Aimee Gabay, Karawang/Jakarta, Indonesia – At 55, Warno has spent the past quarter of a century making a living from a fish farm that he manages in Karawang district, in the Indonesian province of West Java. Here, in ponds spanning a combined 2 hectares (5 acres), he raises milkfish and shrimp, and grows seaweed.
"Every year, I have to spend a considerable amount of money to start over after the harvest," he tells Mongabay Indonesia. "There also has to be regular maintenance to keep the pond water in good condition."
Crucially, Warno doesn't own the land his fish farm sits on; he rents it from PT Perhutani, a government-owned company. That makes him one of many small-scale fish farmers along the northern Java coast who say they fear losing the land under a new government plan to revitalize what it calls "idle" state-owned aquafarms covering 78,000 hectares (about 193,000 acres) across the region.
Indonesia's fisheries minister, Sakti Wahyu Trenggono, has described the program as a key strategy to support the government's national food security agenda. The first phase covers some 20,400 hectares (50,400 acres) of ponds along most of West Java's northern coast. Most of these are what the ministry terms "unproductive": managed using traditional methods, lacking water reservoirs and wastewater treatment facilities, and generating very low yields per hectare.
Sakti said the program would develop the farms into high-value and sustainable aquaculture zones, with yields improving from about 0.6 metric tons per hectare to 144 metric tons per hectare. He added this would generate 30.65 trillion rupiah ($1.88 billion) in output and create 119,000 jobs.
But fish farmers say they're skeptical. Warno says he fears the government will simply take over his fish ponds, leaving him without a livelihood or any compensation.
"We're struggling just to survive," he says. "If the ponds are taken over, what will happen to us? We only hope for fairness."
If the government is to take over the ponds, he says, it should compensate farmers for the maintenance costs they've paid so far, as well as pay the rental fees owed to Perhutani.
The fisheries ministry has held meetings with local leaders in the affected districts and plans further consultations with villagers before signing agreements with the district governments. Authorities say the program has been met with broad support in the area. Warno, who has been invited to these meetings, says he refuses to attend because he's convinced it will only confirm his fears that he's about to lose the land.
Some experts say the revitalization program could fuel new land clearing and worsen coastal damage, and have urged the government to focus on ecological restoration instead.
Susan Herawati, secretary-general of the People's Coalition for Fisheries Justice (KIARA), a national NGO, said that while the government frames the project as reviving idle ponds for revenue, it could still trigger expansion into mangrove and other coastal ecosystems. West Java had 12,429 hectares (30,713 acres) of mangrove cover in 2024, up from 9,941 hectares (24,565 acres) in 2021, thanks to restoration efforts. Further restoration could bring the total coverage to 39,039 hectares (96,467 acres), KIARA says, citing the government's National Mangrove Map.
Aquaculture expansion in Indonesia has long come at the cost of mangroves, with about 40% lost over three decades, according to a 2015 study from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). The country, home to 3.3 million hectares (8.2 million acres) of mangroves – the world's largest archipelagic wetland forest – has seen these vital ecosystems cleared largely to make way for fish and shrimp ponds.
"This risk [of further mangrove loss] will grow if the project is not preceded by scientific research and an environmental impact assessment," Susan said. Just as crucial, she added, is the need for the government to obtain the consent of local communities over the use of the affected areas.
Industrial aquaculture in Indonesia started out in the 1970s with ponds built in freshwater, brackish and saltwater areas. Initially, these ponds focused on raising carp and tilapia, before a boom in the more lucrative market for shrimp toward the end of that decade.
By the early 2000s, aquaculture ponds in Indonesia covered an area of almost 750,000 hectares (1.9 million acres) and accounted for more than a fifth of the country's total fish production, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.
Under the new revitalization program, the government is also seeking to boost processing capacity for the seafood produced on the aquafarms. That starts with shift to raising more saltwater tilapia, which Sakti, the minister, says is more disease resistance and faster growing than other fish, and which enjoys strong market demand at home and abroad.
"We want to become a strong nation in fisheries, especially in providing food and protein," Sakti said. "I am confident that the revitalization program we are starting in West Java will run well."
He added the program would draw investors to build processing facilities, in turn adding value to Indonesia's aquaculture products.
But Susan warned that increased private sector investment could lead to the privatization of coastal areas – a violation of Indonesia's Constitution – and also criticized the preference for tilapia, an invasive species that she said could harm fragile coastal ecosystems.
"Once again, the fisheries ministry only talks about production, without considering the most fundamental need: a healthy and clean environment," Susan said. "No matter how big a community's independently managed ponds are, they will be overshadowed by large operators, leaving locals as mere pond laborers."
[Basten Gokkon is a senior staff writer for Indonesia at Mongabay. Find him on X @bgokkon.]