Marine Policy 134 (2021) 104770

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Marine Policy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpol

Monitoring small-scale fisheries catches in Indonesia through a fishing

logbook system: Challenges and strategies
Irna Sari a, d, *, Muhammad Ichsan a, Alan White a, Syahril Abdul Raup b, Sugeng Hari Wisudo c
a
USAID SEA Project Jakarta, Indonesia
b
Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Republic of Indonesia
c
Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia
d
University of Technology Sydney, Australia

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: In Indonesia, small-scale fisheries involve about 90% of the total number of fishers and generate significant
Small-scale fisheries employment for coastal communities. As defined by Indonesian law, these fisheries are exempted from catch
Indonesia reporting which creates a large gap in catch data for estimating stock status and fishing pressure. Indonesian
Fishing logbook
small-scale fishers are scattered across thousands of islands so that monitoring catches is difficult without a
Fisheries management
Catch monitoring system
systematic approach to ensure long-term benefits. This paper describes the results of work by the Indonesian
Co-management Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, in partnership with the USAID Sustainable Ecosystems Advanced (SEA)
Partnership Project, to initiate the development of a fishing logbook system for small-scale fisheries. This initiative addressed
challenging issues pertaining to Indonesian institutional arrangements, capabilities of small-scale fisheries and
reliability of fishing logbook data. A holistic intervention using the sustainable livelihood approach was used to
unpack the complexities and develop strategies of enabling factors to establish a catch monitoring system for
Indonesian small-scale fisheries. This initiative shows that a tradeoff between an ideal fishing logbook system
versus an applicable model that may compromise logbook data qualities is inevitable. Also, co-management is
seen as a suitable for the purposes of establishing a catch reporting system for Indonesian small-scale fisheries.
The initial work described herein is seen as an essential steppingstone for improving management of small-scale
fisheries in Indonesia.

1. Introduction management, declines in fisheries resources, and competition with

Small-scale fisheries (SSF) are defined as traditional/small-scale
fisheries involving fishing households using relatively small amounts
of capital and energy, relatively small fishing vessels (if any), making
short fishing trips, close to shore, mainly for local consumption [1].
Despite the diverse and complex characteristics of SSF around the world,
this term has been used to separate SSF from medium- and large-scale
fisheries [2,3]. SSF encompass significant cultural, social, economic,
and food security issues [4–6]. They contribute around half of the global
fish supplies and employ around 90% of the world’s capture fishers from
developing nations, engaged in capture fisheries supply chains including
harvesting, processing, and marketing [7]. There is a common percep­
tion that this vast percentage of fishers are failing to fulfil their potential
economic and social development, and have been characterized the
‘poorest of the poor’ among fisher folks [8,9]. Failure of fisheries
large-commercial-scale fisheries are primary reasons for the poor status
of SSF in many developing countries [1,9].
Indonesia is the second-largest fishing nation [10] and based on
socioeconomic and technical attributes, around 90% of fish harvesters
are considered small-scale [11]. Following the omnibus law Cipta Kerja
issued in 2020, the government of Indonesia has revised the definition of
SSF as fishers whose livelihood is to catch fish to meet daily needs with
or without fishing boats [12]. This definition excludes the fishing boat
size limitation as stated in the Law No 7 2016, those with fishing boats
under 10 gross ton (GT), and in the earlier Law No. 45/2009 that was
those with under 5 GT boats. The boat size limitation will be defined
later in the derivative regulations that are being developed. For the
purpose of this paper and our field work conducted from 2016 to 2020,
we refer to the previous definition in designing the SSF fishing logbook
system. The earlier definition was “fishers whose livelihood is to catch

* Corresponding author at: USAID SEA Project Jakarta, Indonesia.

E-mail address: Irna.Sari@uts.edu.au (I. Sari).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2021.104770
Received 8 October 2020; Received in revised form 30 August 2021; Accepted 2 September 2021
Available online 20 September 2021
0308-597X/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
I. Sari et al.
fish to meet basic hand to mouth income needs inherited through several
generations with a fishing boat under 10 gross ton (GT) stated in the Law
No 7 2016 [13]”.
