Chapter 18
Overall Discussion and Conclusions
18.1 Adat and the Definition of Access Rights in Inshore Waters
In the Maluku province, certain marine tenure rights and management responsibilities are a
part of culturally-embedded institutions and traditions known as adat. Coastal villages
typically claim de facto rights of access and withdrawal over fairly extensive areas of both
land and sea, collectively called the petuanan negeri (village territory). Whereas some or all of
the land territory is divided among local clans, the marine area is communally owned. Marine
territories abut the land territories. In the Lease Islands, they usually extend out to the edge
of the reef slope but in southern Maluku’s Kei Islands, the marine village territory, in some
cases, extends out to the farthest limits from which the land can still be discerned. Access
and withdrawal rights in the marine territory are usually restricted to and shared among
community residents i.e., the resources are common property. However, exclusive rights of
access and withdrawal for particular areas or species may also be sold or auctioned by the
village government to individuals or companies, i.e., converted from common property to
private goods. Control over the marine village territory is, in some cases, vested in an
organization called the kewang, which is part of a traditional institution known as sasi.
Even where the marine territory extends only to the reef slope, the area beyond this but still
within sight of land may also be under a degree of local control. For instance, lift net operators
wanting to catch fish offshore of a village on Ambon Island usually have to pay a fee to the
village government. These fees are not official, nor are they legally enforceable, but they are
usually paid because the lift net operator knows that local fishers will vandalize his nets and
craft if he does not pay (J. Sohouwat, Toisapu, pers. comm. 1997; H. Wattimena, village head
Seri, pers. comm. 1998). In this case, the fish caught by the lift nets are a type of toll goods.
A third level of de facto fishing rights may extend far out to sea, where several villages on one
or more islands have recognized fishing grounds. These constitute common pool goods that
may or may not be entirely open access. Fishers who exploit the fishing grounds may be
subsistence fishers in sail-powered outrigger canoes, or commercial fishers in larger motorboats
with a crew. The small sailing canoes (perahu) travel surprising distances, and may fish side
by side with industrial vessels. Vessels over five GT are in theory restricted to waters three
miles or more from shore. However, they are also known to enter and exploit inshore waters
traditionally claimed by coastal communities. Indeed, villages may lay claim to waters more
than three miles offshore. In other words, the boundaries of inshore and offshore areas are
not clearly evident or agreed upon by either the small-scale or industrial fishing fleets.
18.2 Need for Better Marine Resources Management in Maluku
The sasi institution is in decline and in many villages has disappeared, but the need for local
management is more urgent than ever. The majority of villagers are still directly or indirectly
dependent on the fishery. In the study area, there is an overall decline in social interaction
and cooperation, compliance to fisheries rules, fish catches, and environmental health. Because
of bleak prospects, fishers do not urge their children to be fishers, putting at risk the fishing
culture of Maluku. Collapsing inshore fish catches have driven subsistence fishers ever farther
260 An Institutional Analysis of Sasi Laut in Maluku, Indonesia