Fishing legislation and gear conflicts in Asian countries: a case study of selected Asian countries
Item Type monograph
Authors Mathew, Sebastian
Publisher ICSF Liaison Office
Download date 05/10/2021 15:38:50
Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/1834/18203 INTERNATIONAL COLLECTIVE IN SUPPORT OF FISHWORKERS
MONOGRAPH
FISHING LEGISLATION AND GEAR CONFLICTS IN ASIAN COUNTRIES
No 1 - JANUARY 1990 Fishing legislation and gear conflicts in coastal waters A case study of selected Asian countries BY SEBASTIAN MATHEW Fisheries researcher from Kerala State, India
SUMMARY
Acknowledgements Introduction ...... 9 Indonesia ...... 13 Malaysia ...... 41 The Philippines ...... 57 Thailand ...... 75 Japan ...... 89 Conclusion ...... 109 Bibliography ...... 119
The editorial board wishes to thank Jeremy Herklots for sub-editing this SAMUDRA- MONOGRAPH. (Cover : Artisanal fishing boats in the Catbalogan harbour (Samar - Philippines) /Photo François Bellec)
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Registration : D. 1990. 5.694 .3 Imprimerie MEDIASCREEN - Bouge FISHING LEGISLATION AND GEAR CONFLICTS IN ASIAN COUNTRIES
Sebastian Mathew
SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am extremely thankful to Dr. Francis T. Christy Jr. who helped me greatly in selecting the countries for the study and in facilitating contact with various fishery administrators and researchers. The discussions I had with him in Rome and the materials he provided were considerably useful in formulating the study and honing my perception. Above all, I would like to express gratitude for his useful comments on an earlier draft of this study.
Discussions with Mr. Rolf Willmann of FAO were useful in formulating questions on conflict management. Prof. Jean Ph. Platteau of Namur University, Belgium, helped me organise the framework of my inquiry.
In the countries I visited, the extensive network of the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) facilitated contact with the small-scale fisherpeople. This enabled me to gather information on the awareness and implementation of fishing legislation.
In Japan, Prof. Hisahi Nakamura of Ryukoku University, Kyoto was ex- tremely kind in providing interpreters, fixing up appointments with the fishery authorities and in sparing time for discussions. I thank him and his family. Ms. Junko Yamaka of Pacific Asia Resources Centre (PARC) organised discussions with various people working on Japanese fishery and accom- panied me to these discussions. I am thankful to her. Mr. Masaki Yamada, a student of Tokyo University accompanied me on most of my interviews as an interpreter. Without his invaluable help it would have been impossible to move around in Tokyo. I would also like to thank Prof. Hirasawa Yutaka, formerly of Tokyo Fisheries University for clarifying issues and providing an
3 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA insight into Japanese fishing history. Dr. Kenneth Ruddle of National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka was extremely useful in supplying ideas and source material on the Japanese fisheries management.
In the Philippines, I would like to thank the fishermen of Perez Island, Lamon Bay, particularly Mr. Reynaldo Alpay and Mr. Raymondo Asia; the animators of Asian Social Institute, Manila; Dr. Max Aguero of International Centre for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM), Manila; Mr. Reuben Genaden, Mr. Santos and Mr. Gamilla of Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR); Commander Quevas of the Philippine Coastguards; and my friend, Attorney Antonio Oposa Jr. Thanks also to Fr. Desmond D’Souza of Organisation for Human Development (OHD) for allow-ing me to use the facilities at his office.
In Indonesia, various officials at the Office of the Director General of Fisheries (DGF); scientists of Research Institute for Marine Fisheries, Jakarta, and the Fishing Technology Development Centre, Semarang; Mr. Yoshibumi Kihara, Consultant Fishing Technologist and other friends spared considerable amount of their time for discussions and provided useful insights into the fisheries situation.
In Malaysia, Mr. V.C. Mohan of Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM), Penang, arranged all my contacts and interpreters. Mr. Mathew George, Ms. Halima and Mr. Sul of SAM also extended considerable assistance. Ms. Chee Yoke Ling, Secretary of Sam provided an overview of the legal system of Malaysia. I am grateful to all of them for their help especially for allowing me access to library and office facilities. I am also thankful to Dr. Ishak Shari of National University of Malaysia (UKM); Dr. Jahara Yahaya of University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur; Mr. Alip Rahim of USM, Penang and various officials of the Department of Fisheries for the discussions we had.
In Thailand, Ms. Amporn Sugandhavanij, of Kasetsart University and member of the ICSF, took me to fishing villages, arranged contacts and found time for discussions. Mr. Vernon Pietersz of FAO Regional Office helped me to meet Government officials. Mr. Manu Pottaros, Inspector General of Fisheries provided me with details of enforcement. I am thankful to all of them.
Numerous discussions with Mr. John Kurien of the Centre for Develop- ment Studies, Trivandrum, India, proved particularly useful for the field visits
4 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 and in writing up the report. Ms. Nalini Nayak, Mr. K.G. Kumar, Mr. Mihir Shah, Mr. Chandan Mukherjee and Mr. C.R. Reddy read a previous draft of this report and gave valuable comments. To all of them, my deep gratitude.
I am thankful to Mr. V. Vivekanandan, Chief Executive of South Indian Federation of Fishermen’ Societies (SIFFS), Trivandrum, for making available the computer facilities at his office. In the computer work Mr. Satish Babu, Executive (Systems & Management), SIFFS, helped me immensely. Mr. P.K. Krishnan and Mr. C.R. Aravindan did an excellent job in preparing the typescript. I am grateful to them.
I must also thank the many fishermen who, although they could not converse with me, shared their experiences through interpreters and helped me to improve my understanding of inter-gear conflicts.
Much more pronounced than all this is the feeling of gratitude I have towards the ICSF for entrusting the study to me. Not only was it thoroughly, enjoyable and rewarding, it also led me into grounds I had never ‘trawled’ before! For this, a special piece of thankful appreciation to Mr. Pierre Gillet, Secretary, ICSF.
Needless to add, all responsibility for any error or omission is entirely mine.
5 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA
«We must not make a scarecrow of the law, Setting it up to fear the birds of prey, And let it keep one shape till custom make it Their perch, and not their terror.»
Shakespeare, Act Two, Scene 1 Measure for Measure
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About the Author
SEBASTIAN MATHEW was born in Trivandrum, Kerala, India in 1957. After obtaining an M.A. in Economics from Kerala University, he undertook a joint study on technological changes in fishing and impact on small-scale fishermen in India. He also co-authored a study on the impact of pollution on fishing villages. Later, he obtained an M. Phil. in Applied Economics from the Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum. His dissertation work for this course was on the structure of the frozen prawn export industry in Kerala. His interest in environmental issues has led him to campaign against destruction of evergreen forests and helped to set up an eco-restoration project in a tribal area in the Western Ghats of Kerala.
Adress: T.C. 4/953, Kawdiar P.O. Trivandrum, 695 003 INDIA.
7 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA
8 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1
INTRODUCTION
As part of the triennial programme of research of the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers, I was assigned a study on the role of legislation in mitigating or resolving inshore conflicts among fishermen in Asian countries which have adopted a zoning system. The main foci of the study, according to the letter of assignment, are — to examine the history of fishing regulations and the genesis of conflicts over fishing space and resources. — to study the effectiveness of fishing regulations in resolving these conflicts. — to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of administering fishing regulations to protect the interests of the small-scale fishermen and, — to assess the extent of awareness of fishing legislation among the artisanal fishermen.
In consultation with Dr. Francis T. Christy Jr. (formerly Senior Fishery Planning Officer, Fishery Development Planning Service, Fishery Policy and Planning Division, Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome) and Mr. Rolf Willmann, (Fishery Planning Analyst, Fishery Policy and Planning Division, FAO, Rome), five countries in the Asian region were chosen for the study. These were Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Japan.
Both Indonesia and Malaysia witnessed violent conflicts in the inshore waters between trawlers and traditional gear groups leading to destruction of fishing unit and loss of life in the 1970’s. As result of these conflicts, which also had other ramifications, Indonesia and Malaysia introduced a zoning arrangement to safeguard the interests of small fishermen. In addition, Indonesia also banned trawling in the waters west of 120 degrees E Iongitude.
9 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA
In the Philippines, although there were no violent conflicts between trawlers and traditional gear groups, there has always been discernible tension between the two. A series of legislative measures were drawn up. Principal among them was the legislation reserving the coastal waters for non-trawl/non purse-seine gear groups. Moreover, in the Philippines the rights of subsistence fishermen to the preferential use of marine resources are guaranteed by the Constitution.
Thailand has one of the earliest set of laws to conserve its fishery resources. However, inter-gear conflicts have not taken place on a significant scale although the desertification of the Gulf of Thailand is an ongoing process ever since otter-board trawling was introduced in 1961.
Japan has an efficient system for the management of coastal waters which has its origin in its feudal period from 1603 to 1867 A.D. Almost all intra-sectoral conflicts are resolved within its unique co-operative structure and only inter-sectoral conflicts are referred to the judiciary. In spite of the system’s efficiency and viability, Japan has not been able to overcome two problems common to almost all the commercial fisheries of the world, viz., over capitalisation of the fishery and overfishing of resources.
With these illustrations, methods of conflict management will be discussed in the following chapters. In addition to the examination of origin/nature of conflicts, the role of legislation and the status of enforcement, the study will also discuss the economic, political and social specificities in these countries that constitute the texture of the conflict and its mitigation.
The study is based on an extensive visit to all these countries. Discussions were held with fishermen, marine biologists, economists, anthropologists, administrators, politicians, lawyers and social activists. The visit occurred between the first week of November 1988 and the middle of February 1989. The attempt was to talk to as wide a spectrum of people as possible. In addition, secondary material in the form of legislation, research papers, newspaper clippings and other relevant publications were collected from the respective countries.
The following libraries were consulted for the study: — University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway; — FAO Fisheries Division, Rome, Italy;
10 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1
— Institute for Developing Economies, Tokyo, Japan; — National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan; — International Centre for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM), Manila, the Philippines; — Director General of Fisheries, Jakarta, Indonesia: — Research Institute for Marine Fisheries, Jakarta, Indonesia; — Fishing Technique Development Centre, Semarang, Indonesia; — Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand; — Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Centre (SEAFDEC), Bangkok, Thailand; — Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM), Penang, Malaysia; and — INFOFISH Library, Kuala Lumpur.
The nature of conflicts and their magnitude are different in different countries. They depend very much on historical situations and the prevailing conditions. The focus of this study hence has to adjust to these changes. In Indonesia, we will consider in detail the «success» of the trawling ban in terms of its objectives. The motives behind the ban will also be discussed. Various adjustments made in the zoning system and their role in the amelioration of conflicts between trawlers and inshore gill-net fishermen will be the focus in Malaysia. The diffused nature of perception, poor awareness of legislation and total lack of implementation of various provisions will be discussed in the context of the Philippines. The tradition of legislation, particularly for ensuring conservation of aquatic resources and its poor implementation, will be the focus of Thailand since there is very little evidence of conflicts between small fishermen and other fishery operators. And finally, in the case of Japan, we will discuss the evolution of fishermen’s co-operatives and the viability of a system, which resolves conflicts within its framework, without resorting to the State machinery. Limitation of language was a problem in gaining access to all the relevant material for the study and visiting all the fishing villages one would have liked to. Constraint on time was another limitation. The cost-aspects of enforcement also could not be obtained either because of confidentiality or lack of availability. Thailand was the only exception.