According to the Ministerial Decree No 48/2014 about fishing
logbook, reporting fishing logbook is only mandated for fishers with
vessels above 5 GT [14]. Given the vast number of the SSF, the exclusion
causes a very large gap in fishing data required for fisheries manage­
ment. This data loss results in high uncertainty over the fishery exploi­
tation rate and fish stock status [15,16]. Therefore, monitoring catches
and fishing activities of small-scale fisheries is an imperative interven­
tion for effective fisheries management. To date, MMAF uses fisheries
statistics, on-board observers, and fishing logbooks to monitor Indone­
sian fish stocks, to define catch allocations or fishing effort controls [13,
17–19]. However, the lack of catch data from the small-scale sector
compromises the robustness of fish stock assessments and any man­
agement decisions derived from the assessment results include signifi­
cant uncertainty and risk of adverse outcomes. The Government of
Indonesia (GoI), with the support from the USAID Sustainable Ecosys­
tems Advanced (USAID SEA) Project working in Fisheries Management
Area (FMA) 715, began a process to improve the management of
small-scale fisheries by developing a catch monitoring system through
fishing logbooks [20]. The initiative, however, faced challenges
including fishers’ capabilities and institutional capacity to manage a
fishing logbook system. To unpack and clarify these complexities, this
work uses the sustainable livelihood approach to guide strategies for
establishing a SSF catch monitoring system.
The sustainable livelihood approach is a people-centered and holistic
approach that focuses on the capabilities and potential of communities
and factors in social relations, government processes and institutions
that contribute to livelihoods and development outcomes [8,21–23].
The approach has often been used as an analytical tool and framework to
develop programs to reduce poverty and to enhance community devel­
opment or natural resource management [8,21,24–30]. The application
of the framework has been modified according to contexts of studies or
projects. However, the application of SLA has common elements that
include measuring capacity by using livelihood assets that also include
Fig. 1. A framework in establishing Indonesian catch monitoring system for small scale fisheries.
Adapted from the Sustainable Livelihood Approach [8,23].
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Marine Policy 134 (2021) 104770
human, social, natural, physical, and financial capital, transforming
process and strategies that affect sustainable livelihood outcomes [31].
In this paper, the SLA is used to identify fishers’ capabilities
measured by the livelihood capital endowment needed for catch
reporting, the transforming interventions, and strategies to establish a
catch monitoring system. It provides a structure that addresses the
complexities associated with fishers’ capabilities, institutions, and pol­
icy dimensions to establish the monitoring system. Fig. 1 illustrates the
relations between these aspects where the fishers’ assets and trans­
forming factors are the key elements of the framework. The state of
assets endowment reflects fishers’ capacity to perform the functions
needed to record and report their catches. Transforming factors are the
context in which fishers are governed either under formal and non-
formal institutions and policies. The formal institution and policies
can be developed to catalyze, enable, or enhance fishers’ capabilities to
undertake the necessary functions related to catch reporting. Thus, the
transforming factors create the enabling conditions that can address
challenges. Functional processes include activities and strategies to
be undertaken to achieve the outcome of a functional small-scale
fisheries catch monitoring system. Based on these concepts, this paper
presents the intervention of building the transforming factors deter­
mined by the fishers’ assets endowment with focus on addressing the
challenges in establishing a viable SSF catch monitoring system.
