The Nusantara Responsible Fisheries Working Network, or JARING-Nusantara, has the main objective of supporting various efforts to improve and strengthen fisheries practices towards sustainable fisheries. Therefore, JARING-Nusantara is expected to facilitate the acceleration of the provision of ecolabeled Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and or Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certified fishery products in Indonesia through WWF-Indonesia. In other words, creating responsible, sustainable, and equitable fishery products for the welfare of Indonesian fishermen.

To support the capacity building of its members in order to achieve the targeted goals, JARING-Nusantara held a Sustainable Fisheries Training on May 28-30, 2015 in Denpasar, Bali. The training was attended by 10 organizations working in Indonesia's coastal areas. The ten organizations were LPPSP Semarang, Kreasi Insani Indonesia Kendari, Ternate Coastal and Marine Institute, Konservasi Indonesia Sidoarjo, Dejee Fish Sukabumi, Lembaga Maritim Nusantara Makassar, LANRA Makassar, LINI, Econatural Selayar, and KARSA Palu.

These organizations were given materials and understanding related to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) ecolabel certification. In addition, materials on fisheries management guidelines through Better Management Practice (BMP), improvement of capture fisheries (Fisheries Improvement ProjectFIP) and aquaculture (Aquaculture Improvement Project/AIP), and simulation of sustainable and non-sustainable fisheries were also provided. During the implementation of this training, some participants said that their assisted groups had carried out some improvement activities.

However, there are still some obstacles encountered in the field, both in capture fisheries and aquaculture. In capture fisheries, the problem of recording catches is one of the most crucial problems to be resolved immediately. In contrast, in aquaculture, checking the carrying capacity of the environment (carrying capacity), recording cultivation activities, feed problems, and environmental degradation, both pond land due to the use of chemicals and degradation of mangrove areas are homework that must be resolved as soon as possible.

Finding the right market is also a challenge for JARING-Nusantara's assisted institutions. In this activity, Econatural Selayar from South Sulawesi shared a success story in terms of marketing. One of the fishermen groups they assisted was able to sell their fishery commodities directly to the company without intermediaries. This is also a note for other institutions to advance and increase the selling price of their fishery commodities.

This training activity was then followed by the Annual Meeting of JARING-Nusantara Members which took place over three days, May 31-June 2, 2015. Representatives from the 15 NGOs present shared information about fisheries improvement activities that had been carried out over the past year. The event also saw the election of the moderator of JARING-Nusantara, previously held by WWF-Indonesia. Through joint deliberation, the Coalition for Aceh Marine Advocacy (JARING KuALA) was elected as the moderator of JARING-Nusantara to replace WWF-Indonesia. JARING KuALA was one of the members of JARING-Nusantara when it was initiated by WWF-Indonesia along with 12 other member NGOs. (Read also Introducing JARING-Nusantara, An Initiative for Sustainable Fisheries Practices).

Together with the new JARING-Nusantara moderator, all participants committed to continue to coordinate and take concrete actions to improve the lives of coastal communities. Of course, through responsible and sustainable fisheries improvements. One thing that is no less important, the members of JARING-Nusantara also hope to find a market that can absorb every fishery commodity they have produced.

Writer: JARING-Nusantara Team