10.4.5 Compliance
Every month, the kewang members catch one or two locals who steal coconuts from the village
gardens. These are usually poorer villagers or people that indulge in greed. Income depends
for a large part on the personal efforts that people make, and people who steal are usually
considered “just lazy”. Thefts from the marine sasi area also occur. Within six months, there
were two cases of intercepted thefts of top shells from the sasi area by outsiders (none by
Nolloth villagers). In addition, there was the unconfirmed suspicion of a major theft of top
shells over the Christmas holidays of 1997, just before sasi was opened. It is likely that such
thefts are most common in the six months leading up to a harvest, when the top shells are
relatively large and plentiful.
10.4.6 Significance of sasi and local knowledge
The sasi knowledge base shared by the head of the kewang and village elders is still strong.
Common villagers have general knowledge of sasi and they conform to the regulations, but
detailed knowledge is exclusive to adat elders. The current village head, who grew up in
Ambon, was initiated into the sasi rituals by his predecessor and the head of the kewang. The
head of the kewang shared only such knowledge as was appropriate. He is very careful to
guard his knowledge because it is sacred. The head of the kewang and other village elders
expressed concern that they would not live long enough to pass on the knowledge to suitable
descendents. The son of the head of the kewang, for instance, seems uninterested in the
information and thus is not ready to receive it. But to keep the tradition alive, it is essential
that knowledge is passed on to the younger generation.
The two main objectives of sasi are said to be protection of the harvest and theft control. Most
villagers have little practical knowledge about sasi; to them, sasi is part of tradition and people
simply “do what the ancestors did.” What is clear to them though, is that sasi does have
certain benefits. For example, it was mentioned that sasi protects the reef from being damaged
by blast fishing and nets. Otniel Patty, a Nolloth fisherman explained: “Sasi helps to protect
the area from people” and “to keep the fish big and many”. Most villagers and all fishers
interviewed agree that sasi is important because it prevents people from stealing or destroying
the resources. Sasi thus not only ensures that the products are ripe when harvested, but also
that the yield is maximal. This works for forest products and certain marine products, but is
not applied to fish because “people have to live” and a prohibition on catching fish could be
unacceptable (Otniel Patty, pers. comm.). In the sea, conservation in the form of sasi regulations
is only applied on resources that are not essential for people’s livelihood and that have a
considerable market value, i.e., top shells and sea cucumbers.
To most women, marine sasi is less relevant than land sasi. The women gather shells in the
sasi area but there are no sasi rules that directly apply to the species that they harvest. Apart
from a share of the top shell yield, which they get if they are KUD members, the women, since
they cannot work as harvesters, get no direct benefits from marine sasi.
From our interviews, it appeared that younger respondents generally valued sasi and they
believed that traditional village leaders should protect it. They explained that as long as the
relationship between the village government and the people is good, and as long as everybody
collaborates in the management and implementation of sasi, it will be continued. However, to
keep young people involved in sasi, it is necessary that they understand the purpose of sasi
and get benefits from its practice.
110 An Institutional Analysis of Sasi Laut in Maluku, Indonesia