2. Methodology
This paper synthesizes results of workshops, focus group discussions,
interviews, and logbook trials carried-out from December 2017 to May
2020 in the project sites of North Maluku, Maluku and West Papua
Provinces, Indonesia (Fig. 2). The selection of these provinces followed
the work areas of the USAID SEA Project that were chosen due to the
richness in marine biodiversity and productive fisheries in these prov­
inces of eastern Indonesia. The workshops and FGDs engaged 279 at­
tendees of 10 workshops and FGDs held throughout December 2017 to
December 2019. The participants included officials from the national
and provincial level government agencies including several directorates
I. Sari et al.
Fig. 2. USAID SEA Project Area in 715 Indonesian Fisheries Management Area.
across the MMAF, namely the Directorate of Fishing Port, Fisheries
Resources Management, Planning Bureau, Fisheries Research Center,
Marine Research Institute, Directorate of Licensing PPI and Fishers,
Data, Statistic and Information Center (PUSDATIN), Directorate Fishing
Vessels and Gears, Legal Bureau, Secretary-General, Directorate Sur­
veillance of Marine and Fisheries Resources; universities, Marine and
Fisheries Offices of Maluku, North Maluku and West Papua Provinces,
and NGOs. These participants were invited because of their roles in
managing Indonesian small-scale fisheries and the project implementa­
tion units.
An active participatory approach [32] was deployed in the initiative
to establish fishing logbooks for Indonesian small-scale fisheries with all
relevant stakeholders, government agencies, NGOs, and industry
involved from inception through the piloting and implementation
stages. This approach helped to build capacity and awareness about the
urgency for Indonesia to establish a fishing logbook system for
small-scale fishers and to ensure buy-in and stewardship from the
management authorities.
Establishing a fishing logbook system for small-scale fishers entailed
two primary streams of work done in parallel: (i) identifying the fishing
logbook format and the required minimum data points that suit the
capabilities of small-scale fishers, and (ii) identifying a model for the
management mechanism to make the system operational. To identify an
appropriate fishing logbook format, the project initially tested fishing
logbooks on some small-scale fishers using the available format; a paper-
based logbook being used by the larger scale fisheries. This trial involved
120 fishers of tuna, reef fish, mud-crab, and prawn fisheries from the
three project provinces. The fisheries piloted were selected because they
were the target fisheries for management under the USAID SEA Project.
The pilot was designed to understand possible challenges for the small-
scale fishers in completing and submitting fishing logbook data and to
identify appropriate data points. After three months, the piloting was
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Marine Policy 134 (2021) 104770
evaluated and included qualitative assessments of fishers’ capabilities
and lessons that were used as the basis to design the fishing logbook
form for small-scale fisheries. The management model needed to include
enforcement and implementation strategies on awareness and technical
support for fisher data submission, verification and validation, and a
database designed through several workshops, focus group discussions
and interviews.
3. Results
3.1. Fishers’ assets endowment
Fishers’ capabilities in relation to the livelihood capitals were all
found to be critical factors in developing a fishing logbook that impli­
cated some challenges in the implementation and enforcement
(Table 1).
3.2. Transforming factors
3.2.1. National level institutional framework
The exemption of the small-scale fishers from the catch reporting
measure requires amendment of the current policy. This is necessary to
establish a legal basis and management system for implementation and
enforcement. However, there are complexities associated with Indone­
sian regulations affecting this initiative (Table 2). For example, the
Indonesian Laws No 7/2016 and No. 45/2009 state different definitions
of vessel capacity for Indonesian SSF that complicated the discussion
across related agencies in defining the appropriate target for the SSF
fishing logbook [12,13,18]. This disparity raised the issue of whether
the logbook was appropriate for fishers with ≤5 GT or ≤10 GT vessel;
this influences the extent of the SSF fleet included in logbook reporting
information used to assess fishing pressure. Increasing the threshold to
I. Sari et al. Marine Policy 134 (2021) 104770

Table 1 Table 2
The state of livelihood capital endowment of the small-scale fishers and the Indonesian regulations affecting fishing logbook development for small-scale
implications to reporting fishing logbook. fisheries.
Asset categories Level of endowment and challenges Regulations Contents Implications

Human Literacy • Some fishers are illiterate. Indonesian Law No 45/ States the definition of This law determines the
Capital • Fishers do not know how to add answer to 2009 about Fisheries small-scale fishers as threshold of fishing vessel
the data points, such as identifying species [18]. those fish with ≤ 5GT size that are obligatory
and type of fishing gear without specialized fishing vessels. subjected to submit fishing
training. logbook.
