Handline fisher in Maluku. Photo credit: Indah Rufiati/MDPI

Dear Valued Partners and Friends,

Welcome to the second newsletter of Masyarakat dan Perikanan

Indonesia (MDPI). I am very delightful to share the second issue of

our newsletter that will describe our recent achievements and

highlight the recent events. This newsletter features the

information from our three main departments: Sustainability,

Supply Chain Improvement and Fair Trade, as well as information

about Fishery Improvement Programs. This newsletter has a

message from our Executive Director, followed by the updates

about the recent Data Management Committee (DMC) meetings,

Fair Trade certification in Seram site, the 4th biannual IFITT Team

Meeting in Wageningen University, Inauguration of Crab

Management Program in Kaimana and many more. We hope that

MDPI programs will make positive impact towards sustainable

fisheries in Indonesia. Please keep in touch with us and we

welcome your feedback as we continue to improve the content of

our newsletter.

Kindest Regards,

Indah Rufiati

Communication Officer, Masyarakat dan Perikanan Indonesia

Happy New Year 2016 everyone!!! Welcome 2016!

Last year, we have done so many things and so many

achievements. We grew fast and we are still growing in 2016, and I

hope you all looking forward to it and have the MDPI energy to

share to others. In 2015, we received two ambassador visits from

our close partners, Mr. Robert O. Blake, Jr., the US Ambassador and

Dr. Georg Witschel, the Ambassador of Germany, this means that

our work is slowly begin to get more recognition. We received

continual funding from The David and Lucile Packard Foundation

and we all thank you to Packard Foundation for their trust in MDPI

to keep the sustainable fisheries going on in Indonesia and the

region. We also helped Seram's fishers under Coral Triangle

Processors to receive their Fair Trade certification and for this,

congratulations! Thanks to the MDPI's great team and for 6 months

lead by Momo Kochen our Program Director! We cannot done all

of that without you.

Human must come first! This means that in order to sustain our

fisheries, we must engage the people and through people, we can

sustain the fisheries and save the ocean!

Aditya U. Surono

Executive Director, Masyarakat dan Perikanan Indonesia

Data Management Committee (DMC) Meetings - Co-Management

All stakeholders in the DMC meeting. Photo credit: MDPI

MDPI facilitated Data Management Committee (DMC) meetings in

Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT), Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB) and Maluku

in the last quarter of 2015. DMC meetings are a co-management

initiative of the I-Fish program to gather all stakeholders from

government, universities, NGOs, industries and of course fishers in

order to discuss about the fishery management in their region,

especially for tuna. These meetings aim to give the DMC members

the opportunity to discuss how they want to develop the data

management for their region, the desired reporting from the data

according to the needs of each stakeholder, to discuss about data

ownership and the commitment or further contribution from each

stakeholder for the next DMC meeting.

DMC meetings create a good occasion for MDPI to present the port

sampling data collected by MDPI field team. Beside data, MDPI also

shares the updates about MDPI programs and projects, such as

Traceability, Fair Trade, Fishery Improvement Programs (FIP),

mFish, NWO and I-Fish development. Additionally these meetings

create a forum for other stakeholders to inform the group on

developments in the fishery, for example the government can use

this opportunity to inform the fishers etc on new regulation and

implementation of these.

MDPI would like to thank all of the stakeholders who support the

DMC meetings: DKP NTT, DKP NTB, DKP Maluku, KKP (government),

TNC, AP2HI (NGOs), ANOVA, PT. Harta Samudra, CV. Versace

Mandiri, UD. Baura, UD. BM, UD. Sang Surya, PT. Primo Indo Ikan,

PT. Okishin Flores, UD. Bara, CV. Giovanni Sukses Makmur, CV.

Imanuel, UD. Tunas Harapan, PT. Charlie Era Pranata (CEP), PT.

Nelayan Hidup Makmur (NHM), UD. Usaha Mina and to all of the

amazing fishers who are actively involved and shared their

experience/problems from their fishing activities.

