Indonesia wants ‘bold, tempered’ acts against illegal fishing in UN

It took exactly 45 years for the United Nations (UN) to eventually focus its attention on marine issues more than ever, by holding its maiden Ocean Conference, paving a new ground for Indonesia to bring its fight against illegal fishing to a higher level.

In the UN’s first conference on environment in Stockholm, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was deemed as ‘sparking controversy’ for linking environment to poverty during his remark on on June 5, 1972.

But as he has been proven right, and more studies show that the marine is one of the most vital nature-related industries which provide jobs for over 58 million people worldwide, the UN finally regrouped its members in the Ocean Conference at the UN Headquarter, New York.

“Today we all know that environmental protection and economic development are inseparable. Without a healthy planet, people will not prosper,” said Sweden’s deputy prime minister Isabelle Lovin, at the UN plenary meeting on Monday.

The world ocean, Isabelle said, was now 30 percent more acidic than in pre-industrial times, and big predatory fish stocks had declined by some 70 to 90 percent. “The surface waters are getting warmer and in some areas there are more micro-plastics than plankton,” she revealed.

Sweden, along with Fiji, co-hosts the conference as the president of the event, which runs through Friday and gathers four world leaders, one vice president, four prime ministers, one prince, one deputy prime minister, 42 ministers, six vice ministers, and 46 international non-government organizations.

Indonesia, whose coastal line is the world’s second longest after Canada and its oceans are the home of at least 11 natural breeding grounds for the world fishes, takes the forum seriously to address those aforementioned issues that have become its long concerns.

Led by Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Panjaitan and Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti, Indonesia delegations aim for more real actions on the illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, as well as marine plastic debris, and coral conservation.

“The tone has been getting in tune. Generally, the speakers acknowledged the impact of IUU fishing that hit the member countries. Nauru for example said that IUU fishing is the entry gate of other crimes such as drugs, smuggling, and violence against humanity,” Minister Susi told journalists.

Indonesia, she continued, would promote its “bold and tempered” measures against such a crime in order to save the ocean. “In the last two years, I have been well known for my bad action on blowing up ships. There is no other effective way […] We have seen our fish stocks increased from only 6.5 million tons to 12.5 million tons,” Susi further explained.

As one of the vice presidents in the Ocean Conference, Indonesia — in cooperation with Norway, Timor Leste, Interpol, and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime {UNODC) — would use the opportunity to hold a high-level side event on Transnational Organized Crime in the Fisheries Industry.

“The IUU fishing is done by transnational business entities. That’s why we try to promote the IUU fishing [to be categorized] into trans-national organized crime. If this is approved, it will help small countries to fight IUU fishing,” she said in her remarks during the side-event forum on ‘The Forgotten Fisheries.’

Meanwhile, Luhut Panjaitan said that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo administration fully supported Susi’s tough measures against illegal fishing, and would try to promote a real output to address the IUU fishing in the Ocean Conference.

“It causes toothache to those who are now unable to rob our fishes, due to Bu Susi’s measures,” he said during a gathering with Indonesian diaspora, held by Indonesian Consulate General (KJRI) in New York.

In the conference Indonesia would also present its nine voluntary commitments in the forum, aiming to reach an accordance among the UN members to address the IUU fishing and two other major issues, the coral conservation and marine debris, more seriously.