Section E - Resilience and Applicability of Sasi in Fisheries Management
Chapter 17
Institutional Resilience: Loss and Revival of Sasi
Sasi is an important institution in the Lease Islands in Ambon Indonesia. Even though sasi
has survived over approximately 400 years, it is in the process of dying out in various parts of
the Moluccan Province. In a number of villages on Saparua, Haruku, Nusa Laut, Seram and
to a lesser extent Ambon, sasi is still practiced. In many others, the institution is no longer
active. This chapter tries to analyze when sasi, or aspects of sasi, disappeared and what factors
cause its decline or contribute to its resilience.
17.1 Institutional Resilience Defined
According to Kloos (1981), an institution is an acknowledged set of actions with regard to an
object of social value in a particular society. The structural-functionalist theories describe a
social institution as consisting of all the structural components of a society (patterns of
behavior) through which the main concerns and activities are organized and social needs are
met (Goddijn et al. 1980; Marshall 1994). Sasi, as such, is an institution that regulates natural
resources in order to meet the needs of the local population.
Resilience is an important characteristic of a management system. “Resilience is the ability of the
system to cope with change without collapsing” or “The ability of a system to absorb perturbations
by actively adapting to an ever changing environment” (Folke and Berkes 1995). Pollnac (1994)
adds that the degree of adaptability depends on the specific circumstances of a system. The
reduction in resilience means that vulnerability increases, with the risk that the system reaches a
threshold and collapses (Folke and Berkes 1995). Change is inherent to institutions. Community
management institutions should be understood as dynamic, social interventions, shaped by local
experience and influenced by external factors (Bailey and Zerner 1992). Yet, if adaptability to
changing conditions is insufficient, institutions can break down, leaving the fishery unregulated.
In studying institutional resilience, it is important to distinguish the formal and informal constraints,
enforcement characteristics (see Section 7.4), the different levels of rules and whether they function
on the formal or informal level, and the objective or function of the management system.
17.2 Institutional Resilience Operationalized
The resilience study is based on information from the inventory, the comparative case study
including demographic information, and the contextual attributes (political, economic and socio-
cultural). Additional key informant interviews covered questions on 1) the objective of sasi, 2)
the rules and regulations, 3) the role of the village government and traditional authorities, 4)
leadership, 5) boundaries, 6) compliance and enforcement, and 7) external factors having an
impact on the management institution. Detailed information on each of these aspects is described
in the individual case studies. The data from the inventory show the process of decline while
the additional information was used to explain the mechanism behind this process.
242 An Institutional Analysis of Sasi Laut in Maluku, Indonesia