11 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA
12 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1
INDONESIA
ndonesia is an archipelago of over There are over 3 million fishermen I13,000 islands located strategically in Indonesia, 43 percent of whom are between the Indian and Pacific in the marine sector; another 43 per- Oceans. Total fish production in cent in aquaculture and the remain- 1986 amounted to 2.5 million tones ing 14 percent in inland capture valued at US$ 1700 million with the fisheries. The marine fishermen com- marine sector accounting for 75 prise equally of full-time and part-time percent of production and 60 percent fishermen and of the 700,000 full-time of gross value. The fisheries sector fishermen, over 50 percent are in the accounted for 4 percent of the total Malacca Straits and the Java sea. Indonesian agricultural production These areas account for about 50 by value and contributed to one per percent of the total production. cent of the GDP in 1986. Fisheries There is no coherent definition exports accounted for only 1.3 of different sub-sectors but there is a percent of total Indonesian exports in nominal one according to which all 1985 and 4.3 percent of non- gear operated without the use of a petroleum exports. In quantity terms, craft and all boats powered by sail or this is only about 3 percent of the outboard motors constitute the small- total production. Thus the fisheries scale sector. All boats with inboard production is primarily oriented engines belong to either the medium- towards the domestic market. scale or large-scale sectors. Although According to an ADB Study the per there is no clear distinction between capita consumption of fish is about the two, the quantum of investment 41 kg (as against the official figure of is used to distinguish between the two 14 kg.)
13 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA sub-sectors. According to Bailey et al ly in the Malacca Straits, northern (1987) the large, medium and small- Java and Kalimantan took about 57 scale sub-sectors contributed to percent of the total demersal catch roughly 2 percent, 43 percent and 55 i.e., 10 percent of the total catch of all percent respectively of the total catch marine fish. After the ban their catch in 1982. has come down to 0.5 percent of the total. This is because trawling is still Artisanal fishermen operated permitted in the waters east of 120 219,000 non-powered craft in 1986, degrees E longitude i.e., in the about half of which were dug-out Arafura Sea. canoes. This is about 70 percent of the total number of craft in Indonesia. The catch of purse-seiners has These craft operate a wide variety of increased from 10 percent of total gear including gill-nets, cast-nets, marine catch in 1979 to 15 percent trapsseines and hook-and-line. in 1986. These vessels operate main- Artisanal fishing has a low produc- ly in the Malacca Straits and the Java tivity (about 1400 kilograms/fisher- sea in areas quite distant from the man/year) and takes place in a shore. narrow band around the coast. More Purse-seining and trawl fishing than 60 percent of the fishermen live were introduced around the same below the national poverty threshold. time in Indonesia. In the late-1960s, The number of powered vessels purse-seine was introduced under has increased rapidly in recent years the auspices of the government in from 32,000 in 1979 to 99,000 in the northern coast of Java. Trawling 1986. About 65 percent are powered developed fully on private initiative by outboard motors. Of those with unlike in countries like the Philippines inboard engines 80 percent are less and Thailand. It was introduced by than 5 GT (gross tonnage). The in- the ethnic Chinese in an area called crease in both forms of motorization Bagansiapi-api in Malacca Straits, is particularly significant after the from the western coast of Malaysia in trawling ban of 1980. 1966 (Yamamoto, 1977).
The medium and large-scale The development of purse-seine operations comprise purse-seiners, fishery did not lead to any significant pole and line vessels and trawlers. conflict with the small fishermen Prior to the imposition of the ban on primarily because the area of opera- trawling, 3,000 trawlers located main- tion is away from the shore. Trawlers,
14 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 on the other hand, confined their of Chinese origin. operations to the inshore waters. The The ethnic factor plays a very im- development of the trawl fishery, portant role in the economy of In- therefore, led to serious conflicts bet- donesia. This is so in the fishing ween trawlers and gill-net fishermen sector as well. This is very important in Malacca Straits and northern for understanding the conflict bet- Java. More than a competition for ween the trawlers and small resources, this is believed to be a fishermen and this has been com- result of destruction of craft and gear pletely overlooked in all the major by trawlers harvesting prawns within studies on the trawl-ban (Chong, Kee- 12 miles from the shore, the usual Chai et al 1987; Bailey et al 1987; fishing ground of small fishermen. Naamin 1984; Darmoredjo. S 1983) perhaps because of the highly sen- sitive nature of ethnic politics in In- Background of the donesia (See May. B. 1978. trawl ban The sea around Kalimantan is also an important prawn fishing Before we begin our discussion ground but interestingly this area did on the impact of trawling and the im- not witness any conflicts between plications of the trawl ban in In- trawlers and small-scale fishermen, donesia, certain points have to be perhaps because the operators in the kept in mind. Firstly, more than 80 small-scale as well as large-scale sec- percent of the otter trawlers in In- tors are both predominantly Chinese. donesia were confined to Java and Sumatra, particularly to the Malacca Unlike in Malaysia where the con- Straits and northern Java. Secondly, flicts between trawlers and gill-net Malacca Straits and Java have the fishermen erupted in the same year largest concentration of fishermen’s that trawling was commercially in- population. Together they account for troduced, in Indonesia it was only by over 50 percent of the total full-time the mind-1970’s- a decade after their fishermen. Thirdly, more than 50 per- introduction-that these tensions cent of the total marine production started surfacing in the form of and 60 percent of exportable prawns clashes in the sea. The early conflicts come from these areas. Fourthly, in Malaysia are documented but in In- most of the trawler/purse-seine donesia there is hardly any such owners and traders in Indonesia are documentation. They broke out for
15 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA the first time in the Malacca Straits as 2 meters. and were presumably a spill-over of Though the overall production of Malaysian conflicts. The common the traditional sector did not suffer as nature of the «problem» in the Malac- a result of trawling, the aggregate an- ca Straits combined with similar nual output of the gill-net fishermen ethnic characteristics — with almost did decline. Their production in both all the trawler owners being Chinese the Malacca Straits and northern Java and traditional fishermen being dropped to 80,000 tonnes in 1980 predomi-nantly Malay or Indonesian from 120,000 tonnes in 1976. This — gave the conflicts a similar form in subsequently doubled — presumably both the countries. From the Malac- as a result of the trawling ban—to ca Straits the conflicts spread to nor- 160,000 tonnes in 1986. Thus the thern Java. unequal competition for space not on- As mentioned earlier, Malacca ly led to destruction of craft and gear Straits and northern Java, where but also affected the harvest of the there were conflicts, are the areas traditional gill-net fishermen. with the largest concentration of The various measures aimed at fishermen and the largest production. managing the fisheries sector par- The conflicts arose mainly because ticularly trawl fishing, should be seen of competition for space, leading to in this backdrop. destruction of craft and gear, par- ticularly of gill-net fishermen operating in the narrow confines of the coastal waters. Since the commercially History of fishing legislation valuable species are largely confined to the inshore waters, trawlers Before the advent of conflicts bet- operated very close to the coast. Ac- ween trawlers and gill-net fishermen, cording to Dr. Naamin of Fisheries the fishing legislation in Indonesia Research Institute, Jakarta, these was primarily colonial in origin. The trawlers — called « Cung-King» (1) — main focus of the early legislation of were mostly operating in the 5-40 1927 and 1939 — which reserved all meters depth zone (Naamin, N. 1984) marine fisheries to local citizens and and sometimes in depths as shallow prohibited foreigners from fishing
(1)Interestingly, Cung-King is also the name of a port in S W China, in Szechwan province at the confluence of the Yangtze and Chialing rivers. It is a major trade centre for W China and was the wartime capital of China between 1938 and 1945.
16 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 operations without special permission The first significant measure was — was on security ( Bailey et al ibid.). taken by the government in 1975 The fisheries law was basically a ploy when Decree 1 was issued. This by the Dutch to check encroachments limited fishing effort through regula- of other colonial interests into Indone- tion of the fishing season, of the type, sian archipelago. The first efforts at size and number of boats in a par- the formulation of new fisheries ticular area and of the mesh size legislation were attempted after the (Bailey et al ibid.). An area-specific eruption of inter-gear conflicts in the quota system was also established by mid-1970s. The new measures had the Decree. Subsequently in 1976, the twin objectives of conservation of Ministerial Decree 607 was issued resources and elimination of conflicts. with the specific purpose of controll-
Table I Zones of Operation for Fishing Boats Established by the Minister of Agriculture’s Decree 607 in 1976. Zone Distance from shore Closed to I. 0-3 nautical miles 1. Boats with inboard engines displacing over 5 GT; 2. Boats with inboard engines over 10 HP; 3. All types of trawl gear; 4. All purse-seines; 5. Encircling gillnets and drifting gillnets for tuna; 6. Seines not longer than 120 meters. II. 3-7 nautical miles 1. Boats with inboard engines displacing over 25 GT; 2. Boats with inboard engines over 50 HP; 3. Otter trawls with head ropes longer than 12 M; 4. Midwater trawls and pair trawls; 5. Purse-seines longer than 300 M III. 7-12 nautical miles 1. Boats with inboard engines displacing over 100 GT; 2. Boats with inboard engines over 200 HP; 3. Demersal and midwater trawls using otter boards equipped with head ropes over 20 m in length; 4. Pair trawls; 5. Purse-Seines longer than 600 m; IV. Over 12 nautical miles 1. Pair trawl, except in the Indian Ocean where they are permitted. Source: Bailey, C et al 1987. Indonesian Marine Capture Fisheries
17 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA ing trawling operations. According to tion became so bad that «not only this Decree, which is still in force, the were the resources impaired and sea was divided into four zones with fishing boats and gear sunk of burn- the main purpose of preventing ed and houses burned, but human physical conflict and social friction lives were lost» (Chong, Kee-Chai op. between the traditional and trawling cit). The President Soeharto for the sectors (Naamin, N. op. cit.). This first time stepped in and banned trawl zoning is, however, not applicable in fishing by virtue of Presidential fishing grounds in the Arafura sea Decree (P.D) 39/1980. and adjacent waters where, alleged- The ban initially covered waters ly, there are no traditional fishermen off Java and Bali (1 Oct 1980) and (Darmoredjo, S. op. cit.)(1). three months later waters in the The table I gives details of the Malacca Straits off Sumatra were zoning arrangement. brought under the ban. But when trawlers started moving out of their Soon after the issuance of Decree existing base of operation to other 607 Decree 609 was brought out regions, the ban was extended to the restricting the operation of trawlers to waters off Kalimantan and West the area for which they were licen- Sulawesi as well from 1 July 1981. As sed. Attempts were made to imple- it is now, trawling operations are com- ment both these Decrees. However, pletely banned to the west of 120 effective enforcement was impossi- degrees E longitude. Trawling is ble, particularly in Malacca Straits allowed in waters to the east of 120 because of inherent difficulties. Many degrees E longitude, provided the illegal trawlers were already in opera- vessels are equipped with a by-catch tion and in the absence of a strong excluder device (BED). These are the enforcement machinery the efforts to waters monopolised by the Japanese limit the number of trawlers resulted fishing interests (2). in thousands of trawlers beginning to operate without licences. Objectives of the trawl ban This further aggravated in inter- gear conflicts and by 1980 in situa- According to Chong, Kee Chai et
(1) But, according to Fisheries Statistics of Indonesia for the year 1980, 20 percent of the total population of active fishermen are in sulawesi and Irian Jaya. (2) «Indonesia’s fleet of large fishing vessels was heavily concentrated in Maluku and Irian Jaya in 1980; 121 of the 161 fishing vessels over 50 gt were based in these provinces and virtually all of these were refrigerated shrimp trawlers of the Japanese joint venture companies«». (ADB, IBRD. 1983).
