An institutional analysis of sasi laut in Maluku, Indonesia

explaining why they thought their catches had declined, no fewer than 133 respondents blamed
increases in the number of modern fishing gears and a further 67 people pointed to the increase
in lift nets (bagans) and FADs (rumpons) as being especially bad for the fishery.

Resource health

Fishers blamed the decline of resource health on many factors. The most common were: too
many modern gears (133 comments), too many lift nets and FADs (67 comments), habitat
destruction by fishing gears (35 comments), blast fishing (33 comments), use of poisons (16
comments), domestic wastes and other pollution (86 comments), oil pollution (37 comments),
factory discharges (32 comments), lack of awareness (25 comments), and increasing population
(29 comments). Complaints about various forms of pollution came mostly from Ambon Island
and from Soahuku on Seram. Concern about blast fishing and the use of poisons was voiced
on every island.

8.6 Socio-Economic Conditions in Sasi and Non-Sasi Villages

8.6.1 Economic score and relationship to sasi

Fishers in sasi villages were on average older, mostly Christian, and had relatively limited
formal education (Table 8.3). The economic score of each fisher was calculated using data on
land ownership, type of housing, fishing gear and boat (see Section 2.4.3). Although age and
limited education were each negatively correlated with economic score, there was no
statistically significant difference between average economic status of sasi and non-sasi fishers.

There were, however, significant differences in average economic score among the 28 villages.
Fishers in Seith (sasi), Tiow (non-sasi), Iha (non-sasi) and Pelauw (non-sasi) were the poorest.
It is not the presence of sasi that seems to be decisive, but religion may be a factor. In all these
villages, either the dominant religion is Muslim or we interviewed Muslim fishers in a
predominantly Christian village.

The villages with significantly higher scores than the above four were Morela (sasi), Siri-Sori
(sasi), Soahuku (sasi), Eri (non-sasi), Ouw (non-sasi), Rutah (non-sasi) and Hutumuri (non-
sasi) (see Appendix 2 for status of sasi). The other villages were intermediate. The seven
“richest” fishing communities thus include three sasi and four non-sasi types. Two of the
seven are Muslim. Therefore, there is no evidence from our data that sasi as an institution has
either a significant positive or negative impact on the economic well-being of fishing families
or their communities.

Table 8.3. Average status of sasi and non-sasi fishers, in sample of n=508.

86 An Institutional Analysis of Sasi Laut in Maluku, Indonesia

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