Hayunan Wangse, a fisher from Buru Island is presenting about Fishers

Association (FA) activities. Photo credit: Indah Rufiati/MDPI

MDPI to Expand Tuna Data Collection in Pole & Line Fishery

MDPI has signed a contract with Asosiasi Perikanan Pole&Line dan

Handine Indonesia (AP2HI) for data collection in Pole & Line fishery

in Ambon, Bitung, Larantuka, Sorong, Fakfak and Bau-bau. The aims

of the expanding data collection to Pole & Line fishery are to

increase the data collection locations and to represent another

fishing technique of small scale fishery in Indonesia so that the

small scale fishery data can be more comprehensive and more

representative to the real situation.

Pole & Line is a traditional fishing method, which is both socially

and environmentally responsible. Pole & Line vessels have capacity

that varies between 16 - 97 GT. Here are the map of the new sites

for Pole & Line data collection and the existing sites for handline

data collection:

Handline sites

Pole & Line sites

I-Fish Development Project

I-Fish is a fishery information system for data collection of tuna and

skipjack in Indonesia. I-Fish data is accessible to fishers and

stakeholders such as government, universities, organizations,

industry and experts. The data entry process is conducted by

enumerators of each of MDPI sites in Nusa Tenggara Barat, Nusa

Tenggara Timur, Maluku, Sulawesi (all for Tuna) and West Papua

(for mud crab data collection). This system was originally developed

in 2012 by the IMACS project of USAID Indonesia and is in a process

of refining and developed to this day.

The I-Fish system consists of fisheries sampling data entry modules.

Once the data is uploaded by the Enumerator (all data collected is

done so utilizing a standard protocol: available for download on the

I-Fish website at http://ifish.id/?q=id/content/library-protocol from

each site to I-fish, the data is entered into the database, where it is

stored until it is processed by the reporting module into a report or

analysis, tailored to meet the needs of the stakeholders or

interested parties. The core of this system is website-based, which

has the advantage of being accessible anywhere where an internet

connection exists.

Today we can access the new domain of I-Fish at www.ifish.id. The

new protocols developed by MDPI make it possible for various

fisheries to be monitored by sampling systems such as handline and

Pole & Line tuna, monthly unloading upload system which captures

total catches, fishing ground identification, automatic report

development and others. All of these systems aim to facilitate the

fishers and fisheries stakeholders to get data and to use it for their

fishery, either in management or for business purposes. Some

simple examples include utilizing fuel use and catches to identify

return on investment throughout the seasons; also catches per

fishing ground allow users to identify areas of high productivity and

the seasonality of this.

Surely, until this time and into the future, I-Fish still continue to be

refined and developed from day to day because information

technology is growing faster and getting more sophisticated.

Hopefully MDPI will be able to support the technology

implementation progress and allow other systems to connect to I-

Fish to develop ever more sophisticated approaches for data

capture, traceability and all over transparency. MDPI, together with

partners at IPNLF, TNC, AP2HI and MMAF aims to continue to

develop I-Fish for a better data system for small-scale fishery in

Indonesia, hopefully toward a better small-scale fishery

management in the future.

Grid MDPI to WPP Conversion

Seram Site: Officially Fair Trade USA Certified

The efforts of 125 fishers from 5 Fishers Association (FA) in Seram

along with the support of PT. Harta Samudra and Coral Triangle

Processors (CTP) has paid off… Yellowfin tuna caught by them is

officially Fair Trade Certified and along with Tuna previously

certified in Ambon and Buru will be sold as certified product in

Safeway stores across the United States, to consumers who wish to

make environmentally and socially conscious purchasing decisions.

The Fisher associations, for their involvement in the program and

compliance to the standard, will receive a premium for their

product, the additional fund coming from a premium paid by the

consumer for a product they know comes from a good source.

These 5 FAs formed in between March to May 2015 and had been

working very hard to complete all of the audit criteria for year 0,

the initial entry level to the certification. The audit is carried out by

an independent Conformity Assessment Body (CAB), in this case

SCS Global, in early August 2015.

