An institutional analysis of sasi laut in Maluku, Indonesia



1.4 Outputs

The research has produced the following results:

• This project report, documenting the various components of the institutional analysis
i.e., contextual information, inventory, performance study, case studies, resilience study
and lessons learned.

• A number of academic publications on sasi and the inshore fishery.

• A report provided to all villages where the inventory was carried out.

• A report for each case study village.

• A policy document that will be sent to the national government of Indonesia. In it, we
provide our findings together with recommendations from the village/district
government, academic and NGO colleagues regarding steps that could be taken in
support of co-management of marine resources in Indonesia.

1.5 Report Summary

The marine resources of central Maluku are very rich but are under severe pressure, particularly
from destructive fishing techniques. After a period of rapid increase in fishing pressure and
catches, there is now a need for more cautious management. Nevertheless, economic pressures
provide a strong incentive for further expansion of fisheries.

The central Maluku fishery is numerically dominated by artisanal fisher-farmers having low-
technology boats, fishing gears and limited formal education. Younger fishers include increasing
numbers of Muslims and they are more focused on deep-water pelagic resources. Fishers are
also moving from the artisanal to the small-scale sector and onto larger commercial vessels as
crew. Both artisanal fishers and commercial crew earn marginal incomes, have no control over
fish prices, and are unorganized. Profit-sharing systems that are in place provide incentives to
fishers to maximize catch, if necessary, through use of destructive gears such as very fine mesh
nets. At the same time, enforcement of national fisheries regulations is lax and there are serious
deficiencies in government management agencies in terms of motivation, coordination,
knowledge, infrastructure, and funding support. Local village institutions (
sasi), while generally
well respected, have less credence with the younger, commercially-oriented fishers.

The majority of rural, coastal villagers are still directly or indirectly dependent on fishery.
Fishers clearly recognize that inshore and pelagic fisheries resources in Maluku are in decline.
Few encourage their children to enter the fishery even though they themselves find it to be a
fulfilling occupation. In the study area, there is an overall decline in social interaction,
cooperation, and compliance with fisheries rules. Collapsing inshore fish catches have driven
subsistence fishers ever farther out to sea and future conflict with commercial sectors is
inevitable if management and conflict resolution arrangements are not set in place. However,
fishers in general do not perceive that management options are available to redress the
situation. They also still consider ocean resources to be unlimited, even though local resources
may be depleted. They see the solution to declining catches as being an increase in their
fishing power (bigger boats and motors). NGO and academic researchers, noting these trends,
have begun to push the government to look for ways to revive or establish local management
with sasi, the traditional resource management institution, as the basis.

Coastal villages typically claim de facto rights of access and withdrawal over fairly extensive areas
of both land and sea.
Sasi, the local institution under which some fishing activities are regulated,
is nested in traditional culture, called
adat, which lays down the basic ethics and codes of conduct.

6 An Institutional Analysis of Sasi Laut in Maluku, Indonesia



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