Ahmad Husein – March 2025
Indonesia takes a strategic step toward sustainable fisheries following the withdrawal of their objection to Resolution 21/01 on an Interim Plan for Rebuilding the Indian Ocean Yellowfin Tuna Stock in the IOTC Area of Competence. The decision is formally communicated through a letter from the Director General of Capture Fisheries (DGCF), Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF), to the Executive Director of IOTC, Dr. Paul de Bruyn, on March 6th, 2025.
“This remarkable decision demonstrates Indonesia’s strong commitment and spirit among the majority of IOTC state members to support the sustainability of tuna stock,” said John Burton, the Chairman of SFACT.
The IOTC resolution which entered into force on 17 December 2021 has objectives to maintain stocks in perpetuity and with high probability, at levels not less than those capable of producing states’ maximum sustainable yield as qualified by relevant environmental and economic factors including the special requirements of developing States in the IOTC area of competence.
The resolution initially received objection from six States including Indonesia, due to their concern on acceptance of their data by the IOTC. Later, with the support of the IOTC Secretariat and facilitated by SFACT, Indonesia has undertaken a comprehensive review of the methodology and re-estimation of their data since 2021. SFACT played a significant role by providing support to MMAF, especially DGCF, in improving and restructuring Indonesia’s data of tuna for IOTC.
These review and re-estimated processes have been thoroughly evaluated and subsequently endorsed by both the Working Party on Data Collection and Statistics and the Scientific Committee in 2024. Furthermore, Indonesia has now the re-estimated data set, which provides a robust scientific basis. This will significantly contribute to the formulation of reliable fisheries management measures for tuna resources in IOTC.