Here are the 6 provisions underlying Fair Trade certification for

year 0:

1. Structural Conditions: Fishers Association formation; and

the formation of the Fair Trade Committee.

2. Empowerment and Community Development: needs

assessments, which is done by CTP (certificate holder) in

each FA; Premium plan development – based on catch

estimates each FA builds a plan for the use of the premium

fund so every fisherman is required to have an

understanding about premium fund

3. Fundamental Human Rights: The election of the board in

each FA and committee emphasize open election system in

which all members have equal rights to vote and to be

elected; there is no discrimination and harassment within

the group or committee; no underage workers in

accordance with national rules and regulations and no

forced labor or human trafficking.

4. Wages, Working conditions and Access to Services: Make

sure every fisher receive safety training at sea as well as first

aid training which was organized by the certificate holder,

CTP, in collaboration with National Search And Rescue

Agency Republic of Indonesia (BASARNAS); The processing

plant ensured that every employee has a contract, get paid

on time, according to the national rules and regulation

(appropriate salary based regional minimum wage;

overtime calculation and insurance benefit).

5. Resources Management: every Fair Trade fisher received

trainings on Endangered, Threatened and Protected (ETP)

species and accept that they have to protect the ocean, the

place where they relied their livelihood, by practicing

sustainable and eco-friendly fishing technique for

maintaining marine ecosystems (handline). Fishers also

became active in the data collection of the catch and their

fishing trips.

6. Trade requirements: where there is agreement between

supply chain participants in ensuring traceability and

transparency exists.

Please read more about Fair Trade Program here:

http://www.mdpi.or.id/index.php/our-program/fair-trade

MDPI is committed to assist fishers in obtaining Fair Trade Certification. Photo

credit: Indah Rufiati/MDPI

The 4th Biannual IFITT Team Meeting in Wageningen University

The IFITT (Improving Fisheries Information and Traceability for

Tuna) project held its 6 monthly action research cycle meeting in

Wageningen, Netherlands 14 – 16 October 2015. The meeting was

attended by Momo Kochen, Rini Kusumawati and Lalu Hizbulloh of

MDPI; Simon Bush, Paul Van Zwieten and Mandy Doddema of

Wageningen University; Megan Bailey of Dalhousie University and

Eric Enno Tam of Thisfish Ecotrust.

At the opening session, Simon Bush reflected IFITT activities during

the last 6 months and reaffirmed the main objectives of this project

are:

1. Technical: developing consumer facing open source

traceability (technology).

2. Adoption: adoption of traceability systems by companies,

government and information systems.

3. Scientific: increase understanding of how information leads

to transparency in fisheries production, trade and

management.

The main session of the meeting was the updated activities during

the last 6 months that delivered by each stakeholder. MDPI

described the activities in the field where the current product with

Consumer Facing Traceability from Maluku site have been available

at Safeway stores in the United States where the first shipments

from Vietnam was in March 2015. Megan presented the results of

an online survey conducted during the seafood event in Brussels,

the International Coast Tuna Business Forum (ICTBF) in Bali and

several interviews with the fishing industry. Rini and Eric presented

the field assessment of NWO project and the technology package

that will be applied at the level of the fishers, suppliers and

processor. In this meeting, the team also gave chances for three

students who had been doing internship research on the IFITT

project to present their research: Pim from Groningen University

and Sophie and Lissette from Wageningen University.

This meeting resulted several projects that will be priority in the

next 6 months:

1. Improving communication media and publishing projects

through the creation IFITT video and strengthen the role of

the website.

2. Strengthen research and observation of customer facing

traceability at the final consumer level, especially in the

United States.

3. Support the implementation of the NWO project that will be

implemented in the tuna supply chain from Maluku.

4. Follow up the possibilities of collaboration with several

projects such as CIDA (Canadian International Agency

Development), Oceans Project – USAID and UNIDO.

IFITT meeting in Netherland. Photo credit: Lalu Hizbullah/MDPI

Technology Innovation towards Sustainability in Indonesia’s Tuna

Supply Chains

This Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO)

funded project is a partnership between Wageningen University,

Dalhousie University, Bogor Agricultural University and MDPI.

