Table 5.

Issues and recommendations for future improvements in Indonesia’s governance and conservation of cetaceans

Issues	Recommendations
Lack of data regarding the sustainability of traditional whaling	The Indonesian government needs to provide local communities with knowledge about the sustainability aspects of whaling and continue studies on anthropogenic threats to cetacean populations and sociocultural studies of whaling traditions
Indonesia is not yet a full member of the IWC and CMS	Indonesia is advised to join the IWC and the CMS to receive assistance in assessing the sustainability of traditional whaling, gain other benefits beyond whaling, and be able to cooperate regionally in research on cetaceans
Fulfillment of US MMPA import requirements	Indonesia should appropriately work with the US government and provide relevant information, capacity, and technical support to meet MMPA Import Provisions Rule requirements
Policies derived from laws and regulations related to the governance and conservation of cetaceans still have gaps that need to be filled in	Several policies that need to be accommodated in amending laws and regulations in the future include provisions governing underwater noise pollution, cetacean stranding networks, standards for aquaria, a tourism code of ethics for cetacean observation, and consideration of sociocultural aspects in traditional whaling
Overlapping jurisdictions between institutions in marine conservation	The Indonesian government must establish an inter-agency collaborative governance mechanism to resolve unclear mandates and overlapping jurisdictions between agencies