When the Science Isn’t Enough: How KIOTEC Is Training the Policy Minds Indonesia’s Oceans Actually Need

There is a version of ocean governance that looks like it is working: the data gets collected, the research gets published, the reports land on someone’s desk. And then, somewhere between the desk and the decision, the thread goes cold. Not because the science was wrong, but because no one in the room knew how to translate it into policy that could survive an interagency meeting, a budget negotiation, or a change of government.

It is a gap that marine conservationists have complained about for years, usually while standing in hallways at international conferences. What is less common is an institution that tries to close it deliberately, with a curriculum, a room, and thirty people who have cleared their calendars for two days to work on it.

That is what happened in Jakarta last month.

A Course Built for the Room Where Policy Happens

On 19 and 20 May 2026, the Korea-Indonesia Integrated Ocean Fisheries Technology Training Center (KIOTEC) convened its first Special Topic Course of the year at its training facilities in Ancol, North Jakarta. The subject was “Policy Analysis for Partnership Development in Marine Governance,” and the thirty participants were not graduate students or NGO staff. They were civil servants: representatives from the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (KKP), the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), the Ministry of National Development Planning (Bappenas), and the Coordinating Ministry for Food Affairs. People, in other words, who will be writing the policies, not just the papers.

The framing matters. Technical training for ocean professionals typically focuses on what it sounds like: equipment operation, survey methodology, data management. KIOTEC’s broader programme covers all of that. But this course was designed around a different premise: that the primary bottleneck in Indonesian marine governance is not a shortage of scientific knowledge, but a shortage of people who can move that knowledge through institutional systems.

Why Policy, Not Just Science

Dr. Park Hansan, KIOTEC’s Project Manager and Vice-chairperson of IOC UNESCO, put the diagnosis plainly during the course. Based on his experience in Indonesia-Korea marine cooperation spanning several decades, he argued that the main challenge in regional partnerships is the persistent gap between technical knowledge and what actually happens in the field.

Complex marine issues cannot be solved by science alone. It requires strong policy analysis and inter-institutional collaboration.

Dr. Park Hansan, KIOTEC Project Manager and Vice-chairperson, IOC UNESCO

The two-day curriculum reflected that. Participants worked through stakeholder mapping, communication and negotiation strategy, and expert-led workshops, closing with presentations from each attendee. The goal was not to produce policy theorists. It was to give working bureaucrats and researchers a sharper set of tools for the situations they are already in.

Inside the Korea-Indonesia Partnership

KIOTEC sits within a larger framework worth understanding. The project is an Official Development Assistance initiative funded by South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, officially launched in June 2024 through an implementation arrangement between Korean and Indonesian government agencies and research institutions. Its capacity-building arm, the Korea-Indonesia Ocean Technology Capacity Enhancement Actions (KIOTEC-CEA), has been recognised as Decade Action No. 13.7 under the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, running through 2030. That endorsement places KIOTEC’s work within the global ECOP (Early Career Ocean Professionals) Programme, which focuses specifically on building the next generation of ocean scientists and practitioners in countries where the governance infrastructure for ocean management is still developing.

Why Indonesia

Indonesia is, by almost any measure, one of the most important marine nations on earth. The archipelago spans more than 5,000 kilometres and contains a significant portion of the Coral Triangle, the most biodiverse marine region on the planet. Managing that resource sustainably requires not just field scientists but people who understand how to build the institutional structures around them. A fisheries biologist who can identify a collapsing stock is necessary. A policy analyst who can turn that finding into a quota, a protected area designation, or a bilateral fisheries agreement is what makes the difference.

The course’s opening was addressed by Yanti Permatasari of the Coordinating Ministry for Food Affairs and Dr. Lilly Aprilya Pregiwati of BPPSDMKP, both of whom connected the training to the current administration’s emphasis on a sustainable blue economy. The Kampung Nelayan Merah Putih initiative, a government programme focused on fishing communities, was cited as context for why strong marine governance infrastructure matters at the community level, not just in ministry offices.

What Comes Next

A second Special Topic Course is already scheduled for June 2026, with a theme to be confirmed, and a Marine Survey Equipment Training focused on water quality and DNA methods is planned for July. KIOTEC is also running doctoral scholarship programmes, master’s degree awards, and an exchange programme between Indonesian and Korean institutions.

The ambition here is worth taking seriously. Bilateral development partnerships in ocean science are not uncommon, but ones that invest specifically in the policy and governance skills of mid-career civil servants are rarer than they should be. The ocean sector has no shortage of researchers who understand the problems. What it needs are the people who know how to do something about them.

For more information about KIOTEC and its capacity-building programmes, visit kiotec.org.

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Photos: Courtesy of KIOTEC. SEVENSEAS Media thanks KIOTEC for sharing images from the Special Topic Course.

About the author

Giacomo Abrusci is the Editor-in-Chief of SEVENSEAS Media, an ocean-focused publication and conservation network. He writes on marine policy, conservation, and the institutions shaping how the ocean is governed.