Selling the Sea, Fishing for Power a Study of Conflict Over Marine Tenure in Kei Islands, Eastern Indonesia
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Selling the Sea, Fishing for Power A study of conflict over marine tenure in Kei Islands, Eastern Indonesia Asia-Pacific Environment Monograph 8 Selling the Sea, Fishing for Power A study of conflict over marine tenure in Kei Islands, Eastern Indonesia Dedi Supriadi Adhuri Published by ANU E Press The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at: http://epress.anu.edu.au/ National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Adhuri, Dedi S. (Dedi Supriadi) Title: Selling the sea, fishing for power: A study of conflict over marine tenure in Kei Islands, Eastern Indonesia/ Dedi Supriadi Adhuri. ISBN: 9781922144829 (pbk.) 9781922144836 (ebook) Series: Asia-Pacific environment monograph ; no. 8. Notes: Includes bibliographical references. Subjects: Fishery management--Indonesia. Fishery resources--Indonesia. Sustainable fisheries--Indonesia. Marine resources--Management--Indonesia. Fishes--Conservation--Indonesia. Dewey Number: 333.95615091724 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover design and layout by ANU E Press Cover image: Photo by Dedi Adhuri. Printed by Griffin Press This edition © 2013 ANU E Press Contents List of Tables . vii List of Maps . vii List of Figures . viii List of Plates . ix Foreword . xi Acknowledgements . xiii Glossary . xv Abbreviations . xix Currency Conversion Rates . xix 1 . Introduction . 1 2 . The Kei Islands . 17 3 . Dullah Laut . 39 4 . Narrative of Origin: Social Organisation, Leadership and Territory . 61 5 . Land and Sea Tenure in the Kei Islands . 81 6 . The Village Politics of Marine Tenure: Raiding ‘Illegals’ in Dullah Laut . 97 7 . Marine Tenure and the Politics of Legality: Cyanide Fishing . 127 8 . The Economy of Marine Tenure: The Clove Season Incident . 143 9 . Marine Tenure and Precedence Contestation: A Village Destroyed . 163 10 . Concluding Remarks . 187 Appendix 1 . 201 Bibliography . 211 v List of Tables Table 2-1: Kei Kecil and Kei Besar population data (1882–2005) . 20 Table 2-2: Beliefs systems followed in the Kei Islands (1887–2000) . 25 Table 2-3: Membership of Lor Siw, Lor Lim and Lor Labay . 31 Table 3-1: Population of Dullah Laut, December 1996 . 46 Table 3-2: The important fam and social rank distribution in Dullah 48 Laut . Table 3-3: Exchange of women among the origin Mel Fam in 52 Ohoislam . Table 3-4: Exchange of women among the Iri Fam at Ohoislam . 53 Table 8-1: Monthly net income of Dullah Laut fishermen, 1996. 153 Table 8-2: Parties and issues relating to the conflict. 157 Table A-1: The economy of fish pot fishing. 202 Table A-2: The economy of stake trap fishing. 204 Table A-3: The economy of line fishing. 205 Table A-4: Daud group net fishers: Capital requirements. 206 Table A-5: Daud group net fishers: Running costs and fish catch 207 returns . Table A-6: Income of net owners . 207 Table A-7: Saban group net fishers: Expenditure and returns. 208 Table A-8: Saban group net fishers: Costs and catch records. 209 Table A-9: Saban group net fishers: Net owner’s income. 209 List of Maps Map 1-1: The Kei Archipelago, Maluku Province, Indonesia . xx Map 1-2: The Kei Islands . 7 Map 2-1: Spatial distribution of Lor Siw, Lor Lim and Lor Labay . 29 Map 3-1: Dullah Laut territory . 40 Map 5-1: Dullah Laut island territories and land classification. 83 Map 5-2: Land and sea territories of Dullah Laut . 87 vii List of Figures Figure 2-1: Kei Kecil and Kei Besar population growth (1882–2005) . 21 Figure 2-2: Traditional political structures used in the Kei Islands . 27 Figure 2-3: Kei positions within the Indonesian political structure . 35 Figure 3-1: Ohoislam Settlement layout . 44 Figure 3-2: Ohoisaran Settlement layout . 45 Figure 3-3: Age and gender distribution of Dullah Laut Village, 47 1996 . Figure 5-1: Land zone classification of Watlaar, Kei Besar. 84 Figure 5-2: Sea territories classification of Watlaar, Kei Besar. 86 Figure 6-1: Structure and distribution of power in a traditional village . 106 Figure 6-2: Traditional structure and distribution of power in Dullah 109 Laut . Figure 6-3: The modern village organisational structure . 114 Figure 6-4: The genealogical connections of Dullah Laut leaders . 117 Figure 7-1: The power relations of the parties involved in the 140 cyanide fishing incident. Figure 8-1: The domestic marketing network . 154 Figure 9-1: Tutrean and Sather coastal boundaries and sea 172 territories, 1939 . Figure 9-2: Tutrean and Sather coastal boundaries and sea 179 territories, 1990 . Figure 9-3: Tutrean and Sather coastal boundaries and sea 182 territories, 1995 . Figure 9-4: Tutrean and Sather coastal boundaries and sea 183 territories, 1996 . viii List of Plates Plate 3-1: Sea view of the Ohoislam settlement (2009) . 