Indonesia Marine Funders Collaboration (IMFC) Grantee Conference

The need for dynamic data was a key part of a presentation delivered by Martin Purves, IPNLF Managing Director, at a recent meeting discussing Indonesian fisheries initiatives and progress with key funders.

IPNLF’s Martin Purves addresses regional fisheries management issues, including the role of RFMOs in tuna fisheries.

Held on 8 and 9 October in Bali, the Indonesia Marine Funders Collaboration (IMFC) Grantee Conference is a biennial event that brings together major donors in the marine space, including the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, Margaret A Cargill Philanthropies and USAID, as well as many of the region’s grantees. In this setting, they freely discuss the status of current initiatives and share stories and experiences from their various projects, particularly in Indonesia.

IPNLF’s Martin Purves (front left) and Jeremy Crawford (2nd from left in back row) with recipients of Walton Family Foundation grants of the “Indonesian Tuna Consortium”.

At this year’s conference, a key theme was collaboration, particularly how multi-disciplinary organisations and NGOs operating in the same space might work together in positive and effective ways.

Martin was invited to speak in a session that focused on fisheries management and harvest strategy best-practice. While some of his fellow panellists looked at local fishery issues, Martin focused on regional management, including the role played by RFMOs in tuna fisheries – something that’s very relevant to highly migratory stocks. He also reaffirmed IPNLF’s position as a collaborative voice for one-by-one tuna fisheries globally and emphasised the need for small-scale fisheries to be heard and recognised in regional management discussions.

With many different types of fisheries being represented by several highly experienced, and very knowledgeable individuals, this was an important opportunity for IPNLF to showcase examples of best practices in one-by-one fisheries.

Despite there being such diverse interests at the conference, it was clear that some lessons are applicable across multiple fishery and species sectors. Whether the focus is harvest strategies, MPAs, working with local communities, or with government at local, national or international level, there appeared to be a lot of commonality across Indonesian fishery efforts and issues.