By Achmad Mustofa
Fishermen in Wakatobi nowadays are complaining about the further distance of fishing ground, declining catch and the increasing capture duration. This unfortunate condition has led the government of Wakatobi to initiate an improvement on the fisheries managerial aspect. Facilitated by WWF-Indonesia, the proposed regulation on regional level regarding the responsible fishing management in Wakatobi District is being compiled, with hope that in the future the fisheries activities in Wakatobi could be managed in a sustainable way.

WWF-Indonesia decided to cooperate with a learning center to introduce the management using ecosystem approach (EAFM/ Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management) from Haluoleo University in the making of the academic manuscript as the basis to determine the aspects which would be included in the proposed regulation. The academic manuscript proposed by the experts was compiled from the result of EAFM indicator assessment done in the last 2012, comprises of various aspects such as fish resource, habitat and ecosystem, fishing method, social, economic and institutions in Wakatobi District.

Public Regional Regulation Consultation

The compilation of this proposed regional regulation has started since 2013 through public consultation conducted in all of Wakatobi District areas, involving the communities. This was the first consultation scheme of proposed regional regulation making which involves the communities in Wakatobi. Further consultation was conducted in order to obtain as much information as they can from the representatives of subdistricts and community organizations. One particular issue that caught the attention of the audiences is regarding fishermen that are doing fishing activities inside other fishermen’s area, this case is Wakatobi. The presence of these fishermen is a disturbance to the local fishermen due to loss of income and local own-source revenue. This happened because the these fishermen did not land their catch in Wakatobi area.

After inputs were gained from stakeholders in Wakatobi and improvements were made, the next step is to hand the document to the Marine and Fisheries Department of Wakatobi to be processed according to current regional regulation proposal scheme.