moved in two essential directions. Some practitioners are re-inventing sasi as an institution
for resource conservation while others see it as a tool for collecting resource rents which, in
some cases, may be controlled for the benefit of social elites. To gain an overall picture of the
range and variety of sasi systems is the initial step in understanding the institution. Based on
this inventory, and on an understanding of the social and biological impacts of the institution,
we can develop strategies for maintaining and revitalizing the system or, where sasi no longer
exists, for establishing a new community-based resource management (CBRM) system.
Sasi offers an important research opportunity because it is one of the few (if not the only) long-
enduring CBRM systems in Asia. From the perspective of an analyst seeking insights into the
elements of a successful CBRM system, sasi has additional value because, unlike CBRM projects
(or more recently, co-management projects), sasi has a long history and has undergone
transformation through time. Thus, sasi provides us with not one case study site, but a rich
array of outcomes in villages that differ from one another in many ways. We can perform a
comparative analysis of these outcomes and ask: What different forms does sasi take today and
which are the most common? What contributes to sasi’s resilience, i.e., why has sasi become
extinct in some villages but survived in others? Why is it being revitalized in some villages?
Are there documentable benefits from sasi in terms of equity, efficiency and sustainability? This
project will go beyond the descriptive studies that have already been carried out on sasi, to
undertake a quantitative performance analysis. We hope to discover principles or elements that
can contribute to culturally appropriate and effective forms of community-level management.
In Indonesia, one obstacle to the maintenance and development of effective community-based
resource management institutions is that the government does not fully recognize or support
such institutions. Local institutions and customs are not reflected in national and provincial
resource management laws and policies. Without government support, fishing communities
are not able to defend their institutional arrangements (rights and rules), or hold off the slow
demise of their traditional management systems. While government policy makers know that
CBRM systems exist, they lack information on how well these systems perform. Before they
are willing to reshape government policy away from centralized management and towards
CBRM, they want to know that CBRM systems perform more equitably, efficiently and
sustainably than centralized management systems. Quantitative information on CBRM is
needed to support decision-making to change policy.
Sasi, being a village level institution, is not, by itself, a co-management structure. Co-management
requires at least two parties: a local institution working together with one or more higher levels
of government. In this report, we focus on the function and impact of sasi as a local institution
but also look at linkages with the government in order to gauge whether or not sasi is a good
model or basis for a local institution in some future co-management structure.
Research on sasi will help us to understand how CBRM systems change and adapt over time,
providing insight that is critical for the design of new CBRM systems. The results should be
of use to both the government and fishers of Indonesia. Information about the performance
of sasi can form the basis for changes in policy to support, maintain and develop CBRM
systems. The results should also be useful to a worldwide audience interested in the design
and implementation of CBRM systems, particularly regarding the resilience, equity, efficiency
and sustainability of these systems.
The goals of the project are:
1. To better understand the extent and functioning of traditional community-based coastal
resource management systems in Indonesia, specifically the sasi system in the Maluku
2 An Institutional Analysis of Sasi Laut in Maluku, Indonesia