18 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 al (ibid.) the ban on trawling «is the traditional sector; and most bold or courageous and in- 3) to prevent open conflicts. novative fisheries management step Along with the declaration of the which the country has so far under- ban on trawling, P.D.No.39 also taken» and it «represents an impor- created the biggest credit programme tant reaffirmation of small-scale for fisheries in Indonesia under the fisheries development as a national Government Agricultural Credit priority» (Bailey et al ibid.). According Scheme (BIMAS), a credit pro- to the then Director General of gramme established in 1965 primarily Fisheries, Sardjono, P.D.39 was for the agricultural sector. The pro- clearly a «political decision» intend- gramme aimed mainly at assisting ed at protecting the interests of the fishermen affected by the prohibition traditional fishermen and the on trawling. It was to enable them to «philosophical and moral rationale» convert to another type of fishing or for the P.D., according to Bailey et al, to brackish-water fish culture. are the priorities mentioned in the Five Year Plan of Indonesia which Out of the total allocation of RP primarily aim at «the distribution of 238 billion (US$ 245 million), 20 per- development benefits among the cent was for the conversion of 2,300 widest possible number of Indone- trawlers into other gear, 9 percent sians» (Bailey et al ibid). The same was for the promotion of non-trawl authors also hold that the ban is « the fishing methods and 71 percent was most recent in a series of manage- for (a) the intensification of shrimp ment policy measures designed to culture on 100,000 ha in existing protect coastal fisheries resources» ponds, (b) creation of 30,000 ha of though overfishing due to trawling is new ponds and (c) for construction of established only in Malacca Straits shrimp hatcheries. Under this pro- and northern Java (personal discus- gramme the maximum amount ob- sion with Purwito Martosubroto, tainable was RP 5 million. The loan Director of Fisheries Management, In- period was five years with a one year donesia) grace period and credit could be us- ed for both working capital and invest- Thus the ban apparently has ment. No collateral was required three objectives: (ADB, IBRD. 1983). 1) to facilitate better resource management; In other words, the main focus of 2) to ensure the development of the the credit programme was the inten-
19 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA sification of aquaculture to offset the Trawl ban: an analysis potential loss of prawn production as a result of the ban. The credit pro- Too much panegyric has been gramme’s objective was certainly not poured on the Indonesian govern- enhancement of the productive ment for its «bold» and «innovative» potential of the traditional sector so fisheries management strategy in that it could exploit the prawn banning trawling. This measure has resources that were now free from been hailed all over the world and competition from an incompatible the whole world is closely watching gear. the strides Indonesia is making in its Under the scheme only trawlers implementation. built within five years of P.D.39 and The ban is definitely innovative in good condition would qualify for because this is perhaps the only conversion. Owners of eligible boats country in the world where a total ban were given the option of selling their has been resorted to for defusing boats to the government, which would tension and developing traditional then be converted for use with other fisheries. But the important question gear and sold to crewmen under the is whether a unilateral ban can BIMAS programme (Bailey et al op. necessarily lead to the desired cit.). Though the total credit covered fulfillment of objectives like proper both investment and working capital resource management and develop- requirements, the investment compo- ment of traditional sector. nent was specifically for modification of the hull (under ALTERNATIF I & II); In other words, how is it to at- modification of hull and fishing gear tribute all the «evils» affecting tradi- (ALTERNATIF III) and purchase of ex- tional fishermen to the trawling trawl vessels, modification of hull and sector? Is it not an over simplification fishing gear (under ALTERNATIF IV). of an otherwise complex set of causal The amount disbursed under ALTER- factors responsible for the indigence NATIF IV was through the co- of a large number of fishermen in operatives (KUD) and the entire Indonesia? In the following section amount disbursed under ALTER- we will discuss in detail the NATIF I, II & III was given directly to implications of the ban and its effect in the applicant (from discussion with achieving the stated objectives. We Bank Rayat Indonesia). will also try to examine the real motives for its implementation.
20 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1
Two facts should be borne in the Arafura sea also. The total mind: only 3 percent of the total number of trawlers operating in the expenditure of the Director General of area affected by the ban was only Fisheries (DGF) is targeted for about 2,500. fisheries resource management and environmental protection (out of US $ 490 million) during REPELITA IV (the Impact on owners fourth five year development plan 1984-89) (Bailey et al ibid.); secondly How did the ban effectively affect in the Indonesian Navy — the regula- the owners of trawlers? According to tory enforcement authority — «has Chong, Kee-Chai et al (op.cit.), at an duties extending far beyond regula- annual depreciation of US$ 6,200, the tion of fisheries» and «has neither the salvage value of the trawlers was resources nor the incen-tive to almost zero since many of them were become involved in regula-tions of over twenty years old. The owners national fisheries» (Min of Agri., DGF had already recovered their capital in- & ADB, 1988). Consequently, it is a vestments. This is perhaps why very matter of great convenience that a few trawling units benefited from the total ban was effected. This effectively credit programme under BIMAS. Ac- makes it easier for implementation cording to the above authors, out of and according to a top official of the the 600 trawlers operating from the Department of Fisheries, the northern coast of Java more than 50 fishermen themselves will ensure the percent were either tied up at their enforcement of the ban. operation bases or their fate was unknown. Naamin (1982) reported According to Naamin (ibid.) that of the 1,040 trawlers, which were over 3,500 vessels were affected by operated from the major fishing ports the trawl ban. About 44,000 workers of Java & Sumatra, 45 percent were lost their jobs (this includes trawler inactive in the middle of 1981. crew, employees of cold storages, ice plants, fuel/food suppliers, etc.). According to the Department of The figure, 3,500 probably includes Fisheries, Indonesia, US$48 million in illegal trawlers because according was earmarked for the conversion of to the DGF’s Fisheries Statistics of 2,300 trawlers into purse-seiners, gill- Indonesia for 1980, there were only netters, tuna long liners, etc. But acc- 3,100 trawlers in 1980 which ording to the Bank Rayat Indonesia includes the trawlers operating from (BRI), the principal credit agency of
21 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA the government, only 15 per cent of The Bank, according to the recom- the total amount was distributed for mendation of the local authority from rehabilitation of ex-trawlers. Only one the fisheries depart-ment, would instalment was released and the pro- release the credit to the supplier of gramme was dropped in 1980 itself gear and engine. As a result, the joint because of the fear of poor repay- owners did not have the freedom to ment (from per-sonal dis-cussion with choose the gear they wanted. And of the Bank authorities). course, there were problems of cor- ruption with collusion between the This credit programme was meant trader and the local fishery authority. to cover both the owner and the crew of trawlers. About 480 units benefited Secondly, the cost of the fishing from it. Of these, 44 percent were gear and engine provided under the from the Malacca Straits, 22 percent BIMAS loan programme was higher from Kalimantan and the rest were than the prevailing market price, from Java. Only about 20 percent of sometimes by as much as 30 percent the total number of intended (ibid.). The failure of the BIMAS credit beneficiaries benefited from this programme was also highlighted by scheme. The joint ownership of ex- the leaders of the All Indonesian trawlers combined with the nature of Fishermen’s Organisation (HNSI) who credit distribution seem to have bad- attributed the failure to corruption ly undermined the intended benefits among government officials (from of this programme. There are success personal discussion). stories, but according to FAO exten- What happened to trawlers which sion workers in Semarang, these are decided to convert to other forms of the ones operating on kin-ship lines. fishing or non-fishing operations? In most cases, however, the pro- There has been no effort on the part gramme failed miserably. As on 1st of the Department of Fisheries to August 1988 51 percent of the loans monitor their perform-ance. However, advanced remained outstanding. from our discussions with fisheries In addition to ineffective manage- scientists, extension workers etc. it ment, there were other problems. In appears their performance has been many cases, inappropriate gear was quite mixed. supplied (Bailey et al op. cit.). This problem arose because the distribu- Some of the trawlers completely tion of the credit was not in the form wound up fishing operations and of direct payment to the applicants. moved into the movement of goods
22 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 and people between islands. Of those converted to gill-net operations are who shifted to other forms of fishing, finding the cost of operation exorbi- the trawlers from Cilacap (on the tant because of the high costs of southern coast of Java) moved into operating a large engine (Bailey et al gill-net and trammel-net fishing. There op. cit.). Among the ones that are do- are 35 GT boats operating trammel- ing well are those operated on kinship nets in Cilacap. Almost all the trawlers lines. from northern Java diversified into According to a study quoted by purse-seine fishery. Similarly most of Bailey et al on Aceh province in the converted ones in Sumatra mov- Sumatra, « of the 69 ex-trawlers con- ed into purse-seining and a few verted in 1981 through BIMAS loan became tuna-long liners. According totaling RP 1.3 billion, nine of these to some of our sources the trawlers boats had since sunk and most of the which converted to purse-seines are rest were not in operation due to doing well in northern Sumatra accumulated losses» (ibid.). (where there are rich pelagic One factor, which has been grounds), whereas those operating overlooked by all the studies on the from northern Java are not doing par- trawl ban, is the fact that the total ticularly well because of intense ex- number of otter trawlers in operation ploitation in the coastal waters. The was showing a stagnation from 1978 fishing ground there, is now at a onwards — even before the ban. But distance of three days cruise (1988). the number of purse-seiners more Many of these converted vessels are than trebled in the period 1975-1980 winding up their operations. Those (See table II).
Table ll Number and Type of Indonesian Fishing Gear 1975-1982
Type of fishing Gear Number of Gear by Year
1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982
Otter trawl 2202 2692 3266 2511 2570 2476 666 453
Purse-seiner 1144 1481 1706 2137 2838 3700 3572 4933
Source: Bailey et al (1987)
23 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA
This would mean that there was over 44,000 workers were affected by already a redistribution of fishing ef- the ban, including over 20,000 crew fort from trawling towards purse- men. Out of these only about 2,500 seining even before the ban was benefited from the BIMAS pro- declared. In other words capital had gramme (about 15 percent). As in the already started moving out of the case of ex-trawl vessels, there has trawling sector, particularly in the in- been no monitoring of the well-being tensively fished area like Malacca of these workers after the ban. Straits and northern Java, into other Therefore, we had to rely on our in- forms of fishing where the returns formal sources to get an idea about were much higher. The ban perhaps their situation after the ban. speeded up the movement. This sug- Among the ex-trawl workers, ap- gests that the owners of trawlers were parently the ones most affected were not all that affected by the ban. If at the workers who came from non- all it has affected some, they must be fishing communities. They were owners without adequate financial basically peasants from the moun- clout to undertake new investments. tains. After the ban they could not ac- In other words, any management quire the requisite skills to operate measure presumably taken for the gill-nets/trawl-nets, purse-seines, etc. benefit of disadvantaged fishermen As a result they had to leave the does not imply that the privileged fishing sector for work in the informal group (of trawler owners in this case) sector where their earning capacity is will have to pay a price. If alternate much lower vis-à-vis income from channels of investment are open trawling operations. Though the con- which ensure an equal if not a higher dition of the workers who joined the return, and if the expected mark-up purse-seine sector was better, the is ensured, capital will move. For economic returns were lower com- most of the owners who are ethnic pared to that in the trawling sector Chinese, trawling was only one of since the returns to labour had to be many avenues of investment. They shared among a large number of did not have any difficulty in diversi- workers (the crew size of a trawler fying into other activities. was about a quarter of the crew size of a purse-seiner). As Chong, Kee- Impact on workers Chai et al (op. cit.) observe: «In general, ex-trawl crew fishermen We have mentioned earlier that collectively have not benefited in a
24 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1
positive manner from the Ban in Impact on traditional sector terms of improved and sustained incomes. For those ex-trawl crew So far we have been discussing fishermen who have been able to the impact of the ban on trawling on hang on to their newly acquired the owners and the workers. From our boats/nets through the credit programme, their incomes have discussion it can be seen that the ex- reportedly improved somewhat. trawl crew men are the worst affected However, the number of such by the ban. The credit programme in- fishermen reporting improved tended to rehabilitate them does not incomes is limited». seem to have resulted in any The discussion of the fate of the desirable improvement in their level ex-trawl workers will not be complete of income or earning capacity. unless we discuss the allocation and As we have mentioned before, the utilization of credit under BIMAS for main objectives on the ban included the intensification of shrimp culture. the development of the traditional Though RP 168 billion (US $ 171 sector and better resource manage- million) was to be earmarked for this ment. Now let us see to what extent purpose according to P.D. 39/80, on- these objectives were achieved. ly 30 percent was finally allocated. This scheme was supposed to benefit One of the main problems in ex-trawl workers also but our discus- discussing how the benefits of the sions with BRI and other sources ban accrued to the traditional revealed that there were very few reci- fishermen arises from the way tradi- pients from the ex-trawl workers and tional and modern sectors are defin- of the 28,000 people who were ad- ed in Indonesia. The definition is vanced loans, most of them were craft-specific viz. all vessels with or from non-trawl fishing operations or without outboard motors are viewed from the aquaculture sector. The as forming the traditional or small- scheme was also dropped after the scale sector whereas all craft with in- release of the first instalment because board engines from the modern sec- of poor repayment. Only nine percent tor. This definition does not help us of the RP 53 billion advanced under get an idea about the benefits accru- the scheme was repaid as on 1 Aug ing to the small-scale sector because 1988. the marine fishery produc-tion figures are given by type of fishing gear in the annual statistics published by the Director General of Fisheries (DGF).
