February 2014

On 20-24 January 2014 last, three newly hired port sampling sites managers (who will be placed in already functioning data collection sites in Nusa Tenggara Timor and in the Moluccas) had a five day Fair Trade training, in the office of Yayasan Masyarakat dan Perikanan, Indonesia in Bali. The new Fishing & Living sites managers will be responsible in carrying out the fair trade implementation on the ground within the Fairtrade pilot sites in the Moluccas, as well as managing and supervising the data collection in the respective sites.. During this fair trade training, it was briefly explained about the fair trade concept to the three new sites managers, as well as the history and the development of this different concept of developmental trade; how Fairtrade is designed to allow the rural farmers (and now Fishermen) to develop systems which allow them to develop themselves and their communities in a practical way for the future of their resource.

The first Fair Trade USA Capture Fisheries Standard was also discussed in detail during the training. The standard describes all of the Fair Trade USA Compliance Criteria which need to be implemented over a 6 year period to attain all of the requirements which FT USA specifies as essential for complete compliance to the standard. The compliance criteria are divided into several sections and should be completedby all of the stakeholders involved in the process.

The final product of the training was the generation of an extensive work plan which contains specific activities to be completed in the next six months based on the standard. We are pleased to report that at the end of the meeting, all the new sites managers were extremely positive regarding this Fair Trade implementation on the ground. The Fair Trade program will hopefully allow the fishermen the opportunity to become more empowered, not only in a social sense but also in an economic sense.

Article by: Nilma Wati