Time • Most of SSF perform one-day fishing which MMAF Ministerial Decree States that fishing This regulation excludes
demands very hard and long hours of work. No 48/2014 on Capture logbook is only catch record obligation for
• Fishers do not have enough time to fill Fisheries Logbook [14]. required to those small-scale fishers in any
logbook both on-board and after landing; fishers with > 5GT catch area which has the
fishers are often too tired to fill in the fishing vessels. same implication with Law
logbook after the fishing trip. States the definition of No 45/2009 on Fisheries.
Physical Fishing facilities • Majority of SSF fishers do not have GPS, they logbook as “a daily The small-scale fishers
Asset are unable to identify fishing ground written report of the cannot perform on-board
coordinates; multi-fishing gears use; small Captain recorded on- recording. So can
boats that do not have spaces to record board before landing determine compliance
catches on-board. regarding fishing capabilities.
Natural Catches • Multiple species that is an obstacle to activities and
capital accurately identify species. operations of fishing
• They are scattered in remote areas often far vessels”.
from fishing ports, so they land their catches MMAF Ministerial Decree Excluding License This regulation excludes
along coastlines and in small villages (PERMEN KP) No 26/ (SIUP, SIPI, SIKPI) for license obligation for
(tangkahan) rather than at official fish 2013 on Capture small-scale fishers with small-scale fishers ≤ 5 GT,
landing ports. Fisheries Business in ≤ 5 GT vessels. that is an opportunity for
Social Relationships with • Relatively low level of trust among them; Indonesia’s FMAs [19]. compliance incentive.
capital others fishers are hesitant to share information Indonesian Law No 7/2016 States the definition of The definition conflicted
about the fishing grounds, anticipating about Fisher Protection small-scale fishers as the threshold limit of
competition from other fishers in their and Empowerment [13]. those fish with ≤ 10GT fishers who are obligated
fishing grounds. Also, they are hesitant to fishing vessels that reporting fishing logbook.
report volume of catch not wanting to should not be burdened Vessels ≤ 10 GT has
attract attention to themselves if they have a with any kind of around 90% portion of
good catch. obligations including total fishing vessels.
• Family members are the primary support; fishing fees, fishing Excluding it from logbook
and they have close relations with their license, limited fishing reporting obligation
buyers. Some of them are organized under grounds and other causes a major gap in
buyers’ supply chains that may also include strong measures. fisheries data.
private fishing companies. Indonesian Law No 23/ States that the This law defines the level
2014 about provincial government of government that is
Decentralization [33] is responsible for responsible in managing
10 GT reduces the government’s ability to impose fishing logbook managing fishing fishing logbook for SSF
vessels ≤ 30 GT. and entails challenges in
compliance with strong measures. This also highlights the need for a
implementation due to
standard accepted definition for SSF in Indonesia as pointed out by limited organization
Halim et al. [11]. capacity, personnel, and
Another obstacle was to clearly define the need for compliance budget.
among SSF as to whether fishing logbook is obligatory since it should
align with existing laws including the newly enacted omnibus law. The
and provincial levels; and (iii) fishing port managers who oversee fishing
amendment of fishing logbook regulation following the omnibus law
logbook compliance. Despite the involvement of different agencies, to
will be clarified under a Ministerial Regulation of MMAF that had not
enable an integrated data management system, a single but multifaceted
been issued when this work was undertaken. Therefore, existing regu­
database is necessary.
lations were used as the basis of legal analysis. For instance, the Fisher
Currently, there is an online database for fisheries logbook (SILOPI)
Protection and Empowerment Law No 7/2016 does not allow any
that is being used at fishing ports for managing logbook data for me­
mandatory obligation that can negatively affect Indonesian SSF [13].
