As the first light of dawn reaches Galo-Galo Island in North Maluku, Nida begins her day by the sea. For more than twenty years, the ocean has shaped her life and livelihood. Like many women in her community, she moves fluidly between roles—joining night fishing trips with her husband and tending to seaweed farms that stretch across the shallow coastal waters.

Here, the ocean is more than a resource. It is a lifeline.

Life in Galo-Galo is not without challenges. Located about forty minutes by small boat from Morotai Island, electricity is limited to evening hours, and access to ice is scarce. For a community that relies on fishing, seaweed farming, and fish processing, these constraints make daily work more difficult. Fishers struggle to keep their catch fresh, while seaweed farmers must anticipate rising operational costs, market uncertainty, and increasing climate-related risks such as warmer waters and changing weather patterns.

For Nida, every expense matters in sustaining her household.

Together with other women fishers, Nida spends hours preparing seaweed seedlings before transporting them to shallow coastal waters to grow. The seedlings are tied onto ropes, anchored in sandy seabeds, and left to grow for around 40 days before being harvested, dried, and sold.

While vital to household income, this work is increasingly vulnerable to climate change. In recent years, increasingly unpredictable ocean conditions have made the work more challenging. Rising sea temperatures have led to more frequent outbreaks of ice-ice disease, a bacterial infection causing seaweed to weaken and rot before it reaches maturity. During severe outbreaks, the disease has been observed to cause crop losses of up to 30-80 percent across Indonesia. When this happens, seaweed farmers are often forced to harvest early to avoid losing entire crops, reducing both yields and earnings.

Fishing households face similar pressures. A single fishing trip can require up to 10 litres of fuel costing around IDR200,000 ($11), placing significant strain on household incomes. Dependence on fuel-powered boats not only increases costs, but also contributes to carbon emissions that exacerbate climate change, further affecting seaweed growth.

Without reliable access to ice, preserving fish quality is also difficult. “If we needed ice, we had to cross to another island,” Nida recalled. Fishers often have to travel to neighboring islands to purchase ice, adding both time and cost to each trip. Preserving one box of fish can require around 10 blocks of ice, further increasing expenses.

When ice is unavailable, families often process fish into salted products that sell at lower prices, around IDR50,000 ($2.8) per bundle, compared to up to IDR70,000 ($4) in larger markets.

Small Technologies, Meaningful Change

To help strengthen coastal livelihoods while reducing environmental impacts, the seaBLUE project, implemented by UNDP Indonesia with support from the Government of Japan and in collaboration with the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF), introduced renewable energy solutions to Galo-Galo.

The initiative established a solar-powered charging station for electric boat engines, alongside a solar-powered cold storage facility capable of producing ice even when conventional electricity is unavailable.

For women fishers like Nida, electric boat engines provide an alternative to diesel-powered boat engines. Available for rent at IDR30,000 ($1.7), they offer a more affordable option for reaching seaweed cultivation sites while lowering carbon emissions.

The cold storage facility has brought equally transformative benefits. With a more reliable and consistent supply of ice, fishers can better preserve the quality of their catch and access higher-value markets. Families no longer need to travel to other islands, saving both time and money.

Women at the Centre of Community-based Solutions

For Udian, deputy chair of the local tourism awareness group or Kelompok Sadar Wisata (Pokdarwis), the project has opened new opportunities.

Together with other community members, Udian helps manage the solar-powered cold storage facility from producing and storing to selling ice to residents. Ice is sold at around IDR2,000 (11 cent) per block, making it accessible while creating a small but growing source of income for the community. Fishers rely on it to preserve their catch, while households use it for daily needs, community events, and transporting food between islands. 

“The community really benefits from having ice available here,” Udian said. “Before, people had to travel elsewhere when supplies ran out. Now there is always stock available.”

Beyond providing ice, the facility has become a community-managed service that generates local economic activity while reducing dependence on external resources.

For women like Udian, it also highlights their role not only as users of technology, but as active managers of community assets that sustain livelihoods. As a single parent, this role provides an important opportunity to contribute to her household while supporting her community.

Investing in People, Protecting the Ocean

Across Galo-Galo, daily life continues - seaweed is cultivated, fish are caught and processed, and families work hard to sustain their livelihoods.

What is changing is the support and choices available to them - and choices they now can make.

As the world marks World Ocean Day, Galo-Galo offers an important reminder. Healthy oceans are not only environmental assets, but they are also the foundation of livelihoods, food security, and economic opportunity for millions of coastal communities.

Through the seaBLUE project, UNDP is supporting practical, locally driven solutions for sustainable small-scale fisheries and thus advancing a sustainable blue economy. By promoting renewable energy, improving sustainable fishing practices, and community-led innovation, the initiative helps fishers and coastal communities reduce operational constraints, improve productivity, and build greater resilience in a changing environment.

For women like Nida and Udian, the impact goes beyond increased outcomes or reduced costs. It is reflected in greater confidence, the confidence to continue building a future for their families in the place they call home. 

Because sustainable human development begins with people. And on islands like Galo-Galo, investing in people is also an investment in the future of the ocean (*).

Author: Anastasia Weningtias

Editor: Thomas Benmetan