41 Plate 3-2: The under construction stone dock in Ohoislam (1996) . 42 Plate 3-2: The church and converted field in Ohoisaran (2009). 44 Plate 6-1: Two young girls help with the construction of the stone 121 dock . Plate 8-1: The harvest of musim cengkih or clove harvesting for 145 trevally, the Bobara (Carangoides spp) . Plate 8-2: The Bagan (lift net) . 146 Plate 8-3: The joy of musim cengkih, fishing for trevally. 146 Plate 8-4: Two fisherman prepare the bubu, or fish traps. 152 Plate 9-1: A Sather elder standing in front of the foundation of a 164 destroyed house . A new house was built in the back of the foundation . Plate 9-2: A house (with accompanying clothing line) now resides 164 on the foundation of a home that was destroyed during the 1988 Sather village fire. Plate 9-3: An elder of Yamko fam showing an antique betel nut 169 container, which serves as proof of his authenticity as land lord of the Sather village . ix Foreword James J . Fox Dedi Adhuri’s Selling the Sea, Fishing for Power is a book of critical importance. It addresses major issues in the management of marine resources, marshals an impressive array of diverse evidence to present its argument, and then cogently sets forth a considered approach to understanding comparable forms of engagement in local marine management. It is a convincing and relevant reminder of the pertinence of politics in coastal development. This book is an ethnographic study of several coastal communities in the Kei Islands of eastern Indonesia. Central to Dr. Adhuri’s argument is an insistence that systems of local marine resource management cannot be studied on their own, in isolation from either the complex cultural and historical conditions that give impetus to community action or from the equally complex regional and national contexts within which such action is undertaken. Dr. Adhuri’s analysis probes the concept of ‘community’ and questions assumptions of community coherence and unity. He examines the composition of various local communities on Kei Island and shows the range of differences that exist in them and how these differences affect marine tenure and resource management. He challenges facile ideas that contend that local populations are necessarily committed to the sustainable use of their resources, that these populations possess sufficient environmental knowledge to understand the intricacies of local ecosystems, or that a shared local knowledge of these resources even exists. Recognizing all of these limitations and highlighting the politics of local and regional competition for resources, Dr. Adhuri still points to the indispensable contribution of local knowledge and community involvement in marine management. For anyone interested in marine and coastal management, whether in Indonesia or elsewhere, this book is essential reading. There is another important dimension to this book. To provide a full understanding of marine resource management, Dr. Adhuri has written a superb ethnographic account of contemporary village life in the Kei Islands. As such, his study points to features of social life that are distinctive to the societies of eastern Indonesia. His work thus has significant comparative value. His recognition of the rich interpretability of the narratives of origin that are used as points of social reference, his assessment of local competition for precedence, and his examination of contestation – as he argues, “marine tenure is a contested practice” – all provide a dynamic view of these so-called traditional communities. A critical insight in recognizing that the rights to use xi Selling the Sea, Fishing for Power marine resources held by affines – those who have married into the community – are ‘nested’ within ownership rights of earlier members of the community is fundamental. This ‘nesting’ of rights of access and use can and often is a recursive process, creating a chain of entitlement that follows the successive pattern of marriages within the community. Despite its specific focus, this study is framed as an analysis of problems of a general kind faced by fishing communities elsewhere in Indonesia, in the Pacific, and indeed by many such communities throughout the developing world. The research on which this study is based was carried out over years. It involved a close personal engagement with the local communities on Kei. This extended fieldwork launched Dr. Adhuri on a research career on marine and fisheries issues. Since his fieldwork on Kei, Dr. Adhuri has carried out a range of research from Aceh to Merauke both as a consultant for WorldFish Center and as the co- ordinator of the Maritime Study Group in the Research Centre for Society and Culture of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences. The publication of this volume in the Asia Pacific Environment Monograph Series is intended to make this important work globally available.