dium- and large-scale fisheries but can only be accessed by the MMAF
Due of this, therefore, reporting fishing logbooks by small-scale fisheries
(national level agency). The discussions recommended to expand this
is classified as voluntary or passive obligatory and can only be manda­
database for the small-scale fisheries for efficiency and to allow inte­
tory for the medium (10–30 GT) and large-scale fisheries (>30 GT). And,
gration of catch data from the different scales of Indonesian fisheries.
such compliance measures mean that stringent legal enforcement for
Since the provincial government is responsible for managing marine and
independent fishing logbook submission is not enforceable for the
fisheries resources within 12 nautical miles under provincial jurisdic­
small-scale fishers.
tion, the MMAF should provide access to the provincial government.
Another desire of the national MMAF is to establish a reliable and an
integrated database to ensure information from local to national levels
3.2.2. Provincial level institution
that can be aggregated and shared to provide national and spatial pro­
The Decentralization Law 23/2014 states that the provincial gov­
files. The results of our study suggest that there was no effective
ernment is responsible for managing fishing vessels ≤30 GT [33]. The
mechanism for data sharing and utilization across varied government
fishing logbook for small-scale fishers is therefore under the provincial
agencies. The government (central-provincial-district) should be able to
government that requires an institution management model for estab­
access data. Therefore, a data-sharing mechanism should be developed
lishment. This initiative facilitated identifying local government tasks
and an assessment about data point needs across different government
shared between provincial- and district-levels and fishing logbook
agencies is necessary to ensure one system serves all interests including:
dataflow from fisher to a provincial level database. The primary tasks of
a) researchers who conduct fish stock assessments and monitoring and
SSF logbook implementation are data verification and management,
provide scientific recommendations; (ii) fisheries managers at national

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I. Sari et al.
fisher level technical assistance, and capacity building and awareness,
which need to be distributed across different agencies in accordance
with the Decentralization Law [33]. For example, the provincial gov­
ernment is responsible for receiving, verifying, and managing data, and
building capacity and awareness, while the district government is tasked
with providing technical assistance to fishers and possibly assisting
fishers with their reporting.
3.2.3. Community level
The transforming factor at the community level include fisher
friendly fishing logbook form, enforcement, and incentive. Fishing
logbook data points are essential to define the limits of catch allocation
or fishing effort. The results of the initial trial using the existing logbook
form by small-scale fishers showed that the existing logbook form was
too complicated. There were too many data points; and the data cells
were too small to be filled in properly and along with the specialized
format required for different fishing gear. Given to the fishers’ capa­
bilities, the logbook data-points and format had to be simplified and
developed separately from the current standard logbook as portrayed in
the Ministerial Decree No. 48/2014 [14]. Identifying the minimal data
points was critical for a simplified fisher-friendly fish catch logbook
form and to ensure the data points met the basic scientific needs to
inform fishery management measures and logistics. To address these
needs, the data points only cover minimum variables including CPUE
(Catch Per Unit Effort), number of fishing days and catch landed data as
advised by the Fisheries Research Agency of MMAF.
A flexible fishing logbook definition that takes account of SSF ca­
pabilities is necessary to enable catch reporting by SSF. The current
definition of fishing logbook stated in the Ministerial Decree No. 48/
2014 can hinder the ability of small-scale fishers to comply since on-
board data recording is not feasible for most small-scale fishers that
operate small- and traditional- vessels one-day fishing operations [14].
The definition should, therefore, be relaxed to allow catch recording
after landing; catch recording by persons other than boat captains in
which fishers can be supported by trained officers, enumerators, family
members or supply chain actors; and later submission.