These groups have created a consortium together with specifically

chosen partner industries Anova LLC and PT. Harta Samudra to

implement the objectives of this project along a specific supply

chain. The project aims to develop a traceability-based technology

(TBT) platform that creates bidirectional information exchange

between Indonesian fishers, processors and traders; help to link

fishers with fisheries information and global market; and to help

processors and traders to meet informational requirements

originating from importing regions.

As part of the needs assessment of this project, we conducted

focus group discussion (FGD) with fishers and suppliers in Ambon

and carried out data collection on the social-economy by

interviewing suppliers and fishers of Seram Island. These activities

helped capture the knowledge of the suppliers and fishers in the

tuna supply chain about the market dynamics, national and global

environment regulations, and traceability systems to understand

what information they need to support sustainable fishing activities

and explore possibilities to implement a technology based

traceability (TBT) to the fishers and suppliers.

The FGD was conducted on the second day of the Data

Management Committee (DMC) hosted by MDPI at Marina Hotel in

Ambon on 25 November 2015. 7 fishers and 3 suppliers attended

this FGD. Lalu Hisbullah of MDPI hosted the FGD. During the FGD,

fishers expressed their appreciation to MDPI for support and

assistance in helping them to comply with the standards of the Fair

Trade USA as requested by the buyers. The preliminary findings

from this FGD are that both fishers and suppliers have adequate

knowledge on market dynamics, national and global environment

regulations. They also have awareness of the need for traceability

system and sustainable fishing activities that have been introduced

by MDPI through their Fair Trade project.

To provide further support for this FGD, we conducted interviews

and carried out field observation of activities by fishers and

suppliers in Supulesi, Tehoru and Yaholu in Seram. IPB student,

Syiffa Syafiah, collected the data between 26 November and 11

December 2015. She interviewed 30 fishers, 3 suppliers, 3

entrepreneurs and 3 government officers from DKP Maluku

Tengah. The main objective of the interviews and field observation

was to explore the possibilities to implement TBT among the fishers

and suppliers. Based on our observation and discussions, we

understand that fishers are not yet ready to actively engage in

implementing TBT because they do not see the importance of TBT

in their daily fishing activities. Their first priority is technology to

improve their catch probability per fishing trip. Suppliers on other

hand, place emphasis on having a neat record for their purchase

activities. For this reason, they need simple technology such as

electronic bookkeeping to support the traceability system in

general.

Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with fishers and suppliers. Photo credit: Indah

Rufiati/MDPI

Inauguration of Crab Management Program in Kaimana

DKP Kaimana Regency, collaborating with Conservation

International and Masyarakat dan Perikanan Indonesia (MDPI), held

a meeting with crab fishery stakeholders in Kaimana Beach Hotel

on September 28, 2015. The main agenda of the meeting: A

provincial level mud crab Fishery Improvement Program (FIP).

This meeting main aim was to build cooperation between

stakeholders in order to determine the direction of the agreed

work to address the problem of mud crab fisheries. Many fishery

stakeholders attended the meeting from government, business,

academia, fishers and NGOs.

DKP Kaimana represented by Ms. Ika, as Head of Production, stated

their support to this program. During this time, Kaimana, which is

one of the areas known as a large producer of mangrove crab, must

be prepared to face the challenges of fisheries management. With

the increasing demand for crab both nationally and globally, good

management is expected to maintain the availability of crabs in the

long term by providing a balance situation between the income of

fishers and crab availability in the fishery.

Mud crab fisher on the small wooden boat who catches mud crab in sustainable

way. Photo credit: Indah Rufiati/MDPI

This activity is part of the Blue Carbon program of Conservation

International, this project focusing on the aspect of sustainable

utilization of fisheries. One of Kaimana’s main crab producing

areas, Arguni district, is included in water conservation areas that

also have been set out formally by DKP Kaimana and customary by

the traditional elders of Arguni.

