Like many of his fellow poor fishermen in Muara Angke, the father of four keeps thinking of how his family would survive if he eventually lost his job. “I don’t see the government seriously talking about the zoning plan for traditional fishermen in Jakarta,” Iwan said.

The Jakarta administration is drafting a bylaw on the coastal strategic area spatial plan and the zoning plan on coastal areas and small islands, which is expected to be complete by the end of the year.

Mandated by the 2014 law on management of coastal areas and small islands, the regulation will become the guideline on coastal utilization and management, economic development as well as avoidance of conflicts of interest among relevant parties.

Nineteen provinces, including West Kalimantan, Central Java, North Sulawesi and Lampung, already have their own zoning regulations.

In Jakarta, the drafting of the zoning regulations has met resistance from fisherman communities and environmentalists. The critics say that it is investment-oriented, while neglecting conservation and denying the rights of small-scale fishermen.

Iwan, who leads the Traditional Fishermen Community in Jakarta Bay, claims that the authorities never informed his community of the deliberation of the draft bylaw on the zoning plan. He suspects that the administration will not designate fishing grounds for them.  

“They would prioritize zoning for tourism development,” he said.

Susan Herawati, secretary-general of the People’s Coalition for Fisheries Justice Indonesia (Kiara), said she was worried the zoning regulations would be used to legalize reclamation projects – which she and like-minded activists fear will only worsen the ecological problem in the fragile bay.

Provinces that already have the zoning regulations, such as North Sulawesi, North Kalimantan and Lampung, allow reclamation in their waters.

“[The administration will think] if North Sulawesi can legalize reclamation, why can’t Jakarta?” she said, adding that many traditional fishermen in North Sulawesi have to bear the brunt of the regulation.

“We hope provincial administrations won’t allow extractive industries and land reclamations.” She insists that rights groups and fishermen be involved in the legal drafting process.

This is not the first time traditional fishermen have protested against the marine affairs policies of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration. In 2017, the government met protests over its ban on cantrang (seine nets), which are considered unsustainable and environmentally unfriendly.

The disputed regulation requires that all fishing boats switch to environmentally friendly equipment to help preserve coral reef and the seabed ecosystem in general.

Henny Warsilah, a senior sociologist with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said there were around 2.7 million fishermen living in 10,000 coastal villages across the archipelago. Their fish catch provides 80 percent of the animal protein for the population, she said.

“The future of coastal communities would be in danger if their space was threatened under the zoning regulations,” she said.

She demanded that the administration dedicate fishing zones for traditional fishermen and maintain space for coastal communities. She questions the government’s move to bolster maritime defense forces.

“Fishermen don’t need such rhetoric as ‘Indonesia is a global maritime axis’,” Henny said, referring to the initiative launched by Jokowi when he was running for president in 2014. (das)

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