Given to the wide distribution of the SSF at remote islands where
limited access to fisheries officials, the fisher level implementation ac­
tivities require a co-management model. The government collaborates
with NGOs and or private sectors to oversee the catch data recording
prior session to entering the government database. Due to the different
attributes of SSF’s social capital, the ground-level management institu­
tion may be site-specific and depends on the governments’ resources as
well as the presence of NGOs and private sector partners for co-
management opportunities. Ideally, there would be logbook verifica­
tion officers based at fish landings and/or at unofficial fish landing sites
(tangkahan) to carry-out immediate data verification. However, assign­
ing a logbook officer at every landing site would significantly increase
the management cost due to the geographic spread and is not practical
and suggests that sampling at some selected fish landing sites is more
feasible.
The challenge of monitoring SSF catches is exacerbated by the
landing of SSF catches at tangkahan. Existing management units of
logbooks are only at fishing ports designated as formal landing sites with
the expectation that fishers submit their fishing logbooks to staff at the
fishing ports. The SSF’s access to fishing ports complicates the data
submission and verification necessary to safeguard the validity of data
submitted. The strategy is a compromised solution to involve fishery
extension service officers, supply chain actors, or NGOs for data sub­
mission and verification in the absence of dedicated logbook officers.
For the data collector, participants explored whether the data verifica­
tion can be done by the fisheries extension service officers who are
already deployed in the field as opposed to a newly appointed staff.
Another option is to collaborate with NGOs and the private sector.
In Indonesia, the law generally protects SSF from too many rules or
restrictions on access. Thus, enforcing a rigorous logbook system should
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Marine Policy 134 (2021) 104770
not imperil small-scale fisheries and their livelihoods. It should not in­
crease the operational cost nor be considered as a way of constraining
fishing access. With this, an enforcement strategy ensuring the compli­
ance needs to provide positive incentives. For the larger vessels, the
incentive is linked to the fishing permit whereby noncompliance of
reporting can risk temporary or permanent suspension of the fishing
permit. However, since such a strong measure cannot be applied for
small-scale fisheries, one possibility of an incentive discussed in the
FGDs was rewarding fisheries logbook compliance with the government
support programs including government insurance schemes or other
financial and fisheries infrastructure support. Existing market-based
incentives using eco-label certification can also be leveraged in advo­
cating fishing logbook compliance. For example, fish traceability that is
imposed by some export markets can be used to justify benefits of fishing
logbooks where the data can be used as a basis of information needed to
meet such measures. However, such a mechanism is only limited to the
lucrative fisheries commodities marketed in developed countries. For
Indonesia, domestic markets and less stringent export markets still
occupy the largest share of the total catch. Thus, the government- and
market-based incentive mechanisms must be applied together.
A sampling approach is also possible for monitoring catches of small-
scale fishers by developing a statistically rigorous sampling design
instead of a full-census catch monitoring per examples reported in the
Mediterranean, Southeast Asia, Central America, the South Pacific, and
West Africa [34–36]. Using a sampling approach, the logbook system
could be implemented at selected sampled fishing villages only or
through sampling a percentage of fishers in a particular area using in­
terviews or observation. This approach can be combined with the fishing
logbook implementation targeted to fishing communities with a signif­
icant number of fishers. However, a sampling method may compromise
data accuracy and validity and requires an exhaustive knowledge on the
total number of boats operating in the sampling area [34]. The total
number of vessels that is sometimes defined as the "potential fishing
fleet", is generally different from the observed "active fishing fleet,” the
numbers used for determining the number of active vessels would need
to be accurately determined to enable a viable sample size for a given
fishing area. The sample of vessels would also need to represent for
different fishing gear and target species to ensure reliable data.
3.3. Capacity building needs
Capacity building at all levels from community to government levels
is needed for developing competencies on logbook recording, data entry,
data verification, data management and analyses. Awareness building is
also a prerequisite for compliance, which requires an active campaign
and advocacy on the significance of logbook data and incentives for
fisheries and fishers’ livelihood sustainability. For fishers, the training
can be channeled through fisher groups. Extension service officers and
NGOs can be the means of transferring the skills, knowledge, and mes­
sages using a standardized training module targeting different actors in
targeted areas. Given the current state of capacity, the implementation
of a small-scale fishing logbook will need to be equipped with a long-
term roadmap and the required investment for capacity building.
Making the system as simple and transparent as possible will be
essential.
4. Discussion and conclusions
The sustainable livelihood approach has been used widely to eval­
uate and understand the capabilities and livelihood strategies of rural
communities for poverty alleviation [21,27,28,37]. This work has
demonstrated the application of the framework to strengthen SSF
management [8,25,31]. Despite limitations of the SLA approach stated
by Morse and McNamara [22] and Ferrol-Schulte et al. [25], the
framework was useful to identify fisheries management strategies for
catch reporting by small scale fishers as the critical input to understand
I. Sari et al.
the level of fishing effort in a manner that generally works for SSF.
Understanding fishing pressure based on reliable data is necessary to
develop fisheries management policies to ensure long-term use of the
resources that is ultimately critical for livelihood sustainability.
The FAO Voluntary Guideline Securing Sustainable Small-Scale
fisheries requests each state to establish monitoring, controlling and
surveillance systems for small scale fisheries. It also mandates that
small-scale fisheries support the monitoring, control and surveillance
system and to report the information to the fisheries managers for
management purposes [1]. Using the lens of the SLA, this work has
unpacked the complexities and identified strategies to establish an
enforceable catch monitoring system for SSF in Indonesia. Initiating
such measures entails technical and institutional challenges due to
limited capabilities, conflicted institutions, and geographical barriers.
The complexity of all aspects and the varied perspectives of protecting
small-scale fishers from strong management measures can hinder the
progress in establishing a functional catch monitoring for small-scale
fisheries. Thus, it is fundamental to identify strategies to address
transforming factors that take account fishers’ capabilities. For example,
the strategy of the fisher friendly logbook format is necessary to address
the fishers’ literacy and ability to fill more complex data points.
Furthermore, relaxing fishing logbook definition that allows catch
recording supported by enumerators or family members other than boat
captains and later submission to fisheries officers can address the fishers’
time constraints, the SSF geographic distribution and the limited access
to official fishing ports. Such strategies change fishers’ ability and are
necessary to achieve the policy outcome. A similar argument was sug­
gested Ahmed et al. [29] who reported that the ban of catching post
larva fisheries by coastal communities in Bangladesh was never been
enforced since the regulation did not provide alternative livelihoods to
the fishers who were fully dependent on the fishery.
To establish catch monitoring system for SSF, support from all parties
including all levels of government, NGOs, donors, and private sector is
crucial. As recommended in the SSF Guideline [1], co-partnership or
co-management is seen as the best option in managing small-scale
fisheries across the globe to overcome the institutional challenges
[38–44]. It is defined as shared responsibility and authority across the
resource-user group be it fishers, government, and non-government in­
stitutions [45,46]. In this initiative, the co-partnership is needed from
researchers, fisheries managers, fishers, private sector and NGOs for
identifying a simplified logbook form, developing a legal framework,
establishing a management institution, awareness-raising, capacity
building, defining enforcement strategy, data management system and
utilization. To implement the measures, co-partnership requires a syn­
chronized workplan of all organizations involved to ensure a functional
co-partnership [47,48]. For example, the provincial Marine and Fish­
eries Office must allocate resources to collect fishing logbook from
Sentra Nelayan, to manage, verify and validate the data prior to analyses
by fisheries researchers; the district level Fisheries Office needs to pro­
vide technical assistance to fishers, while the supply chain actors, pri­
vate sector or NGOs can support with data recording, building fishers’
capacity, and fisher-level logbook management.
Incentives can be favorable for compliance if linked to the value
added of having a fishing logbook for increased competitiveness.