At the meeting, stakeholders also discussed any issues that are

likely to be a problem within crab fishery management and how to

find solutions. From the discussion, it was agreed that a co-

management is needed to facilitate the crab fishery management.

At the end of the meeting, government agreed to sign a

commitment to the formation of the co-management. An initial

meeting will be held to form a Steering Committee to establish co-

management institution of crab fishery management.

Follow-up efforts of this activity is to connect mud crab fishery

business people with prospective buyers in Bali, especially high-end

restaurants with strong focus on their sourcing policies. Some trials

of crab delivery have been conducted and crab from the project has

been served up in Pica Restaurant, Ubud during last month’s Ubud

Writers and Readers Festival, 2015.

Fishers lady in Arguni, Kaimana, West Papua. Photo credit: Indah Rufiati/MDPI

Please read more about FIP Program here:

http://www.mdpi.or.id/index.php/component/k2/item/99-a-fip-

with-a-difference

Harvest Strategy development for Indonesian Archipelagic Waters

As a cooperating member of the WCPFC Indonesia is obliged to

develop Harvest Strategies for its Archipelagic Waters that are

compatible with those for the greater WCPFC region. Steady

progress towards developing Harvest Strategies for Indonesian

Archipelagic Waters is occurring. In 2015 four meetings were held,

varying from one week to one day, to discuss the Indonesian plan

of action, identify pilot studies and engage stakeholders. Indonesia

is receiving expert support from scientists from CSIRO, WCPFC,

Murdoch University and the IOTC, amongst others, and has an

ambitious plan to have Harvest Strategies established in 2017. A

two-year work plan to achieve this is being finalized. MDPI has

been supporting these meetings and will continue to do so in 2016.

Development of Harvest Strategies is not only beneficial nationally

to the sustainable management of Indonesian tuna fisheries but is

also necessary for when Indonesia enters full assessment for

Marine Stewardship Council certification.

National Tuna Management Plan

The Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF), Ms. Susi

Pudjiastuti has issued Peraturan Menteri (Minister Regulation) No.

107/2015 regarding Rencana Pengelolaan Perikanan Tuna-

Cakalang-Tongkol (RPP TCT) (National Tuna Management Plan) as

her commitment to maintaining the sustainability of the tuna

fishery resources.

A series of public consultation that held by MMAF were attended

by MDPI. MDPI contributed in providing input to MMAF regarding

the NTMP. In addition, in collaboration with other NGOs, MDPI has

also suggested the alignment with the Regional Fisheries

Management Organisations (RFMO) management rules for the

preparation of the tuna management rule development in

archipelagic waters.

As follow up, after the NTMP is legalized by the minister, MDPI has

identified several points of NTMP is to be reviewed together with

the MMAF in the future.

National Tuna Management Plan

ProActive Vessel Register (PVR)

The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) launched

the ProActive Vessel Register (PVR), an innovative and effective

way for vessel owners to identify themselves as active participants

in meaningful sustainability efforts.

As a participant to the PVR a vessel must commit to a list of

compulsory commitments which they agree to complete or

undertake, all of which aim towards sustainable practices in tuna

fisheries. The platform then provides validated information to tuna

purchasers and interested stakeholders that reflect the positive

steps each vessel is taking in implementing a series of

commitments designed to improve tuna fishing practices. By

tracking compliance by individual vessel – validated through third-

party auditing – the PVR offers all interested stakeholders with the

credible information they seek to inform their programs,

procurement and decisions.

‘PVR for Small scale’, a project currently being implemented by

MDPI/AP2HI/ISSF in Indonesia, which is checking the possibility of

using the model of the ISSF PVR for small scale vessels project

implementation. MDPI staffs have been tasked to gather vessel

registration from a large number of AP2HI (Asosiasi Perikanan Pole

and Line dan Hand Line Indonesia/Pole and Line and Handline

industry association) member vessels as well as spread the word on

the PVR, its benefits, objectives and implementation.

MDPI’s PVR officers: Monang, Alex and Zulung verified 12 Pole &

Line vessels & 625 handline vessels in Maluku and Bitung. As the

project progresses we aim to allocate each vessel with a unique

identifier code and for the data to be entered into the existing I-

Fish system and hence centralize industry data submission.

Please read more about PVR project here:

http://iss-foundation.org/knowledge-tools/databases/proactive-

vessel-register/

http://www.mdpi.or.id/index.php/news/item/66-a-collaborative-

approach-by-ngos-and-industry-to-test-the-proactive-vessel-

register-pvr-of-issf-for-small-scale-fisheries-in-indonesia

Tony Marta Wijaya Listed as Finalist in Seafood Champion Awards

Leadership Category

Tony Marta Wijaya. Photo credit: MDPI

One of MDPI’s partner in Buru, Tony Marta Wijaya, was involved in

the creation of a Fishers Association in the village of Waepure that

obtained Fair Trade USA wild capture fisheries certification in late

2014, thus improving fisher’s marketing opportunities and reducing

their reliance on suppliers like him. In addition to insisting that his

fishers catch fish in a sustainable way, he is active in co-

management groups collecting fisheries data, monitoring, and in

efforts to increase safety and financial stability of fishers.

His impressive work in supporting sustainable fishery has led him to

be a finalist in the Seafood Champion Awards that annually

recognize individuals and companies for outstanding leadership in

promoting environmentally responsible seafood. SeaWeb

established the award to honor those in the seafood industry

whose past and/or present contributions demonstrate a

commitment to innovation that leads to change.

Please read more about Tony Marta Wijaya full profile here:

http://www.seafoodchampions.org/2016-seafood-champion-

awards/2016-seafood-champion-awards-finalists/tony-marta-

wijaya/#more-1470

Fishers and Mobile Technology

mFish or mobile-Fish is a pilot program with the aim of utilizing

mobile technology in improving the livelihood of fishers and

increase the sustainability of fisheries worldwide. mFish is the

result of a public-private partnership between The United States

government, the private communications company /tone and

fishery improvement accelerator 50in10.

As a pilot program, mFish team collaborated with MDPI to

implement the program in MDPI site Labuhan Lombok, Lombok

Timur. The program started from May to October 2015, followed

by 10 fishers (5 ship captains and 5 ship crews) and 2 suppliers.

Each participant held a mobile phone with mounted /tone platform

contained mFish application. Along with mFish program, there are

two other technologies that have been tested: 1) the installation of

Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) on 5 vessels and 2) mobile phone

enumeration application with MDPI’s enumerators as target.

In addition to new technology adoption program, mFish program is

also doing an ethnographic study on all fishers who become the

participants, both in terms of behavior, relationships and reactions.

Implementation of the program and ethnographic studies is not

only done on the mainland, but the team also observed the use of

mFish technology for fishers when they are fishing (on-water

observation).

Results of these findings is shared to fishery stakeholders fishery in

one day workshop in Seminyak, Bali, on 20 May 2015. The purpose

of the workshop is to share the results of the preliminary findings

on the pilot program in Labuhan Lombok, and also to get feedback

from in establishing effective planning for the implementation of

mFish in the future. The workshop was attended by the entire

mFish team: representative of the US government, /tone, 50in10,

Future of Fish and MDPI; NGOs: LINI, TNC, CI, WWF, WCS, Marine

Change; industry: Anova; and university: Wangeningen University.

In this workshop participants formed groups and were given an

opportunity to make the idea of a prototype application in mobile

phones for the benefit of fishers and fisheries, and to present the

idea. The ideas submitted from all groups are all positive and

inspiring. Not only in terms of the interests of fishers, but also the

interests of the government, private companies, buyers and

customers.

Please read more about mFish technology, full report and executive

summary here:

http://www.mdpi.or.id/index.php/news/item/77-should-we-pay-

more-for-our-fish

http://www.50in10.org/wp-

content/uploads/2015/09/MFISH_Alpha_Pilot_Full_Report_Final-

rev.pdf

http://www.50in10.org/wp-

content/uploads/2015/09/MFISH_Alpha_Pilot_Final_Report_Execu

tive-Summary.pdf

http://www.50in10.org/wp-

content/uploads/2015/11/MFISH_Alpha_Pilot_Laporan_Final_Rang

kuman-Eksekutif_11_9_small.pdf

Labuhan Lombok fishers. Photo Credit: Nandana Godjali, Charley Scull and Indah

Rufiati

The Role of UVI (Unique Vessel Identifier ) in I-Fish Sampling Data

Unique Identifier Codes for vessels is a new feature in the data

sampling of tuna and skipjack in I-Fish system. The identifier codes

aim to identify, to track and to verify the ship and their activities

from time to time quickly and accurately, regardless of the change

of name, ownership or flag. The implementation of this unique

identification code can be useful in helping to combat IUU (Illegal

Unreported and Unregulated) Fishing. The role of the identifier

code has been suggested by Food and Agriculture Organization

(FAO) and other United Nations (UN) agencies.

MDPI will use the vessel registry to manage the code with unique

identifier per vessel. Each vessel’s identification code will be

different between one another and will be able to provide

information about the activities of fishing vessels. The ship will be

allocated their own code at the time of registration to the I-fish

system and it will be the basis for traceability system as well.

The unique coding system in I-Fish system will register the data of

existing vessels at each MDPI site so that the information about

catch can be traced. To trace the fishing ground location, there will

be an installation of spot tracer on a vessel with UVI code so that

the movement of the vessel can be monitored in I-Fish.

Unique Identifier code implementation in I-fish will be started by

the MDPI’s Sustainability Facilitator (SF). They will record the data

in MDPI site. Of course, this registration process at no cost to the

fishers. After that, SF can record all the information about the

vessels into I-Fish system and hence create a database of vessels

active in the program. The system will automatically generate the

Unique Identifier code for vessels that are recorded. So when the

port sampling is conducted, they will choose the vessel by specific

code to avoid vessel misidentification that might occur. MDPI

hopes that this system will also allow us to support the government

as they implement the R-VIA system http://rvia.subditzeei.org/

MDPI Training and Gathering 2015: Bedugul Bali 6 – 10 October

2015

A total of 48 people from various areas, ranging from Kaimana

Papua, Maluku, Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi and Bali assembled to

attend Training and Gathering in a resort in the village of Bedugul,

Bali from 6 – 10 October 2015. The training was planned by MDPI

to bring together the entire staff for the first time, aimed to

conduct a comprehensive training and a review of the development

of the organization.

During the training, there were presented materials on the

foundations’ vision and mission. MDPI has a vision on achieving

responsible and sustainable fisheries activities and attempting to

provide ongoing care for the conservation of fisheries resources

and ecosystems of Indonesia and the region. There were also

materials presented about MDPI’s main programs: Sustainability,

Fair Trade, Traceability, Fishery Improvement Programs and the

introduction of the most updated sampling protocols.

MDPI all staffs training in Bedugul. Photo credit: MDPI

Included in the trainings, there were questions and discussions

sessions among the participants. There were also sharing sessions

from field staffs about their experience, their ups and downs in the

field and their suggestions to fellow staffs. To create more

excitement, the trainers also provided a variety of interesting and

educational games, ice breaking, exercise sessions, English learning

session, team building session and a one-day fun-time ‘free-day’ in

Bali.

After receiving training with many materials and information, we

attended a team building session as the wrap-up of the training.

This activity aimed to cultivate the intellect and our cooperation as

a group with members who have different backgrounds. This

activity reflected the activity in the fields where various staffs must

cooperate in dealing with problems that are often encountered. In

addition, it was also strengthen the bond of kinship of the entire

staff in the frame of a large family of MDPI, a family committed to

work with all of our heart to support and to achieve sustainable

fisheries in Indonesia from eastern region of the archipelago.

Team building session in Bedugul. Photo credit: MDPI

Yayasan Masyarakat dan Perikanan Indonesia (MDPI)

Email: info@mdpi.or.id

Website: www.mdpi.or.id

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Twitter: @MDPIndonesia