Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c4f8m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T16:29:30.879Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social dimensions of local fisheries co-management in the Coral Triangle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2015

PHILIPPA JANE COHEN  and
DIRK JOHAN STEENBERGEN
PHILIPPA JANE COHEN*
Affiliation:
WorldFish, PO Box 438, Honiara, Solomon Islands ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
DIRK JOHAN STEENBERGEN
Affiliation:
Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory 0909, Australia Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
*
*Correspondence: Dr Philippa Cohen e-mail: p.cohen@cgiar.org
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The challenge to manage coastal resources within Asia-Pacific's Coral Triangle has gained global attention. Co-management is promoted as a key strategy to address this challenge. Contemporary community-based co-management often leads to ‘hybridization’ between local (customary) practices, and science-based management and conservation. However, the form of this hybrid has rarely been critically analysed. This paper presents examples of co-management practices in eastern Indonesia and Solomon Islands, focusing in particular on area closures. In contrast to the temporary closures used before the influx of sustainability discourses, contemporary closures are periodically-harvested but predominantly closed, reflecting attempts to reduce fishing effort and enhance ecological sustainability. When areas are opened, harvests are relatively short and largely triggered by the social and economic needs of particular individuals or whole communities. In all cases, engagement with environmental management interventions has led to more formalized access and use arrangements. The harvesting and management practices observed are influenced by these relatively recent interventions designed to promote sustainability, but also by religious institutions, increasing resource demand, and modernization. This study unpacks some of the contemporary influences, particularly environmental sustainability initiatives, on local management practices, and provides insights for co-management in practice.