Leveraging market forces to encourage stewardship from governments,
fishers, and private sectors are favorable. Establishing a fishing logbook
system also improves capabilities to comply with traceability concerns
that the markets of the EU and USA have imposed for combating IUU
fishing [49]. Such pressure has been pushing the government and supply
chain actors to take actions for compliance [50] to maintain Indonesian
seafood global competitiveness. The MMAF has a program to develop a
traceability system for national fisheries (Sistem Telusur Logistik Ikan
Nasional) STELINA since 2017 that links all information from catch to
export nodes [51]. Catch documentation is the starting point for trace­
able fishery products, which can be replaced by fishing logbooks when
the system is well established.
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Marine Policy 134 (2021) 104770
To conclude, based on our work, important actions to consider for
monitoring SSF catch in Indonesia include understanding the level of
compliance capabilities, integrating transforming factors into the insti­
tutional arrangement to enable compliance and maintain support from
all parties including pertinent levels of government agencies, NGOs,
donors, and private sectors. These parties need to synchronize their
strategies and develop a long-term roadmap for all organizations
involved to form a functional co-partnership that considers incentives
that promote value added of having a fishing logbook system. This
process may require a catalyzing institution or governance body to
ensure that an effective roadmap is generated and followed. In addition,
using a simplified method for fishing logbook form, reporting system
and sampling approaches that focus initially on significant fishing
communities will be important. Finally leveraging market forces to
improve stewardship from government, fishers, and private sector is an
option that needs further testing.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Irna Sari: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Formal
analysis, Writing – review & editing. Muhammad Ichsan: Project
administration, Writing – review & editing. Alan White: Supervision,
Writing – review & editing. Sugeng Hari Wisudo: Investigation, Formal
analysis. Syahril Abdul Raup: Supervision, Project administration.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. All co-authors
have seen and agree with the contents of the manuscript and there is
no financial interest to report. We certify that the submission is original
work and is not under review at any other publication.
Acknowledgements
This is a contribution from the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID)-Funded Sustainable Ecosystems Advanced (SEA)
Project (Contract Number: AID-497-C-16-00008) in Indonesia that
provided financial support in this initiative in collaboration with the
Ministry of Marine Affaires and Fisheries (MMAF) of Republic Indonesia.
The leadership of the of Sub-directorate of Monitoring and Analysis of
Fisheries Resources Management, DGCF, MMAF in the implementation
with supportive participations from the Marine Research Center, Fish­
eries Research Center of MMAF and Marine and Fisheries Offices of
North Maluku, Maluku and West Papua Provinces and Fisheries Office of
Kota Tidore is acknowledged. The authors sincerely thank the partners
of the USAID SEA Project (Wildlife Conservation Society; Yayasan
Masyarakat dan Perikanan Indonesia; Indonesian World Wildlife Fund),
extension service officers and fishers that involved in the piloting the
initiative, Akhmad Solihin and Shinta Yunita for support in the regula­
tion drafting, EC Franklin and Jesmond Sammut for reviewing the
manuscript. Although this document is made possible by the support of
the American people through the USAID, the contents are the re­
sponsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of
USAID or the United States Government.
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Glossary and acronym
CCRF: Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries
CPUE: Catch Per Unit Effort
FAO: Food and Agricultural Organization
FGD: Focus Group Discussion
GPS: Global Positioning System
GT: Gross-Tonnage
IUU: Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated
MMAF: Indonesia Ministry of Marine Affair and Fisheries
Tangkahan: Unofficial fish landing site
NGOs: Non-Government Organizations
PERMEN KP: Peraturan Menteri Kelautan dan Perikanan. Minister of Marine Affair and
Fisheries Regulation.
Sentra Nelayan: Centre of Fishing Communities.
SILOPI: Sistem Informasi Logbook Penangkapan Ikan. Logbook Information System.
SSF: Small-Scale Fisheries.
STELINA: Sistem Telusur Logistik Ikan Nasional. National Fisheries Traceability System.
USAID: Sustainable Ecosystem Advance (SEA) Project: is a 5 Year (2016–2021) Project by
Supported by U.S. Government with mandate of supporting the government of
Indonesia to Improve the governance and of fisheries and marine resources and to
conserve the biological diversity within the FMA 715.