Prototype
Rote Island
Subscription Fisheries
Rote Island is a fisheries hub for the East Nusa Tenggara province of Indonesia. The use of destructive fishing with high bycatch such as gillnets, drift nets, blast fishing, using potassium and cyanide, etc; have been observed in the last decade. Since the establishment of a Marine Protected Area (MPA) on the island, the government has been struggling to socialised the rules and regulations, with the importance of no-take zones as safe havens for the fisheries population to thrive. Hence, causing a slow but significant decline in fish catch every year.
Rote’s tourism has also been growing significantly in the last 5 years, heading towards an early Bali tourism stage. It is vital to introduce responsible fisheries before it becomes too crowded and more difficult to control. There has already been a demand for a more sustainably caught fisheries by resorts and residential foreigners in Rote, but they’ve had difficulties in communicating this to the local communities. Which results in an increase in sport / spear fishing as an alternative to not trusting where the source of fish is coming from.
Updates
Launch!
16 June 2018
On this first iLab session, we were aiming to build a stronger relationship between the fishermen and their buyers i.e expats and resort owners, through interactive activities and discussions, in the hopes that it will lead to a better management of their fisheries and marine environment. Read more by clicking the image.
People
Founders
Nesha Ichida
Nesha is the marine conservation field officer for Indonesian Manta Project at Rote Island. Her focus is on manta ray and marine megafauna monitoring, along with working together with local communities and stakeholders on the management of their marine protected area. She is also the co-founder of Divers Clean Action, a youth initiative on waste management and marine debris mapping in Jakarta. After being part YSEALI and EWC alumni Spring 2018, she decided to do start the Laut Community iLab together with Megi and incorporate it into her current work in Rote. She hopes through these innovation labs, they could empower local communities to bring in their knowledge in creating prototypes to tackle different marine environmental issues, which can be designed specifically for each different communities.
Anissa Megia Sari
Megi is an alternative livelihoods program officer for Misool Foundation in Lamakera, a small village located in the center of Indonesia and one of the centers of the global manta ray gill raker trade. As a part of YSEALI and EWC alumni, she wants to bring her core values and influential things in the marine conservation and alternative livelihoods to support the responsible and sustainable fisheries to the community through Laut Community iLabs in Rote island. She hopes that her contribution can make a transition and change towards community awareness of sustainable livings while also channeled her passion for environment.
Partners
