The pole and line boats target pelagic fish, especially skipjack (cakalang). Fishing takes place
throughout central and northern Maluku. Prices of fish are increasing. In February 1998, the
price given to Nolloth fishers for export quality fish almost doubled. These trends are directly
related to the availability of fish and to market structures. More details on the commercial
fishery and on the commercial fish trade can be found in Chapter 5.
10.3.2 Trade in top shells and sea cucumbers
Under the current village head, there is a harvest of sea cucumbers and top shells from the
sasi area every two years. There is a large market demand for sea cucumbers by Chinese
traders as well as by Butonese and Javanese fishers who travel around the Moluccan seas.
The KUD, which pays for the harvesting rights, sells both sea cucumbers and top shells to
Chinese-Indonesian traders in Ambon.
Trochus niloticus is a protected species under national law and trade in top shells is, therefore,
illegal. As a result, all shells must be sold to certain traders who have government permits to
handle cultivated top shells and use this as a cover for trading wild shells. The profits enjoyed
by those in control of this trade monopoly are significant (also see Zerner and Thorburn,
forthcoming). On the international market, the price is paid in US dollars. The traders however,
pay the villagers in Indonesian rupiahs and so benefit from the plunging exchange rates.
Profits at the village level are far below what they could be if the controlled harvest of top
shells in sasi areas was legal and villagers could gain direct access to the foreign market.
10.4 Sasi Institutional and Organizational Arrangements
Nolloth is one of the villages where sasi is still strong. The practice of sasi dates back at least to the
colonial period (Huliselan 1996, pers. comm.). Sasi rules in Nolloth, whether implemented by kewang,
church or the village government, are based on adat or customary law. In the absence of a formal
and legal mandate to manage the marine village territory, adat provides village authorities with the
legitimacy to undertake resource management and collect resource rents, both within and outside
of sasi (Hualopu 1991). The adat rules are, in effect, the constitutional rules of the sasi institution.
Under adat law, the rights, authority and obligations of the kewang are defined, as well as the
boundaries of the village territory and the marine sasi area. The rights of villagers to enter
common property areas and utilize natural resources are recognized and supported. Some of
these de facto rules and customs are written down, others are not, i.e., the decision-making
process (see Appendix 6 for Nolloth sasi rules).
The traditional sasi institution (sasi adat) has been complemented with a type of sasi controlled by
the church (sasi gereja) that is applied on coconuts. These arrangements are also not written down.
On land, sasi defines the areas belonging to different families and thus manages the resources
as a private property system under constitutional rules. The sea, on the other hand, is by its
nature seen as a common property resource with defined access rights in the sasi area. Within
the village territory, local residents and their non-resident children have rights of access and
withdrawal for all living marine resources except those under sasi or other village regulation
(see below). Adat allows sasi authorities (the kewang and village government) to exclude
outsiders from fishing in the village territory, or at least require that they ask permission
and/or pay for access rights.
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