Indonesia Tuna Consortium

Project Overview

The objective of this project is to create a more resilient, efficient, and equitable fishing ecosystem in Indonesia.

The Tuna Consortium brings together key stakeholders from across the non-profit, private, and public sectors to establish a harvest strategy that will strengthen tuna fisheries and be adopted by the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) (Indonesian: Kementerian Kelautan dan Perikanan, KKP) in Indonesia’s archipelagic waters.

To secure healthy, sustainable tuna fisheries and fisher communities, consortium members will strengthen national and provincial systems and policies for managing fisheries by improving science, governance systems, and the capacity to manage fisheries by encouraging new regulations to advance economic, social, and environmental management.

Resonance will leverage its cross-sector partnership approach to improve collaboration between the consortium members to strengthen tuna fishery management as the Tuna Consortium Secretariat.

Challenge

Today, tuna fishery management in Indonesia is at a crossroads. Indonesia is the world’s largest producer of tuna, accounting for more than 16% of the global tuna supply.

Since 2014, the Government of Indonesia (GOI) has taken bold actions to address illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing from foreign fleets and to prioritize investments in fisheries and supply chain infrastructure.

While there has been progress in improving the management of small-scale tuna fisheries in Indonesia, the fishery essentially remains open access with neither a harvest strategy nor harvest control rules. Additionally, there is limited management and monitoring of the industrial tuna fishery which accounts for the largest catch volume.

Furthermore, fisher livelihoods continue to decline, impacted by COVID-19. The number of active fishers and traders in some regions has declined by as much as 60% since the pandemic started. As fisher communities focus on survival, IUU and destructive fishing are rising.

Solution

The Walton Family Foundation recognized this challenging context and supported the development of the Tuna Consortium in 2019 to address the need for a strong, supportive environment. The consortium approach is critical for aligning key stakeholders across sectors and for breaking down silos to co-create a coordinated approach to sustainable tuna fisheries management in Indonesia’s waters.

The Tuna Consortium is transforming fishery practices by monitoring fish stocks, tracking fishing vessels, developing species identification technology, promoting rights-based management in small near-shore fisheries, and more.