By: Dita Larasati (Capture Fisheries Assistant)

The National Symposium on Sustainable Reef Fisheries Management Indonesia was held last November 2015 in Bali. The symposium was attended by 75 selected presenters from various government agencies, academics, and non-governmental organizations to present their research results on coral fisheries in Indonesia, three aspects that became the focus of this symposium are biology-population-ecology, environmentally friendly utilization and socio-economics, and management policies.

The research results that have been presented are compiled in a Proceedings, symposium activities and the preparation of these proceedings are carried out in collaboration with the Directorate General of Capture Fisheries, Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (through the COREMAP-CTI project) and WWF-Indonesia, which in its implementation is also supported by the Oceanographic Research Center - Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and the Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences - Bogor Agricultural University (FPIK IPB). The publication of these proceedings was carried out by the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries in 2016.

The process of preparing these proceedings goes through several stages, namely the selection of reviewers of the papers that have been presented and editing by the editorial team from COREMAP-CTI and WWF-Indonesia. The reviewers are Prof.Dr.Ali Suman (Balitbang KP KKP), Drs. Bambang Sumiono, M.Si (Balitbang KP KKP), Dr. Umi Muawanah, M.Sc (Balitbang KP KKP), Prof. Dr. Sam Wouthuyzen (LIPI), Dr. Ir. Luky Adrianto, M.Sc (FPIK IPB), Dr. Ir.M. Mukhlis Kamal, M.Sc (FPIK IPB), Dr. Azbas Taurusman (FPIK IPB), Dr. I Wayan Gede Astawa Karang, S.Pi, M.Si (FPIK Udayana), and Ni Made Ernawati, S.Kel, M.Si (FPIK Udayana).
(Download Proceedings of the Indonesian Sustainable Reef Fisheries Symposium)

Based on the reviewer agreement, papers that do not meet the criteria must be corrected so that they can be included in the proceedings through two mechanisms, namely editing improvements made by editors and improvements by paper authors if there are substance errors. While papers that have major errors or are not in accordance with the topic of the symposium discussion, are rejected to be listed in the proceedings. Based on the review results of the 75 papers presented, 58 papers were accepted, 15 papers were rejected and 2 papers withdrew. Until the deadline for paper corrections, of the 58 accepted papers, only 37 papers were sent back the corrected results and were entitled to be included in the publication of the proceedings.

The proceedings of the Indonesian Sustainable Coral Fisheries Management Symposium formulated several things that need to be applied in supporting sustainable coral fisheries management in Indonesia, including; (1) regarding coral fisheries stocks, it is necessary to verify the taxonomy of reef fish distribution both morphologically and genetically to improve the quality of reef fish identification in Indonesia, as well as improving the quality of research, especially those related to larval connectivity, ecological connectivity, and assessment of marine protected areas; (2) from the practice of environmentally friendly and socio-economic utilization, namely an inventory of environmentally friendly reef fisheries fishing gear from various indicators including productivity, selectivity, applicability, cost including fishing aids, and the need for policies to regulate the number and operation of fishing gear and fishing aids; (3) in terms of policy can use the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM) indicator as a reference in capturing the status and problems of reef fisheries and determining the direction of management improvement at the local to national scale, the application of EAFM indicators must be carried out comprehensively to ensure sustainable reef fisheries management.

It is hoped that the proceedings of the research results from experts, researchers, academics can provide the best recommendations for improvement, management and governance policies through the reef fish Fisheries Management Plan (FMP). WWF also hopes that this symposium on reef fisheries can be conducted regularly at least every 2 years so that the aspects that affect the improvement efforts are continuously updated.