25 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA
Gear have a protracted use and both fishing effort away from the trawl small-scale and modern sectors use operation to the other fisheries» similar gear. Since we do not have (Chong, Kee-Chai et al ibid.) it does craft-gear specific production figures, not presuppose «a reallocation of the it is difficult to establish the benefit ac- resources... in favour of small-scale cruing to the small fisher-men as a fishermen» as contended by the result of the ban. Gear-wise produc- above authors. There is no data to tion figures would have been ten- understand the distribution of fishing tatively sufficient if different types of effort within the non-trawl sector bet- gear were sub-classified according to ween artisanal and commercial their size. Unfortunately, this is also operators. Therefore, increase in pro- not done. At the most, we have only ductive capacity, or production does general indicators like an increase in not mean that the small-scale sector the number of trammel-nets, shrimp is benefiting from the ban. However, gill-nets or increase in the rate of we will examine these to get a general motorization. idea about the impact of the ban on the non-trawl gear-groups, assuming Of course, there are figures to that part of the benefit would be ac- show the production of prawns but cruing to the subsistence fishermen these figures indicate only the non- too. trawl catch. In other words, though «the trawl ban effectively redistributes Since the total marine fish produc-
Table III Total Output by Gill-Net (in 1000 tonnes)
Area/Year 1976 1980 1986
Aggregate production 223 315 477
1. Malacca Straits 38 34 53
2. Northern Java 80 48 103
Total (1+2) 118 82 156
Total marine production 483 850 923
Source: Annual Fisheries Statistics of Indonesia 1976, 1980, 1986 DGF Jakarta.
26 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 tion was growing at an annual rate of and gill-netters. 5 percent between 1981-86 we are Though the total marine produc- taking certain specific indicators to tion almost doubled from 483,000 ton- assess the benefit to the non-trawl nes to 850,000 between 1976 and sector. These are the (a) total gill-net 1980 there seems to have been a production figures (b) the total output decline in the aggregate production of tiger, banana and endeavour of all gill-net units in the Malacca prawns, and (c) the in-crease in pro- Straits and northern Java. ductivity. In our analysis we are in- cluding only Malacca Straits, northern The figures for Malacca Straits Java — the areas where there were and northern Java are particularly rampant conflicts between trawlers significant because, while during the
Table IV Marine production of Prawns (In Tonnes)
Malacca Northern Kilimantan Irian Jaya Total Straits Java Total & Total for the Moluccas Country 1 2 1+2 3 4 1–4 Tiger Prawn 1976 5,100 300 5,400 1,100 2,000 8,500 9,300 1980 7,000 400 7,400 1,500 1,200 10,100 11,000 1986 5,100 200 5,300 7,100 1,000 13,400 14,100 Banana Prawn 1976 4,000 5,000 9,000 2,900 3, 000 14,900 19,000 1980 10,000 5,500 15,500 10,400 5, 000 30,900 38,700 1986 4,700 7,600 12,300 8,500 4, 100 24,900 33,000 Endeavour Prawn 1976 6,600 1,700 8,300 1,500 500 10,300 12,600 1980 2,900 2,300 5,200 2,700 2,500 10,400 14,000 1986 4,800 2,600 7,400 4,400 1,200 13,000 16,500 Total 1976 15,700 7,000 22,700 5,500 5,500 33,700 40,900 1980 19,900 8,200 28,100 14,600 8,700 51,400 63,700 1986 14,600 10,400 25,000 20,000 6,300 51,300 63,600 Compiled from Annual Fisheries Statistics (1976, 1980, 1986), DGF Indonesia.
27 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA period 1976-1980 total gill-net produc- crease in total production is primari- tion for the whole country had in- ly due to an im-pressive increase in creased by 30 percent the total production from Kalimantan which production in Malacca Straits and registered a more than 30 percent in- northern Java actually declined by 30 crease in output between 1980 and percent. The recovery after the ban 1986. This in-crease is perhaps in these two areas is also significant. because of an in-crease in fishing ef- When the aggregate output of gill- fort following mig-ration of fishermen netters increased by 34 percent bet- into these areas (See MOA, DGF & ween 1980-1986, in these two areas ADB 1988). Thirdly, the total produc- it increased by 48 percent. These tion in Molluccas-Irian Jaya seems to figures unequivocally estab-lish the be declining — though the production positive impact of the ban on gill-net in these areas is attributed to trawlers fishermen, thus highlighting the – giving credence to the fear of over- economic rationale behind the earlier fishing in Arafura sea which is the conflicts. preserve of joint-venture companies with Japan. Since tiger prawn, banana prawn and endeavour prawn are the com- Considering the fact that all these mercially most valuable species of prawns are harvested by non-trawl prawns, we have included only their fishermen, it is quite significant that production (from Malacca Straits and gear with low efficiency (just 20 per- northern Java) to see the extent to cent of the trawl gear’s productivity) which the gill-net sector could replace are able to harvest commercially the productive capacity of the valuable species in all the areas trawlers. where trawling is banned.
Indonesia seems to have come During the period 1980-86 there back to the pre-trawl ban levels of pro- was a discernible increase in the duction by 1986 in the case of com- motorization of traditional crafts and mercially most valuable species of in the population of boats with inboard prawns. Three factors are worth notic- motors. The total number of OBMs in- ing in Table IV. Firstly, total produc- creased by 130 percent and IBMs tion has recovered. The production of more than doubled. In the latter prawns in northern Java in 1986 sur- category the craft belonging to the passed the 1980 level and that in <5 GT category increased by 150 Malacca Strait was just a little below percent between 1980 and 1986 ex- the 1980 catch. Secondly, the in- hibiting the highest rate of growth.
28 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1
Table V Total Number of Inboard & Outboard Motors and Shrimp Gill-Nets
1976 1980 1986 No. of OBMs 8,000 27,000 63,000 No.of IBMs <5 GT 5,000 11,000 28,000 <5<30 4,000 7,000 8,000 >30<100 200 300 400 >100 100 100 100 Total 17,300 45,400 99,500 Shrimp Gill-Nets (including trammel-nets) 17,000 25,000 50,000
Source: Annual Fisheries Statistics, DGF, Indonesia.
Most of these vessels (belonging to because, even in the years prior to both categories) are operating from the ban these variable were show- Malacca Straits and northern Java, ing an increase in numbers (See which as we have mentioned in the table V). beginning, are the most important The higher incidence of motorisa- fishing grounds in Indonesia with the tion and the increase in shrimp gill- largest concentration of fisher peo- nets after the trawl-ban only indicate ple’s population. The total number of the restructuring of fishing effort shrimp gill-nets (including trammel- resulting in the availability of viable nets) also doubled between 1980 and opportunities for relatively less effi- 1986 (See table V). cient gear. But this does not presume The increase in outboard that the cake is redistributed in favour motorization, inboard engine-powered of poorer fishermen. What is perhaps vessels and shrimp gill-nets need not happening in all likelihood is that the necessarily be a consequence of the balance of power within the fishing ban on trawling though the ban must sector (in the coastal region) is acquir- have provided a definite incentive for ing a new form with the owners of moving in this direction. This is motorized boats becoming the domi-
29 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA nant force and the large number of the season for prawn in mainly for four unmotorized fishermen (over 70 per- months in a year (Dec - Mar). The cent of fishing craft in Indonesia are trammel-net fishermen tend to con- still unmotorized) remaining the centrate on trammel-net operations deprived class. All the studies done even in off seasons without attemp- so far on the trawl ban tend to hide ting a judicious shift to other gear. the differentiation within the non- There is no idea about the opportunity trawl/non-purse-seine sector and do cost of fishing effort in the lean not throw any light on the emergence months. of new contradic-tions within this The picture that emerges from sector. numerous discussions I had with per- sons working in the field of fisheries Since the ownership of craft and is that the trawling ban has not really gear is highly skewed in Indonesia benefited the vast majority of sub- (from personal discussions), even an sistence fishermen though it has increase in total number of outboard benefited the trammel-net operators. motors is not a sufficient indicator of In other words, we can say that after an increase in the welfare of sub- the ban trammel-net operators have sistence fishermen. In the light of the come to be relatively better-off com- present ownership pattern, a decline pared to other traditional gear in the total number of dugout boats operators. I was told a few success (the predominant fishing craft in In- stories of how some owners have donesia) does not imply that more become very rich after the imposition subsistence fishermen are acquiring of the ban. A few have amassed so outboard engines. Contrarily, it is like- much wealth that they have moved ly to indicate that more fishermen are out of fishing into cultivation of cloves becoming dispossessed of craft and in the plantation sector, for example. gear and becoming wage-earners. In But the general tendency apparently Bakassi fish landing center, Jakarta, is to continue in fisheries by becom- for example, I came across a large ing absentee owners of the fishing number of trammel-net operators who units. are actually employed by absentee owners from the eastern side of Java. What was the fate of the credit But the value of labour share has ap- programme under BIMAS for the preciated in the trammel-net sector traditional shrimp fishing with gear because of prawns. However, the ac- other than trawls? RP 22 billion was tual picture is not very clear because originally to be provided according to
30 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 the P.D. No.29/80 but only 40 percent «Although the banning of trawlers of this was actually spent (in 1982-83). west of the 120 degrees E line of This programme was also dropped longitude gave a temporary respite to some fish supplies available to because of poor repayment. As on 1 artisanal fishermen, the relief was Aug 1988 the total repayment temporary. The continuing environ- amounted to only 10 percent of the mental abuse of esturial food chain outstanding loan (BRI sources). systems and the use of small mesh and other unauthorized gear con- On the whole, as Chong, Kee- tinue to reduce supplies available». Chai (op.cit.) have observed, in their Moreover, inherent contradictions tongue-in-cheek paper, «the small- in government policies also tend to scale fishermen have only benefited undermine the resource-base, par- marginally if at all». Perhaps the peo- ticularly that of prawns. Though the ple who benefited most from the ban credit programme initiated under are the local traders who procure BIMAS was presumably for the prawns for the domestic and interna- rehabilitation of the ex-trawlers, as we tional markets. Since the total number mentioned before, the focus was of landing centers increased as a mainly on aquaculture to promote result of widely dispersed use of prawns production. Even otherwise, trammel-nets all over western In- the provincial governments in In- donesia, procure-ment seems to have donesia are blatantly opening up become less competitive and more mangrove forests for converting into rewarding for the traders. tambaks (brackish culture ponds) to grow more prawn, particularly black tiger, which fetches the highest price Impact on resources in the international market. The rapid expansion and intensification of Even if we concede for conve- prawn culture has led to increased nience that the trawl ban has led to harvesting of fry and gravid females the recovery of resources in the for the culture-farms. Thus, for exam- Malacca Straits and northern Java, is ple, the collection of fry in Java in- banning of excessive effort a creased from a mere 3,000 (in no.) in necessary and sufficient condition to 1980 to 80,000 in 1986 (Annual ensure their sustainability? As the Fisheries Statistics DGF). To quote MOA, DGF, ADB study (1988) from the MOA, DGF, ADB study (ibid.) Observes which clearly establishes the link bet-
31 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA tween marine production and ed ones who are more dependent on aquaculture: the coastal waters, no efforts have been made to ensure its protection «The rapid development of black tiger from conflicting user-groups. Regula- shrimp production has meant an tion of access to resources like the equally accelerated effort to acquire trawl ban for example, would be gravid females from the wild for hat- chery spawning and egg supply. A translated into positive results in the new set of acquiring and distributing long run only if complementary organizations have developed to measures are taken to protect search out and market these females wetland areas needed for fish and by the hundreds of thousands. crustacean breeding grounds. This in Although some regions still have a turn is further related to the nature reasonable volume and are able to supply other parts of the country some and intensity of economic activities in marine stocks have had their gravid the upstream regions. female population heavily harvested. Thus, as Yamamoto (op. cit.) The advancement of tambak develop- points out, the main reason for the ment for black tiger shrimp export has narrowing of the fishery in thus deprived the marine resource of Bagansiapi-api, leading to forced a critical share of its breeding stock. Both the removal of the mangrove and migration of trawlers into northern the capture of gravid females will Java, was the large discharge of mud reduce the natural populations of all into the sea following heavy logging shrimp, and specifically the natural along the coast of Rokan river in populations of tiger shrimp». Sumatra. As the MOA, GF, ADB The consequences of over- (op. cit) study points out, there is in- exploitation of gravid females have creasing pressure on coastal not yet started showing up in the resources in densely populated areas marine production figures of prawns. like Java from expansion of urban However, it is only a matter of time areas, forestry practices in the before they surface. upstream regions (1), industrialisa- tion, modern methods of agriculture, Although sustainability of the intensification of aquaculture etc. that resource base is an important re- are all affecting both the quality and quisite for the subsistence of quantity of discharges from rivers and fishermen, especially the unmotoris- the quality of the coastal waters.
