OPTIMIZING SUPERVISION AT THE MINISTRY OF MARINE AND FISHERIES IN SOUTH SORONG
Laurens Segetmena wore a rumpled suit, with a small bag hanging from the back. That day, Laurens, accompanied by several fishermen, walked excitedly to the South Sorong Fisheries Office. Perhaps because he knew the group he led would receive assistance from the government.
Laurens Segetmena is the head of Mangewang Community Supervisory Group (Pokmaswas) located in Wamargege Village, Konda District. The group he leads is one of the five Pokmaswas in the coastal area of South Sorong Regency that has received legality and supervisory facilities and infrastructure (Sarpras) assistance by the West Papua Province Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Service. This infrastructure assistance is intended to support the effectiveness of the monitoring process carried out directly by Pokmaswas in the Teo Enebikia Marine Protected Area (MPA) of South Sorong.
In addition to Pokmaswas Mangewang, four other Pokmaswas in South Sorong also received the same assistance, namely; Pokmaswas Siganoi in Inanwatan District, Pokmaswas Metemani in Metemani District, Pokmaswas Udang in Kais District, Pokmaswas Mesar Jaya in Konda District and Pokmaswas Klasaimus in Saifi District. The monitoring infrastructure assistance was handed over by the Head of the West Papua Province Marine and Fisheries Service (DKP) to each Pokmaswas chairman ceremonially on Tuesday, October 1, 2019 at the South Sorong Regency Fisheries Service Meeting Hall. With the assistance of Sarpras by the government both from national and regional levels, it is hoped that it will be able to support the program to eradicate destructive fishing, as well as IUU fishing (Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated) activities in the WPP 715 area in West Papua Province which is carried out in a participatory manner.
Facilities and Infrastructure Support by National Government
The Kenaburi Community Watch Group from Kokoda District has already received assistance from the National Government through the Sorong Coastal and Marine Resource Management Workshop (PSPL), Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of the Republic of Indonesia. The assistance is a support program for community empowerment in the process of monitoring KKP in West Papua Province. The selection of the assistance was due to the many reports from the Pokmaswas of South Sorong that illegal fishing activities were often encountered as well as the issue of exploitation that threatened the availability of fishery resource stocks by fishermen from outside the South Sorong MPA.
The report was sent through the "sms gateway" scheme on March 11, 2019 to the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and has received a response from the Control Center (Pusdal). In addition, the results of a rapid behavior change survey showed that 70 percent of Kokoda District communities have a level of awareness about the importance of monitoring in MPAs. However, to carry out the monitoring process, Pokmaswas is constrained by the availability of monitoring infrastructure, so positive support from the government is needed to overcome this problem. The Sarpras assistance provided to Pokmaswas Kenaburi Kokoda District to overcome these problems is one unit of boat / longboat fleet, one unit of 15 PK outboard engine, 10 units of life jackets, 5 units of flashlights, 2 units of binoculars, 1 unit of underwater camera, and 1 pair of handytalky. The various Sarpras supports were ceremonially handed over on July 14, 2019.
Facilities and Infrastructure Support by the Provincial Government
The assistance by the national government stimulated the West Papua Provincial DKP through the Marine Resources and Fisheries Monitoring Section (PSDKP) to participate in providing infrastructure support to Pokmaswas in South Sorong. In addition to improving and streamlining community-based surveillance activities, it is also hoped that this support can pump the enthusiasm of group members to be more active in conducting surveillance in the South Sorong MPA area.
According to the head of West Papua Provincial DKP, Jacobis Ayomi, M.Si "West Papua Provincial DKP hopes to increase the intensity of supervision at the community level in South Sorong. Through the implementation of the assistance, it is hoped that the role of Pokmaswas can become the spearhead of the government in an effort to combat destructive fishing and fisheries crime in the South Sorong MPA area".
Through intensive coordination with the national, provincial and district governments, WWF-Indonesia as the implementor of the USAID Sustainable Ecosystems Advanced (USAID SEA) Project, can facilitate the fulfillment of these infrastructure activities, as part of the process of accelerating the creation of a Community-based Monitoring System (Sismaswas) and contributing to the efforts to combat destructive fishing in West Papua.
Next, WWF-Indonesia will schedule field assistance to Pokmaswas to develop technical scenarios and coordination and reporting systems if there are/are fisheries violation activities in the South Sorong MPA area. Through this assistance, there will also be a brief training on how to use surveillance infrastructure when running patrols. National and local governments have also committed to contribute more intensely, especially in developing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for monitoring fisheries resources in the South Sorong MPA area to support the effectiveness of its management.
