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Global collaboration needed to combat illegal fishing: Jokowi
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has stressed the importance of global collaboration in combatting illegal fishing, which has become a transnational crime.
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Warm welcome – President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (left), accompanied by Yogyakarta Governor Hamengku Buwono (right), greets local residents during his visit to a small-and medium-sized enterprise product exhibition in Jasem village, Bantul, Yogyakarta, on Oct.10. (Antara/Hendra Nurdiyansyah)
P
resident Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has stressed the importance of global collaboration in combatting illegal fishing, which has become a transnational crime.
Jokowi stated illegal fishing had a tremendous impact not only on Indonesia’s fishing industry but also on the environment.
Illegal fishing activities were also linked to other crimes, such as the smuggling of goods, human and drug trafficking and environment conservation violations, which all had grown into well-organized transnational crimes, he went on.
“Therefore, it’s important for us to combat well organized transnational crime with global collaboration," Jokowi said, as quoted from his remarks during the opening of the International Fisheries Crime Symposium in Yogyakarta, on Monday.
He further said that the sea was an income source for 520 million people and provided food for 2.6 billion people in countries across the world. “Illegal fishing practices have reduced the global fish stocks by 90.1 percent,” he went on.
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) data revealed Indonesia ranked second in fisheries production in 2014, with a total catch amounting to 6 billion tons, equivalent to 6.8 percent of the total world production.
However, Jokowi believed illegal fishing was one of the issues currently hampering Indonesia's fisheries sector.
“Illegal fishing has resulted in economic losses amounting to US$20 billion per year in Indonesia and threatens 65 percent of our coral reefs,” Jokowi said. (ebf)