(1) « Deforestation will affect the coastal fisheries more slowly, but may ultimately be a more serious threat to the livelihood of Indonesian fishermen, particularly small-scale fishermen forced to operate near land» (ibid).
32 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1
Although there is a ban on conversion nothing has happened after its im- of mangroves in the 200 metre position in the early-80s. greenbelt, it is not being observed (ibid.). Unless there is an integrated At the same time, it is really doubt- system for management that ful whether the ban was really intend- minimises conflicts between different ed to serve any management purpose user-groups of coastal resources, the because according to well-placed long-term interests of the subsistence sources in the Fisheries Department, fishermen will be jeopardised ir- there was never any suggestion from respective of the ban on trawling. their department for the imposition of the ban. (1) The department was At the level of management of mainly in favour of proper enforce- resources and development of small- ment of the zoning system, which they scale fishermen, we have tried to had devised. The ban was a unilateral show how two of the main objectives decision of the President of Indonesia of the trawling ban have not been and it the first Presidential interven- successful. Our perusal of the credit tion in Indonesian fisheries. policy of the government also reveals its bias towards aquaculture. The Contrary to what Bailey et al con- priorities of the government are still tend that «prior to Presidential Decree in the old groove of enhancement of 39, President Soeharto consulted with production for the export market, the government’s fisheries policy reflected in the excessive importance makers and scientists» and «they attached to the development of largely sup-ported the imposition of a tuna/skipjack fishery recently in In- trawl ban» (Bailey et al op. cit.), such donesia. Moreover, as we have men- consulta-tions do not seem to have tioned elsewhere only 4 per cent of the taken place. Apparently, there were total expenditure of the Department dis-cussions only with the leaders of of Fisheries is meant for resource the All Indonesian Fishermen’s management. Though the ban could Organisa-tion (HNSI), a constituent of have been a very good beginning for the ruling GOLKAR (2) under the the development of an integrated tutelage of President Soeharto. After resource management system, the imposition of the ban, the Depart-
(1) Interestingly and understandably, the fisheries officials and researchers revealed this information only when I asked them specifically whether it was they who made the suggestion to ban trawling to the President! (2) «GOLKAR is an agglomeration of bodies representing at present over 2,000 occupational groupings ranging from civil servants and security personnel to women and fishermen». Its main function is to support government policies (See Thoolen, H. 1987).
33 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA ment of Fisheries was caught in a from 1981 to 1983, this may not have peculiar situation of having to defend been substantial considering the ac- the parenthood of a child who was not tive oil market in the early 1980s (1). theirs! Hence the tongue-in-cheek Perhaps an intended economic objec- nature of their studies on the ban. tive for the ban was to redirect scarce Moreover, because of the unique capital from over-exploited shrimp political atmosphere in Indonesia resource grounds in certain areas to there is a certain hesitation to call a grossly under-exploited tuna/skipjack spade a spade. I do not know to what fisheries and tambak production of extent it is true, but according to one prawns. of my sources, the then Director But a plausible objective of the General of Fisheries Mr. Sardjono lost ban is the resolution of physical con- his job because he showed the flicts between trawlers and gill-net ‘audacity’ to defend the trawlers! fisheries which were exacerbating from the mind 1970s leading to destruction of property, bloodshed The motive behind the ban and loss of lives. The government must have realized that the price in terms of export exchange earnings If we look at macro indicators it foregone is worthwhile, considering can be seen that fisheries do not form the social, economic and political a significant source of Indonesia’s ex- price they would have had to pay port earnings. They accounted for on- otherwise. ly 1.3 percent of total Indonesian exports in 1985 and 4.3 percent of The government seemed to have non-petroleum exports. Its share is had an overt and a covert motive for bound to have been lower in 1981 banning trawling. Thus, according to when the ban was imposed. Thus, HNSI, the legitimate mouthpiece of although in absolute terms the coun- Indonesian fishermen (particularly of try had to forego an annual average the non-Chinese fishermen) earnings of about US$ 200 million maintenance of law and order in the
(1) The losses suffered by the government have always been much more in terms of illegal exports and transfer pric- ing. As the MOA, DGF, ADB study (1988) contends «The bulk (of shrimp exports) is transferred at sea and transported directly to the Japanese market. Sets of Indonesian data on harvest and export of marine shrimp differ considerably from each other and from Japanese import data». Secondly, the f. o. b prices to Singapore (which accounts for 11 percent of Indonesian shrimp exports) are generally reported as only half of what they actually are. And thirdly, there are losses resulting from the re-export of Indonesian-processed shrimp from Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
34 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 archipelagic water is of paramount dimension to the entire conflict has importance in Indonesia. The not been discussed except for a pass- fishermen, according to the ruling ing mention (Chong, Chee-Chai op. GOLKAR, have to provide the effec- cit.). This section is based on discus- tive communication-links bet-ween sions with the leaders of All Indonesia islands. Since the process of in- Fishermen Organisation (HNSI), tegrating all Indonesians into one na- political activists, scientists and tionality is still in progress, the waters bureaucrats and field workers of the separating these six thousand and FAO Extension Programme. odd inhabited islands (out of 13,700) have to be kept peaceful. Moreover, according to HNSI, the Govt. of In- The political factor donesia is trying to revoke the Dutch colonial policy, which tried to keep the As anybody in the office of the islands separate from each other to Director General of Fisheries or for exercise easy control. But the con- that matter, any scientist involved in cept of nationality is still in its nascent stage for most Indonesians (1). research on demersal fisheries will tell Regarding this objective, the govern- you, the ban is a « political» deci- ment was completely successful and sion. Even the then Director General there are no more stories of violence of Fisheries called it a «political deci- in the sea after the declaration of the sion» (Sardjono, l. 1980). The implica- ban. tion of the word «political» is the covert objective of the ban. The following section will discuss the covert motive behind the ban. As we have mentioned in the Although the «political» aspect has beginning, trawling was introduced been mentioned, its importance vis- for the first time in Indonesia by the à-vis other objectives has not been Chinese entrepreneurs. Even in the highlighted. Most of the writing on the later period almost all the trawlers in ban is in the form of rhetoric to pro- operation were of the ‘Cung-King’ vide a semblance of «scientificity» to type and built in Sumatra. Even today the decision. Moreover, the ethnic not only in trawl fishing, but in the
(1) «Depending on to whom he is speaking, an Indonesian will identify himself usually first by his village, then his ethnic group, and lastly when meeting a foreigner, his country..…the view that an Indonesian takes of his country is affected by the place of his ethnic group in the scheme of things. There are some 300 such groups, differing considerably in size» (Palmier, L 1985).
35 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA entire range of medium and large (autochthonous Indonesians). This is large scale operations, the people of in spite of the government’s attempts Chinese ethnic origin control the to assimilate the Chinese into the ma- fishery sector. This is so in the case jority culture through various means. of aquaculture too. Their involvement As Palmier observes (1985): is rather fully inte-grated: the entire gamut of produc-tion, processing and «All this forced homogeneity does not marketing is controlled. According to so far seem to make much difference one of my sources, their involvement to the dislike in which the Chinese are held». is near total in Sumatra and Kaliman- tan and about fifty percent in the But one should also stress the island of Java. In the traditional sec- point that the native dislike is directed tor too, the Chinese are controlling more against the Chinese capitalists the markets for fishing/ processing than against the peasants and accessories, product and credit. Thus workers of Chinese origin. one can say that they control the en- tire fishing industry of Indonesia. The decision taken to ban trawl- Their operations are generally ing is inextricably linked with the resented and considered to be highly political atmosphere prevailing in In- exploitative in character. donesia after Soeharto became the President in 1968. Two factors are The resentment within the fishing relevant in the political milieu: firstly, community, particularly of fishermen native in origin, against the Chinese the resentment among zealot has also a broader backdrop in the Muslims, in Indonesia not being Indonesian economy. The Chinese declared as an Islamic state (See (called ‘peranakans’) though believ- Palmier, L. ibid.; May, B. op. cit.) and ed to number only about 4 million out secondly, the anti-Chinese feelings of a total population of 155 million of in the mainstream society. Since the so (1), control a major share of business involvements of Soeharto domestic capital in Indonesia. and his circle with Chinese Cukongs Perhaps because of their wealth and (financiers) are well established (See their attempts to maintain their own May. B op. cit.) and his apathy distinct identity, the Chinese are wide- towards making Indonesia into an ly disliked by the Pribomi Islamic state is well known, the
(1) «No account has been taken of ethnic origin since the 1930 census» (Palmier. L ibid.).
36 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 resentment of political Muslims is also Pribomi as well as the impoverished. directed against Soeharto. This aspect of the ban must have silenced his Muslim critics to some The conflicts that broke out on extent. the fisheries front got the support of Muslim leaders and it was largely But it is interesting to observe aimed at the Chinese. These conflicts that although the P.D. ‘affected’ the should be seen as a protraction of Chinese owners of trawlers, it ended ethnic riots within the mainstream up greatly benefiting the Chinese society and these riots were increas- community as a whole. How did this ing in frequency in the 1970s. There happen? was a particularly bad anti-Chinese riot in Bandung, Western Java in The most crucial benefit of the 1973. According to some of my ban was that the President prevented sources, more and more people from the inter-gear conflicts from acquiring the non-fishing community were join- larger dimensions at a time when the ing the struggle against trawlers conflicts were threatening to ag- mainly because of ethnic reasons gravate racial tension. This, perhaps, and by the late-1970s it was threaten- would have led to nation-wide ethnic ing to acquire extremely grave dimen- riots and would have been disastrous sions. The Muslim zealots were also for the Chinese community because trying to use the issue to chastise of their stake in the economy. The Soeharto for his alleged support to ban contributed towards the dilution Chinese capitalists. of a major threat to their investments The ban was a useful piece of in Indonesia although it restricted strategy to gain political capital on the their involve-ment in trawling. But eve of 1982 elections with intresting compared to the quantum of ramifications. On the one hand, domestic capital they control, the pro- Soeharto could portray himself as a portion tied up in trawling was in- true friend of the Pribomi and the significant. Moreover, trawling was poor: to the extent the decision was one among many avenues of invest- aimed at (or affected) the Chinese ment: the ‘losses’ resulting from the owners it was pro-Pribomi; and to the ban would have been insignificant extent it benefited the traditional compared to the benefits they obtain- fishermen it was pro-poor. Thus, in ed in the form of «protection» to their one shot the P.D. could be portrayed larger invest-ment in the rest of the as a vehicle of his concern for the economy.
37 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA
Considering the nexus between are facilitation of better management the New Order and the Chinese of resources, development of the capitalists (May, B. op. cit.; Palmier, traditional sector and prevention of L. op. cit.), the large benefits at the open conflicts, only the last one has community level could not have just been seriously adhered to. been incidental. (1) Thus, through a Although the trawling ban is a clever decision President Soeharto good beginning it has not led to fur- became at once a friend of Pribomi, ther development in, or initiative of the poor and of the Chinese without towards better fisheries management. threatening to upset the well In the Arafura sea, for example, in established equation of power in the spite of signs of overfishing of economy. prawns, no worthwhile measures have been adopted for the conserva- tion of prawn resources. Many Japanese trawlers are in the process Conclusion of winding up their activity because of high costs of operation arising from Indonesia is the only country in lower production. Also no attempt the world where trawling is proscrib- was made to provide base-line infor- ed in all areas where there is a mation before the ban was imposed. preponderance of traditional fishermen. Not only is it the largest Other than the ban, precious lit- area-closure of trawl fishery, it also tle has been done to reorganize the has in place the longest uninterrupted fishery for sustainable harvesting of ban in the world. Thus, in waters west resources. Destruction of mangroves, of 120 degrees E longitude trawling removal of gravid females of prawns has been prohibited for the past nine for aquaculture, pollution and conflic- years and it is unlikely to be lifted in ting interests of various sectors are the near future. seriously jeopardising the conserva- tion of resources in Indonesia. This, Though the professed objectives in the long run, will have a serious
(1) As Palmier, L observes, «Some of their richest entrepreneurs are in close concert with prominent figures in the New Order. As a group, the Chinese have undoubtedly benefited considerably from the measures of economic development taken by the government» (Palmier, L op. cit.). As May observes, «the ruling junta of today use selected Chinese and the Chinese use them to accumulate wealth» (May, B op. cit.).
38 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 bearing on the development of tradi- More than the welfare of the tional fishermen. fishermen or conservation of resources the motive behind the ban The positive contributions of the was explicitly political because of the ban are: the government could put an complexity of ethnic factors and the end to the bloody conflicts in the sea; power structure in Indonesia. Con- the traditional fishermen could suc- sciously or unconsciously, various at- cessfully replace trawling gear with tempts have been made to trammel-nets and produce as much erroneously highlight the ban as a of prawns as was caught before the progressive and bold step towards ban. As a result at least some of the resource conservation without at- traditional fishermen are now earning tempting an explanation of the more. The ban also provided a jolt in motives (and under currents) behind the arm for the gill-net fishermen the decision. The ban is fishery- leading to rapid increase in motorisa- related only to the extent of mitigation tion and the expansion of gearbase. of open conflicts. In terms of other ob- However there is no information on jectives, precious little has been at- distributional justice within the tradi- tempted or achieved. If not for the tional sector, considering the highly sensitive nature of ethnic-politics, skewed ownership pattern of fishing perhaps this decision would not have units in Indonesia. been taken by President Soeharto.
39 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA
40 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1
MALAYSIA
ith a coastline of over 1900 kms the total labour force in 1986. The WPeninsular Malaysia produced sector contributes to a little less than about 700,000 tonnes of fish in 1987. 1.0 percent of total foreign exchange About 53 percent of this was con- earnings (SEAFDEC 1986). tributed by trawlers, 22 percent by Fish constitutes about two-thirds purse-seiners and over 25 percent of the animal protein supply and a lit- traditional fisheries. Thus in Malaysia tle more than 50 percent of the total the contribution of the commercial protein supply in the country. sector (which includes only trawlers and purse-seiners) is significantly Malaysia has the highest propor- much higher than that of the tradi- tion of motorized fishing craft in the tional sector (which include all other Southeast Asian region. Of the gear). After Thailand, this is the 22,000 vessels, only 4 percent the country in the Southeast Asian region non-powered. with the smallest contribution from the small-scale sector in marine fisheries. Unlike many of the Asian coun- tries, Malaysia has a history of The fisheries sector contributes gradual development of fishing to about 2.3 percent of GDP, accounts technology. In the first two decades for 11 percent of total agricultural and of the twentieth century, fishing forestry production and is second only stakes were the most common fishing to the Philippines in these respects gear. With the introduction of restric- (1986 figures). It is one of the sources tions on their use by the British, of employment for the rural popula- purse-seine — introduced into Malaya tion, employing less than 2 percent of in the late nineteenth century by a
41 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA group of Chinese from Pakhoi in directed towards ethnic Malay South China — became more fishermen to the east coast. popular, particularly so from the ear- ly 1930s. This was also influenced by the removal of duties on salted fish The advent of trawling (Ling, Y.C. 1976). Purse-seine fishery further developed in the same decade The introduction of purse-seining because of political developments did not lead to any significant conflict. resulting from the Sino-Japanese But trawling sailed into rough waters war (1). Mechanization was also in- from the very year it was introduced. troduced around the same time in a This is quite unique because in most gradual manner. Synthetic materials of the countries where conflicts arose for fishing gear were introduced in the as a result of trawling there was a 1950s (Shari. l. 1985). Finally, in the time lag between its introduction and mid 1960s trawling was introduced on the emergence of conflicts. The non- the west coast of Malaysia from trawl, small-scale fishermen reacted Thailand. This was in Pangkor by violently to trawling, «charging that it converting purse-seine boats into was destroying their gear and would trawlers. deplete their fishing grounds» (Gib- bons, D, 1976). The Government As Shari points out (ibid.), the postponed its decision to license development of fisheries technology, trawlers and undertook a pilot study particularly that of trawling and purse on the economic viability of trawling seining, is the result of the in waters beyond 12 miles from shore fishermen’s own initiative. This was and more than 20 fathoms deep, i.e., adequately supported by the govern- away from the traditional fishing ment through the development of in- grounds (Gibbons. Ibid.). frastructure, improvement in productive capacity of small-scale In late 1965 the government fishermen, institutional improvement decided to license trawlers through in pricing and marketing facilities, co-operative trawling societies while marine fisheries research etc. subjecting trawling to strict regula- However, this support was primarily tions. These regulations were design-
(1) The fresh fish market in the 1920-30 period was dominated by the Japanese fishermen operating more ami (bream net) resulting in local purse-seine fishermen unable to make any dent into their market share. However, with the Sino- Japanese war in the Far East, the local Chinese were reluctant to buy fish supplied by the Japanese. «There was a definite bias against Japanese fishermen because prices for fish landed by local fishermen improved during that year, while the prices for fish landed by the Japanese fishermen fell» (ibid). The Japanese fishermen were also denied licences to fish by the British authorities.
42 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 ed to ensure conservation of fishery tional fishermen were precipitated by resources and to improve the securi- an incident in late 1965 when an il- ty atmosphere. As a result, licences legal trawler rammed into an inshore for trawling would be issued only boat leading to the destruction of the through registered co-operatives to boat and drowning of the crew. In- boats of and above 50 tonnes capaci- shore fishermen attacked a trawler in ty and fishing beyond 12 miles from the same area, murdering eight of the the shore. These cooperatives, con- crew and burning the boat. In verted from existing autonomous December 1966 about 1,000 inshore (largely Chinese) co-operatives were boats rallied to Weld Quay (Penang) also asked to ensure the participation with the objective of burning the of- of traditional fishermen, particularly fice of the George Town Co-operative Malay fishermen. Trawling Society. They were dissuad- ed by the police. This programme did not have the desired impact because many In the meantime, the inshore fishermen continued to practise fishermen formed a pressure-group, unlicensed trawling, particularly at the United Fishermen’s Organisation night, leading to the destruction of in- of West Malaysia (UFOWM), in early shore gear like bag-nets (pompang) 1964 to air their grievances to the and drift-nets (hanyut) (Gibbons, D. government, to mobilise public opi- ibid). Enforcement was very weak nion in their support and to provide largely due to inadequate enforce- compensation for members whose ment capacity and corruption of the gear had been destroyed by trawlers. officials concerned. In addition, there It had branches in twenty six inshore were loopholes in the law and the fishing villages on the west-coast. fines were low. The operation of trawlers also directly clashed with the catch poten- Government’s response tial of a traditional gear called pukat to trawling payang (boat –seine), thus adding to the animosity of traditional fishermen Ironically enough, in spite of all against trawlers. With the introduction the objections raised by the inshore of trawling, the catch of this gear is fishermen and the open conflicts in the sea leading to destruction of pro- said to have dropped off dramatically. perty and loss of life in the early 1970s The discontent and anger of tradi- the government reduced the restric-
43 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA tion of trawling, increased the boats. The traditional fishermen were number of licences available for ex- also very reluctant to become crew- isting co-operatives and issued members of trawlers because of fear licenes to new co-operatives in of social sanctions from their fellow Penang and Kedah. The regulation villagers. In addition, the incomes on trawling and related procedures from trawlers (for the crew) were not were relaxed in three respects: the significantly better than that from size of boat, fishing area and fishing traditional gear (Gibbons, D. ibid.). time. The minimum tonnage of 50 As a result, the trawler owners — who was relaxed to include both medium are mostly Chinese — drew labour sized trawlers (25-30 tonnes) and mini from non-fishermen, mostly from the trawlers (< 10 GT). The minimum 12 Chinese community leading to a mile limit was relaxed to 3 miles. A change in the ethnic composition of zoning arrangement was introduced fishermen. The proportion of dividing the trawlable grounds among fishermen who were Chinese increas- the trawlers according to horse ed from 33 percent in 1959 to 43 per- power. Thus, trawlers with engines of cent in 1972. Thus, the government 60 HP and above had to fish in water policy to ensure better participation of beyond 12 miles; with 25 HP to 60 HP inshore fishermen, particularly Malays in water beyond 7 miles and those in trawling was a gross failure. As with engines less than 25 HP had to Gibbons observes, fish beyond 3 miles. The fishing time was extended for those with 50 GT «Only a minority of traditional and below from the diurnal hours to fishermen are participating in trawling twenty four hours on all days except and most of the economic surplus generated by this more productive Sundays (Gibbons, ibid.). gear has been extracted by former non-fishermen, especially business- The relaxation in government men, who have provided the capital to policy vis-à-vis trawling was finance trawling» (Gibbons, D. ibid.). presumably for facilitating the switch- over by inshore fishermen to trawling Similarly, enforcement of fishing with the idea of eliminating conflicts. regulations through the co-operative However, the participation of tradi- was also a failure. Contrary to the ob- tional fishermen remained insignifi- jective, the co-operatives seem to cant because there was no have encouraged the trawlers to government programme to finance or violate the zoning arrangement subsidize the purchase of trawler because they were entitled for a 5
44 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 percent commission from the catch. terference in the issue of trawling licences and the difference of en- The co-operatives, the vehicle of forcement officials resulted in the government policies, were not above worsening of conflicts in the 1970s. the structural limitation of the Malayan These became very violent and economy and society. Gibbons bloody. observes that these co-operatives are ‘not co-operatives at all in any mean- As Teik, Goh Cheng observes: ingful sense of the word’, they are «Between 1964 and 1976, a total of «cartels» (ibid.) of local political and 113 incidents involving 437 trawlers economic elites. He further observes and 987 inshore vessels was record- quite sharply: ed for the whole of west Malaysia. 45 vessels were destroyed; 62 vessels «Manipulation of trawler co-operatives sunk and 34 lives lost.» (Teik, G.C. by local elites for their own short-term 1976) benefit... has been a major reason for the ineffectiveness of these societies The response of the government in goal attainment. Control of these to the intensification of conflicts in the cooperatives by local political and early 1970s is intriguing. In 1974 economic elites was made likely by the decision to open up membership to Fisheries (Maritime) (Amendment) non-fishermen, i.e., local political and Regulations, 1974 was legislated. economic entrepreneurs and boat These regulations further liberalised owners. Such people were likely to be the terms and conditions of license for elected to the committee... The chair- trawling. The inshore waters man and/or secretary would be local designated for the traditional UMNO leaders, often the chairman and secretary of the local UMNO fishermen remained the same. But Branch; the treasurer, a Chinese the horsepower specifications for all businessman, either a supplier of oil the zones were relaxed. Thus boats and/or ice to the society or a boat of 60 HP and below could be owner and fish dealer; and the rest of operated in waters beyond 3 miles the committee would contain other provided they were below 25 GT and local Malay notables often connected with UMNO… Absent from the commit- vessels with 60 HP to 200 HP (25 tee or present in very small numbers GT-100 GT) in waters beyond 7 miles. would be active fishermen…» (Gib- And those with an HP of more than bons, D. ibid.) 200 (and 100 GT) in waters beyond 12 miles. The appropriation of co-operatives by vested interests, political in- There was a further relaxation
45 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA for trawlers operating from the east According to the new zoning ar- coast. Between November and March rangement, the existing reservation of (the fishing season), trawlers irrespec- inshore waters up to three miles for tive of size could operate at any traditional fishermen was further ex- distance from the east coast. tended to 5 miles for ‘artisanal, owner-operated vessels’ (Yahaya, J. However, the new licensing policy 1988). However, the horse power did not have any uniformity across specification was removed and the states. Since the maximum number designation of zones was made ac- of licences that can be issued was not cording to gross tonnage of the specified, the respective states issued vessel. Thus, trawlers and purse- as many according to their discretion. seiners below 40 GT and owner- The conflict was further worsened by operated are assigned 5-12 miles the new legislation which resulted in zone; those above 40 GT, wholly the rapid fleet expansion of «mini» owned and operated by Malaysian trawlers, (trawlers below 20 GT, but fishermen, the 12-30 miles zone and mostly below 10 GT). Enforcement those vessels above 70 GT under continued to be very weak. In Perak, joint venture or foreign ownership, for example, there was only one boat waters beyond 30 miles. to undertake enforcement. The Fisheries Department had to fre- The zones 5-12 miles and 12-30 quently resort to assistance from miles were specifically reserved for marine police. trawlers and purse-seiners but beyond 30 miles any vessel could operate.
Conflict management The new arrangement thus allocates fishing grounds according A concerted effort was made to to fishing gear, size of vessel and alleviate conflicts through the ownership status now. Fisheries (Amendment) Regulation of 1980 which restructured the existing In addition to the zoning arrange- zoning system. In addition, a new ment and license limitation, mesh size licensing policy called Fisheries com- regulations for the cod end of trawl- prehensive Licensing policy (FCLP) nets were extended from 1 inch to 1.5 was introduced to limit the fishing ef- inches and beam trawlers were strict- fort (Abu Bakar H.S. & Looi, Ch’ng ly prohibited. The issue of additional kim 1987). licences for trawlers within 12 miles
46 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 was frozen. dinances, enactments or orders-in- council. A unified system of regula- Finally, with the adoption of tion was introduced in 1923 to co- Malaysia’s Exclusive Economic Zone, ordinate and control fishing activities Parliament enacted the Fisheries Act for the whole country. of 1985. In addition to imposing heavy fines on poaching vessels from After the independence of abroad, the Act also enhanced the Malaysia in 1957, a new Fisheries Act fine on local trawlers and purse- of 1963 was introduced with the ob- seiners encroaching into prohibited jectives: waters. It was raised from $ 1000 (Malaysia) to $ 50,000 and/or two «to conserve a natural resource; to ra- years of imprisonment. The enforce- tionalise its utilisation of exploitation, ment officers were also given vast to safeguard the interests of fishermen, to administer fishing activi- powers. The main objective of the Act ty by preventing or settling any according to the then Agricultural disputes among fishermen, prices Minister Anwer Ibrahim is ‘to protect etc.» (Notes on the Fisheries Act inshore fishermen who have been (F.M. 8 of 1963)). complaining of irresponsible The act also delineated fisheries fishermen trespassing into their into federal or state concerns on fishing grounds’ (Star 24.4.1985). geographical basis. Accordingly, maritime and estuarine fisheries became the Federal responsibility Fishing legislation: and riverine fisheries, the State’s an analysis responsibility.
The fishing regulations during the From the objective of the Act it colonial times were framed with the is clear that conflict management was idea of resource conservation, as it one of the important objectives. The was in the case of almost all the Asian Act also stressed the fact that countries. These regulations date back to restrictions on various types «the question of legislation could never be separated from that of of fishing stakes (1909-1916 and the observance and enforcement…» gradual prohibition of the most destructive types in Perak in the ear- However, in this respect the ly 1920s (World Bank 1983). The Malaysian Fisheries Department has legislation was in the form of or- not yet been fully successful.
47 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA
The role of regulation in In the Asian region, after Japan ameliorating conflicts was further this is perhaps the first country where reiterated when the Fisheries Com- acute conflicts arose in the sea after prehensive Licensing Policy (FCLP) the introduction of a more efficient was introduced. This underlies the gear like trawling. And in the history current programme of fisheries of world fisheries this is perhaps the management in Malaysia. The objec- most bloody conflict claiming tives of FCLP included among others numerous lives. For a period of the following: almost fifteen years from 1965, there 1. Elimination of competition and con- were frequent clashes, destruction of flict between traditional and trawler fishing craft and loss of lives. fishermen in the inshore water; 2. Prevention of over-exploitation of The trawlers are mostly owned by the resources in the inshore waters the Chinese who are mostly fish and, dealers and/or businessmen and who 3. Equitable distribution of resources do not go to the sea (called towkays). (Abu Baker, H.S. & Looi C.K. op. (1) However, the conflicts cannot be cit.). characterized as an ethnic conflict because many traditional Chinese Thus, right from 1963 the govern- fishermen are also involved in the ment had taken cognizance of con- fights with trawlers. According to Mr. flicts in the fisheries sector and ever Cheah Eng Kean, formerly the Head since trawling was introduced, efforts of Planning and Development Divi- were made to contain them. Even the sion, Fisheries Department, in one in- definition of traditional and commer- cident, 33 Chinese trawler workers cial sector is according to the percep- were killed in Perak by the traditional tion of disputes. Thus, commercial Chinese fishermen from that region. sector includes all trawlers and purse- At the same time, it cannot be said seiners (irrespec-tive of craft size and that ethnic factors have not played gear, horse power and fishing any role in the tensions. Like in In- ground) and the traditional sector all donesia, in Malaysia too there is other gear. According to this defini- social tension between the Chinese tion, many of the capital- intensive and the indigenous groups. There are gear like drift-nets, bobu traps, etc. anti-Chinese feelings among the are considered to be traditional. traditional fishermen, but at the same
(1) According to a survey conducted by Gibbons (1976) more than 90 percent of trawler owners in Kedah and Penang states were of Chinese origin.
48 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 time these are directed more against 1988; Gibbons D. op. cit). Legisla- the absentee-owners of trawlers than tion, although undertaken with an against small fishermen from the under-standing of the situation, does Chinese community. Expectedly, in not seem to have contributed all the conflicts, none of the towkays sub-stantially to the present im- lost their lives. Only trawler workers provement. were killed. According to Yahaya and Yamamoto (op.cit) there are three Enforcement of fisheries reasons for poor enforcement. First- regulations ly, enforcement efforts are hampered by limited capabilities arising from shortage of operating funds, patrol The violation of inshore waters vessels, personnel etc. Secondly, and destruction of fishing gear still there are procedural difficulties aris- continue (though of low frequency) in ing from too many bureaucratic for- the west coast in spite of beefing up malities in cases that involve the of enforcement and more com- judicial machinery. Often there is prehensive management policies. political interference as well in the These are caused by pair trawlers legal process. Thirdly, co-ordination mostly below 10 GT, popularly known among the various agencies respon- as «Apollo» boats. However, the in- sible for enforcement is lacking. tensity of conflicts has been reducing over time in the 1980s. There are now As the Head of the Legislation no open conflicts, no destruction of Department observes in a joint paper, boats and no loss of lives. Protest is «Fisheries enforcement…, is not effec- expressed through demonstrations tive against the operation of illegal en- and petitions. Can the de-escalation croachment of trawlers into the A zone of violence be attributed to improve- (0-5 miles) or in ensuring that the ment in enforcement? boats fish only in their authorized zones. Almost no enforcement occurs Malaysia has a relatively long along the boundaries of the B and C history of legislation for the purpose zones. Although coordinated enforce- of eliminating conflicts (and their ment between the Fisheries Depart- ment and other enforcement agencies violation by fishermen!). The inade- has been initiated…this has been ef- quacies of enforcement have been fective only against illegal foreign highlighted by many authors (Yahaya, vessels» (Abu Baker and Looi, C K, S. and Yamamoto 1988; Yahaya S. op. cit.).
49 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA
Even the premises on which ma- estimate is to be believed, the jor decisions like FCLP are taken resources on the west coast have seem questionable. Imposing restric- been continuously overfished for the tion on fishing effort presupposes past seventeen years which is quite reliable information on fisheries ridiculous. (1) resources: The status of information on fin «Existing data on stock abundance, fish, prawns and mollusks is also very recruitment and mortality rate, catch meager. Fishery managers are rates, types of species, etc are so therefore, unable to confidently deter- meagre and fragmentary that they mine the number of licences to be really cannot serve as the basis for ar- issued by types of fishery, gear and riving at any definite conclusion about area (ibid). As a result, the fisheries the status of the fisheries resources» (Yahaya & Yamamoto op. cit.). officials have to «resort to intuitions and arbitrations» (ibid.) in deciding on Since the basic information is certain regulatory measures. This unreliable, it is difficult to assess the often leads to criticism by fishermen, extent of overfishing (if at all it is tak- politicians and other government ing place as contended). agencies. The results of resource surveys undertaken by the Fisheries Research Institute indicate that the Political factors in MSY has been exceeded. However, legislation these surveys, according to the above authors, are «merely indicative» and As in other countries, political fac- not «conclusive» of the status of the tors are very crucial in the formula- «fisheries resources»(ibid.). Thus, for tion and implementation of legislation example, average annual production in Malaysia. The socio-economic en- for the decade 1971-1980 for the west vironment is manipulated by the elite coast had been 340,000 tonnes hegemony (2) (for details see Gibbons though the estimated annual MSY is op. cit.) to attain their political ends. only 250,000 tonnes! It has been con- This, in combination with the «subject sistently higher in the 1980s peaking political culture» — defined as «one at 500,000 tonnes in 1987. If the MSY in which a person has some
(1) Although the total catch has increased, Dr. Christy points out a significant shift in composition to lower valued species. He also observes that a price-weighted output index shows declining production. (2) They belong to all ethnic groups, predominantly Malay.
