TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The protracted debate over the ban on the use of cantrang (deep trawling) seine nets suggests there is a serious problem on how President Joko Widodo’s government issues regulations. After the cantrang regulation was first issued by Marine Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti on January 9, 2015, its implementation has been postponed three times. The ban on the use of the cantrang to net fish is supposed to take effect this June, but the President has once more delayed it until the end of the year.
There should be no difference of opinion between Jokowi and Minister Susi over this matter, given their agreement on two points. First, the cantrang, which is used to trawl down to the seabed, clearly causes environmental damage. Secondly, the government must also give due attention to the livelihoods of fishermen and others dependent on the fishery sector.
The government cannot arbitrarily ban this method of trawling, considering that local fishermen have long been using it.What has caused such a commotion is that Marine Affairs and Fisheries Ministerial Regulation No.2/2015 on the Prohibition of Fishing Trawl and Seine Nets inside Indonesian fishing zones does not offer any acceptable alternative to the banned cantrang.
This policy, which offered no clear solution and could badly affect the fishermen’s incomes, led to widespread protests and forced the government to postpone its implementation. Later, the fisheries ministry announced the gillnet, a vertical fishing net, as one acceptable replacement. But the protests did not completely die down when only a few of the gillnets, as promised by the ministry, were actually distributed to fishermen.
Consequently, it is not just trawl boat owners and fishermen who are now protesting over the ban on cantrangs. Bankers underwriting the fishery business are beginning to be concerned over the repayment of their loans if production suffers. Data from the banking industry as of January 2017 indicate that loans to the fisheries sector amounted to Rp9.14 trillion, with a non-performing estimated value at Rp384 billion, or 2.17 percent.
The President must not allow the controversy over the cantrang regulation to continue. The solution should not be a difficult one: Minister Susi could be asked to distribute the alternative nets to all fishermen as quickly as possible, and only then should the ban on the use of cantrangs be strictly imposed.
That means the government should continue to show it is giving top priority to protecting the environment, while at the same time helping to increase the incomes of local fishermen and the overall domestic fishing industry. The government’s support of the local industry players can also be demonstrated by trimming back its long and complicated licensing requirements. Currently, over 20 kinds of licenses, issued by four government agencies, are needed for fishery businesses to operate fishing boats. What adds to the difficulties is their terms of validity, which can vary from one to another.
Minister Susi’s policy of banning the use of cantrangs in order to save the marine ecology needs to be supported. But she should also consider the fishermen’s livelihoods by quickly distributing the alternative nets, before applying the ban on cantrangs. Only by doing so can she avoid giving the impression she and the President are going in opposite directions.
Read the full story in this week’s edition of Tempo English Magazine