Keywords

community-basedculturegovernanceIndonesiainstitutionsmarine resourcesSolomon Islandstradition
Type
Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , September 2015 , pp. 278 - 288
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adhuri, D.S. (2013) Selling the Sea, Fishing for Power: A Study of Conflict over Marine Tenure in Kei Islands, Eastern Indonesia. Asia-Pacific Environment Monograph, no. 8. Canberra, Australia: ANU E Press: 217 pp.Google Scholar
Armitage, D., Marschke, M. & Plummer, R. (2008) Adaptive co-management and the paradox of learning. Global Environmental Change-Human and Policy Dimensions 18: 86–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aswani, S. & Ruddle, K. (2013) Design of realistic hybrid marine resource management programs in Oceania. Pacific Science 67: 461–476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartlett, C.Y., Pakoa, K. & Manua, C. (2009) Marine reserve phenomenon in the Pacific islands. Marine Policy 33: 673–678.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Béné, C., Belal, E., Baba, M.O., Ovie, S., Raji, A., Malasha, I., Njaya, F., Andi, M.N., Russell, A. & Neiland, A. (2009) Power struggle, dispute and alliance over local resources: analyzing ‘democratic’ decentralization of natural resources through the lenses of Africa inland fisheries. World Development 37: 1935–1950.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berkes, F. (2009) Evolution of co-management: role of knowledge generation, bridging organizations and social learning. Journal of Environmental Management 90: 1692–1702.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carrier, J.G. (1987) Marine tenure and conservation in Papua New Guinea: problems in interpretation. In: The Question of the Commons: The Culture and Ecology of Communal Resources, ed. McCay, B. J. & Acheson, J. M., pp. 142–167. Tucson, AZ, USA: The University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Cinner, J.E. & Aswani, S. (2007) Integrating customary management into marine conservation. Biological Conservation 140: 201–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cinner, J.E., Basurto, X., Fidelman, P., Kuange, J., Lahari, R. & Mukminin, A. (2012 a) Institutional designs of customary fisheries management arrangements in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Mexico. Marine Policy 36: 278–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cinner, J.E., McClanahan, T.R., MacNeil, M.A., Graham, N.A.J., Daw, T.M., Mukminin, A., Feary, D.A., Rabearisoa, A.L., Wamukota, A., Jiddawi, N., Campbell, S.J., Baird, A.H., Januchowski-Hartley, F.A., Hamed, S., Lahari, R., Morove, T. & Kuange, J. (2012 b) Comanagement of coral reef social-ecological systems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 109: 5219–5222.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, P., Cinner, J. & Foale, S. (2013) Fishing dynamics associated with periodically-harvested marine closures. Global Environmental Change 23: 1702–1713.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, P.J. & Foale, S.J. (2013) Sustaining small-scale fisheries with periodically harvested marine reserves. Marine Policy 37: 278–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colding, J. & Folke, C. (2001) Social taboos: ‘Invisible’ systems of local resource management and biological conservation. Ecological Applications 11: 584–600.Google Scholar
Cribb, R.B. & Ford, M., (2009) Indonesia as an archipelago: managing islands, managing the seas. In: Indonesia Beyond the Water's Edge: Managing an Archipelagic State, ed. Cribb, R. B. & Ford, M., pp. 1–27. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coral Triangle Initiative Secretariat (2009) Regional plan of action; Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI-CFF). Report. Interim Regional CTI Secretariat, Manado, Indonesia: 87 pp.Google Scholar
Cudney-Bueno, R. & Basurto, X. (2009) Lack of cross-scale linkages reduces robustness of community-based fisheries management. PLoS ONE 4 (7): e6253. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006253 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davis, A. & Ruddle, K. (2012) Massaging the misery: recent approaches to fisheries governance and the betrayal of small-scale fisheries. Human Organization 71: 244–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, L., Cherrett, N. & Pemsl, D. (2011) Assessing the impact of fisheries co-management interventions in developing countries: A meta-analysis. Journal of Environmental Management 92: 1938–1949.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fabinyi, M., Knudsen, M. & Segi, S. (2010) Social complexity, ethnography and coastal resource management in the Philippines. Coastal Management 38: 617–632.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feary, D.A., Cinner, J.E., Graham, N.A.J. & Januchowski-Hartley, F.A. (2011) Effects of customary marine closures on fish behavior, spear-fishing success, and underwater visual surveys. Conservation Biology 25: 341–349.Google ScholarPubMed
Filer, C. (2006) Custom, law and ideology in Papua New Guinea. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 7: 65–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foale, S., Adhuri, D., Aliño, P., Allison, E., Andrew, N., Cohen, P., Evans, L., Fabinyi, M., Fidelman, P., Gregory, C., Stacey, N., Tanzer, J. & Weeratunge, N. (2013) Food security and the Coral Triangle Initiative. Marine Policy 38: 174–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foale, S., Cohen, P., Januchowski-Hartley, S., Wenger, A. & Macintyre, M. (2011) Tenure and taboos: origins and implications for fisheries in the Pacific. Fish and Fisheries 12: 357–369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foale, S.J. (1998) Assessment and management of the trochus fishery at West Nggela, Solomon Islands: an interdisciplinary approach. Ocean and Coastal Management 40: 187–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Govan, H. (2009) Achieving the potential of locally managed marine areas in the South Pacific. SPC Traditional Marine Resource Management and Knowledge Information Bulletin 25: 16–25.Google Scholar
Harkes, I. & Novaczek, I. (2003) Institutional resilience of marine sasi: a traditional fisheries management system in Central Maluku. In: Co-Management of Natural Resources in Asia: A Comparative Perspective, ed. Persoon, G., van Est, D.M. E & Sajise, P.E., pp. 63–86. Copenhagen, Denmark: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Press (NIAS).Google Scholar
Hviding, E. (1998) Contextual flexibility: present status and future of customary marine tenure in Solomon Islands. Ocean and Coastal Management 40: 253–269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jentoft, S., Bavinck, M., Johnson, D.S. & Thomson, K.T. (2009) Fisheries co-management and legal pluralism: how an analytical problem becomes an institutional one. Human Organization 68: 27–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johannes, R.E. (1982) Traditional conservation methods and protected marine areas in Oceania. Ambio 11: 258–261.Google Scholar
Jupiter, S.D., Weeks, R., Jenkins, A.P., Egli, D.P. & Cakacaka, A. (2012) Effects of a single intensive harvest event on fish populations inside a customary marine closure. Coral Reefs 31: 321–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lane, M.B. (2006) Towards integrated coastal management in Solomon Islands: identifying strategic issues for governance reform. Ocean and Coastal Management 49: 421–441.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Léopold, M., Beckensteiner, J., Kaltavara, J., Raubani, J. & Caillon, S. (2013) Community-based management of near-shore fisheries in Vanuatu: what works? Marine Policy 42: 167–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindsey, T. (2008) Indonesia, Law and Society, Second Edition. Leichhardt, NSW, Australia: Federation Press: 734 pp.Google Scholar
Mascia, M.B. (2003) The human dimension of coral reef marine protected areas: recent social science research and its policy implications. Conservation Biology 17: 630–632.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLeod, E., Szuster, B. & Salm, R. (2009) Sasi and marine conservation in Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Coastal Management 37: 656–676.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ostrom, E. (1990) Governing the Commons: the Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press: 298 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pannell, S. (1997) Managing the discourse of resource management: the case of sasi from ‘Southeast’ Maluku, Indonesia. Oceania 67: 289–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, A. (2003) Turning ideas on their head. the new paradigm for protected areas. The George Wright Forum 20: 8–32.Google Scholar
Pomeroy, R.S. (1995) Community-based and co-management institutions for sustainable coastal fisheries management in Southeast Asia. Ocean & Coastal Management 27: 143–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pomeroy, R.S. & Berkes, F. (1997) Two to tango: the role of government in fisheries co-management. Marine Policy 21: 465–480.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruddle, K. (1994) External forces and change in traditional community-based fishery management systems in the Asia-Pacific Region. Maritime Anthropological Studies 6: 1–37.Google Scholar
Ruttan, L.M. (1998) Closing the commons: cooperation for gain or restraint? Human Ecology 26: 43–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salafsky, N. (2011) Integrating development with conservation: a means to a conservation end, or a mean end to conservation? Biological Conservation 144: 973–978.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, S. & Nielsen, J.R. (1996) Fisheries co-management: a comparative analysis. Marine Policy 20:405–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solomon Islands Government (2009) Solomon Islands national plan of action; Coral Triangle Initiative on coral reefs, fisheries and food security. Report. Solomon Islands Government, Honiara, Solomon Islands: 58 pp.Google Scholar
Steenbergen, D.J. (2011) Staying afloat in changing tides. Inside Indonesia 106 [www document]. URL http://www.insideindonesia.org/feature-editions/staying-afloat-in-changing-tides Google Scholar
Thorburn, C.C. (2000) Changing customary marine resource management practice and institutions: the case of Sasi Lola in the Kei Islands, Indonesia. World Development 28: 1461–1479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United Nations Environment Programme-World Conservation Monitoring Centre (2008) National and Regional Networks of Marine Protected Areas: A Review of Progress. Cambridge, UK: UNEP-WCMC: 144 pp.Google Scholar
Zerner, C. (1994) Through a green lens: the construction of customary environmental-law and community in Indonesia Maluku Islands. Law and Society Review 28: 1079–1122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar