The reason a number of villages on Ambon Island and Seram was selected is that for the
performance analysis, we wanted to sample at least 10 villages having sasi on marine resources,
and 10 villages with no sasi at all. The inventory, however, revealed that most villages on the
Lease Islands lie along a continuum, with relatively few having either fully functional sasi or
none at all. In order to get the required number of villages, we extended the inventory survey
to selected coastal villages on Ambon Island and southern Seram. Based on the results of this
extended inventory, two groups of 11 villages could be identified as performance study sites.
From the inventory, six case study villages were selected for the institutional analysis. First, all
villages were ranked with respect to the degree of activity of sasi. Then, two sasi villages were
identified that appeared to have strong marine management components, and two villages that
either never had marine sasi or had lost all memory of it. These two non-sasi villages could be
found only on Ambon Island. Finally, in order to study the process of breakdown and renewal,
two villages were selected where sasi had been recently lost and was being revived. The six
case study sites (Table 2.8) were on the islands of Ambon, Haruku and Saparua.
To collect contextual information on fish markets, the main fish markets and landing areas were
selected as sampling sites. These included those in the city of Ambon, Masohi and Tulehu. Smaller
markets investigated were in Saparua town and Passo. Local traders and commercial fishers were
interviewed in each of the six case study sites as well as at Hitu and Waai on Ambon Island.
Several large fish storage and export companies on Ambon and Seram were also approached.
Interviews at the various government bureaus involved in fisheries control, management and
enforcement, took place in Ambon (provincial capital), Masohi (district capital), and on Haruku
and Saparua (sub-district offices).
2.2 Inventory of the Sasi Institution
2.2.1 Objectives
The inventory was designed to document the sasi institution in every village of the Lease
Islands. It was extended to a number of other villages on Ambon and Seram to provide
information to facilitate site selection for the performance analysis (see Section 2.3). Specific
objectives of the inventory were:
• To determine the frequency of occurrence of various forms of sasi and, in particular, of
sasi applied to marine resources.
• To measure the strength of the sasi institution using quantitative indicators.
• To test the hypotheses that attributes of sasi vary with religion, geographic location
and village population.
• To document the types of marine management rules developed under sasi.
• To document non-sasi marine management rules at the village level and determine the
degree of impact sasi has on marine management in general.
2.2.2 Inventory method
Structured interviews on the presence and activity of sasi were conducted with key informants
in 63 villages. In all cases, at least one of the informants was a local government official
(preferably the village head or kepala desa) or traditional (adat) authority figure because they
are expected to have detailed knowledge on village-related issues. Church leaders, women
active in village affairs, elders and fishers were also sought out as informants (Table 2.1).
Methods 13