insecure groups.

To enable assessment of the social and economic performance of alternative management measures in terms of their impacts on vulnerable communities, this project a) synthesised existing knowledge and identified appropriate methods, for characterising interdependencies and determining fisheries dependency in Indonesian tuna fisheries, b) reviewed national and provincial scale data sources to assess their value for system-wide social and economic monitoring and evaluation in the future and c) produced a draft conceptual framework to identify potential impacts of alternative management measures on vulnerable, tuna fishing dependent communities.