50 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 knowledge about his political system, of conflict even if it leads to relaxa- especially about the bureaucracy, but tion of legislation which is presumably does not see any active role for designed to protect the interest of himself in it» (ibid.) — has created traditional fishermen. This is further extra-legal space within the law’s evident from the following statement boundaries. With the result there is made by the same Minister in Kedah: a lot of tentativeness in enforcement. «The enforcement of the zoning could Above every thing else, political not be totally called off but we would intervention seems to be the most im- relax the enforcement a little to benefit portant reason for poor enforcement. them (meaning trawler operators). We will allow them to cross about as far as Thus, for example, the government one mile into the prohibited zones» relented under pressure when (Star. ibid.) (parenthesis added). trawler-operators agitated against the enhancement in fines (for the viola- As a report of the working Group tion of zones) and the zoning arrange- (1976) points out: ment. According to press reports, (Star 12.5.85) after a demonstration «in the territorial waters the objective by trawlers in Kedah state, the (of enforcement) is the maintenance government relaxed (informally) the of a peaceful balance of the interests of competing fishing activities» (paren- closed area for trawlers from 5 miles thesis added) «whereas in the EEZ to 3 miles from the shore. Similarly, waters the objective is to conserve and the then Agriculture Minister Anwar protect the fisheries resources for the Ibrahim guaranteed the trawler benefit of Malaysian fishermen» (P 33). owners that they had been «misled» on the $ 50, 000 fine imposed on It is this maintenance of a trawlers found fishing in prohibited «peaceful balance of interests» which waters. As Star quotes him (May 15, has led to a certain degree of am- 1985): bivalence in fisheries legislation. The criterion at the point of implementa- «This maximum fine will be imposed tion is explicitly political, although at only on big fishing boats and foreign the level of legislation the objectives fishing boats which have encroached into Malaysian waters». are lofty. The process of legislation and implementation in a sense sum- Obviously, the attempt is to pacify marise the relative political clout of both traditional and commercial both the Chinese and the Malay com- fishermen to soften the jagged points munities in a society where every
51 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA economic activity is influenced by the of the enforcement authorities was to ethnic factor. keep the warring parties separate rather than enforcement per se (per- The ambivalence in legislation for- sonal discussion with Mr. Cheah Eng mulated with the main intention of Kean, formerly head of Planning & resolving inter-gear conflicts is further Development, Department of reflected in the shroud of secrecy vis- Fisheries, Kuala Lumpur). à-vis the detailed provisions of these Acts and amendments. The logistical Similarly, enhancement of the fine aspects and details of enforcement from $ 1000 to 50,000 is mainly a are confidential and inaccessible, deterrent measure not meant to be presumably because of the sensitive actually implemented. According to nature of this information. Various the fisheries officials I talked to, there criteria governing the nature of im- are no cases where the violators of plementation is also a State secret. zoning arrangement are fined, they The detailed provisions are in the are only warned if they are Malaysian form of an Administrative Manual (in nationals. Fining or prosecution is Malay) which again is a confidential resorted to only in the case of foreign document. violators. (1) What is quite interesting to Both traditional and commercial observe in Malaysia is that in spite of fishermen have a lot of political clout the lackadaisical performance of the and they have their spokesmen in enforcement authorities, tension in Parliament. Since the government is the sea has considerably reduced a coalition of Malay, (Chinese and In- during the 1980s. The burning dian communities (it is better to cauldrons of Perak and Penang describe it as a coalition of the elites states have now cooled down of these communities) the basic at- significantly. titude is to keep the conflicting par- ties separate rather than to resolve This must be related to the recent the conflicts. At the peak of the ten- changes in the fisheries sector and sion between trawlers and traditional economic development in Malaysia. fishermen in the 1970s the function Between 1980 and 1987 the marine
(1) As Dr. Christy has pointed out, fines have been levied in quite a few cases. According to the Annual Fisheries Statistics, 1987 almost 50 percent of the total fisheries revenue is from fines — the single largest source of revenue for the Department of Fisheries. But there is no break-up of the fine according to it’s origin, therefore, we do not know the relative share of revenue arising from various violations. These fines contribute to 0.0014 percent of the total value of marine landings in 1987.
52 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 fishermen’s population has declined L.T., 1985). by 30 percent from 90,000 to 60,000. As Yamamoto and Yahaya (1988) In the same period, the total number have observed in their survey in of large scale gear (trawl and purse- Penang, youth are also able to find seine) registered an increase from 18 jobs in the growing industrial sector. to 29 percent and small scale gears (mostly gill/drift nets — about 64 per- A decline in the number of cent — and gear like hook and line, fishermen seeking to exploit available portable traps, other seines etc.) resources seems to have contributed decreased from 76 to 61 percent. more to the reduction in tension than When the total number of unpowered stringent legislation. and outpowered units decreased from 37 to 33 percent, inboard units registered an increase from 63 to 67 Awareness of legislation percent. The data implicitly shows the mobility of fishermen from small-scale What is the extent of awareness to large-scale operations. This must of fishing legislation among the have considerably weakened the fishermen? According to a survey clout of the gill-net fishermen and conducted by Yamamoto and Yahaya perhaps this is one of the reasons for (op.cit) in fishing villages in Penang the de-escalation of conflicts. state The decline in the fishermen’s «nearly 78 percent of those interview- population is due to inter-sectoral ed said that they were very aware of mobility arising from the development the restricted licensing, 16.5 percent of industries in the coastal regions said they were aware and those not and the government-sponsored aware only 5.8 percent» (ibid.). relocation programme of fishermen. They further observe This programme envisages the relocation of 10,500 fishermen under «It is interesting to note that the the Fifth Malaysia Plan (1986-1990) percentage reporting awareness of into agriculture, manufacturing, small specific programmes was highest for scale business, aquaculture and off- those programmes which affect the shore fishing at an estimated cost of fishermen directly, but declined with programmes which has not direct effect M$ 280 million. It has already on them. For example, among the relocated 1,400 fishermen between FOH (Fishing Operators’ Households) 1976 and 1984 (Hotta, M and Wang, with inboard powered boats, nearly 80
53 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA
«percent of those interviewed said that to 270 HP engines! (1) (from personal they were very aware of the regulation dis-cussion with fishermen). Zoning banning trawling in the 0-5 mile waters, violations by local fishermen are not while only 52.5 percent reported that they were very aware of the minimum punished, thus underscoring the mesh size regulation meant for the redundancy of a steep enhancement trawler fishermen…» in fines. But use of illegal gear is fined.
Conclusion Of late, it is not the absence of a machinery but the ineffective use of Malaysia is perhaps the first coun- it that is responsible for zoning viola- try in the South and Southeast Asian tions within their EEZ. The Enforce- region which introduced legislation for ment Branch has even got air «eliminating» conflicts between dif- surveillance facilities now but these ferent gear-groups and for reducing are used only for detecting foreign overfishing. The earliest Act in this vessels poaching in their waters. regard (1963) also highlighted the im- From my discussion with fishermen portance of enforcement. Different in Penang & Perak states and the measures were undertaken with self- study done by Yamamoto and defeating results leading to a strange Yahaya (op.cit) it is quite evident that situation where the government had the inshore fishermen, operating gill- to promote the spread of trawling nets/-drift-nets are aware of the law’s technology to prevent disputes that provisions. At the same time they are arose from its introduction! Subse- also aware that these regulations are quently, different forms of zoning ar- not implemented. Thus according to rangements were brought into force, Yamamoto and Yahaya (op. cit) only but to no avail. Finally, the Fisheries about 9 percent of the respondents Comprehensive Licensing Policy believed that the trawl ban within 5 (FCLP) was introduced in 1981 but it miles is being very effective. could not plug the loopholes in the system nor could it be implemented In spite of primacy of equity con- properly. Restrictions on size of the siderations and elimination of con- vessel, for example, are not match- flicts in the legislation, the measures ed with any on horsepower resulting devised seem to be largely ‘used’ ac- in trawlers below 25 tonnes using up- cording to the context by a govern-
(1) These are only for the illegal Apollo boats and they are used as a means of evading patrol vessels, which is perhaps an indication that enforcement is having at least some effect.
54 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 ment which is more interested in the gear, contributes to only 6 percent of maintenance of the hegemony of the production (38 percent of employ- elite irrespective of ethnicity (though ment). More than 75 percent of trawl- with more stress on Malay) than in the nets and 80 percent of drift/gill-nets achievement of professed objectives. in operation are on the west coast Equity and other social considerations (1987 figures). are subsumed under the political in- What seem essential in any pro- terest of the government which is an cess of legislation and its implemen- amalgamation of three distinct and in- tation is political will and general congruous ethnicities. Within the per- awareness. The efficacy of legislation missible limits of dissent and protest, viz., legitimacy, is also related to conflicting parties are offered solu- these two factors. But in a society tions depending on the degree of in- where different social/economic tensity of conflict and political groups have political leverage, it is convenience. Nevertheless, the point highly unlikely that legislation will be holds that Malaysia is the first permanently used to the detriment of developing country to attempt a powerful group. It has only the role seriously to limit fishing effort in of a palliative. In a country where a response to indications of overfishing. common property resource viz., forests, are indiscriminately exploited, The situation is also complicated we cannot expect a genuine concern by the nature or organisations of con- for another common property flicting groups. Both the commercial resource. As the Working Group and the traditional sectors are power- (1979) contended, it is the fully organised. What is more crucial «maintenance of a peaceful balance is the fact that the government can- of the interests of competing fishing not do away with the support of either activities» that is attempted and not of the two. This is further complicated the elimination of conflict or the con- by the structure of the fishery. servation of resources. Trawlers and purse-seiners account for only 23 percent of the total number But then the situation seems to of gear units (1987) but they account have improved in the 1980s. The fre- for 42 percent of employment in the quency of conflicts has declined and fisheries sector and for 75 percent of they have lost their intensity. This is production. The main traditional gear largely due to the growth in the (drift/gill-nets), though accounting for economy, which allowed those who 54 percent of the total number of are not relocated to move into other
55 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA employment. The role of overall to the resolution of inter-gear disputes growth in the economy contributing has to be systematically looked into.
56 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1
THE PHILIPPINES
rom a fairly modest output of cent of those engaged in fishing are F300,000 tonnes in 1953 the total in the municipal sector (Spoehr,A. fishery production in the Philippines 1984). These fishermen can be increased to two million tonnes in classified into three types: 1986, contributing to about 5.11 per- a) Farmer-fishermen, those who cent to the Gross National Product. farm their land and normally fish The fishing industry comprises mainly during the monsoon time, of three sectors: municipal, commer- b) Agriculture labourer-fishermen, cial and aquaculture. The municipal those who complement their sector, which comprises all fishing agricultural wages with income craft below 3 GT and those from fishing particularly during fishermen not using a craft, is the the monsoon and, most important among the three. c) Full-time fishermen. About 52 percent of total production (46 percent of value) was contributed The ownership pattern of the by this sector in 1986. The commer- means of production is skewed with cial sector comprising all fishing crafts a large number of fishermen not own- above 3 GT contributed to 26 percent ing a craft (ibid). The distribution of of production and 25 percent of value. fishermen across the Philippines is uneven with 40 percent of them About 700,000 people are fully located in Southern Tagalog, Bicol, or partially dependent on fishing as a and Central Visayas (Smith, I.R. et al source of livelihood. Nearly 90 per- 1980).
57 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA
Brief history of gical improvements resulting from the Philippine fisheries motorisation, use of synthetic fibres and change of boat size, there were The developments in Philippine changes in the municipal sector in the fisheries can be broadly classified into post-War years. However, the sector pre-World War II and post-War still remained one of low productivi- phenomena. Most of the major ty, primarily because of overfishing in changes in Philippine fishery are of the narrow fishing grounds in the post-War phenomenon. Before the land-sea interface. But in spite of this, War, fishery was mainly dominated by it has contributed the most to produc- the Chinese and the Japanese. The tion and Gross National product. Chinese introduced gill-nets, cast- It is quite interesting to notice that nets and a large lever-net called many of the problems beleaguering Salambaw into the Philippines in the th the Philippine fisheries today were 18 century when Manila was a already manifest from the 1930s growing city. Trawling was introduc- when beam trawling became very ed by the Japanese in the early 20th popular. Thus, as early as 1940, there century when they operated beam was the promulgation of an ad- trawls with sailing sampans. The ministrative order closing San Miguel establishment of a technological base Bay to trawl fishing for five months in in tandem with the development of a a year. By 1950, Manila Bay, market in Manila led to the S.W. Samar and Regay Gulf were emergence of fishing towns in the already overfished so much so that 1900s. An entrepreneurial class of the fishery reached a point of com- non-fishing owners rose up as a result mercial extinction resulting in trawlers and in the years soon after the War switching to basing (bag-net), fish car- they adopted trawling / purse-seining riers, cargo movers, etc. Similarly, to increase production (Spoehr, A. op. destructive fishing practices were also cit.). rampant. According to a source, the The subsistence sector, mainly most important cause of fish deple- due to marketing bottlenecks, remain- tion in the Visayas sea in the late ed dormant during the pre-War period 1950s was the rampant and wanton though they already had a repertoire use of explosives. of techniques in accor-dance with the diversity of species. But with the development of markets, technolo-
58 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1
Conflicts in the is quit logical that the relatively more coastal waters efficient technology in use will be at- tacked.
Though depletion of resources Like in many other countries, the and over-capitalization of fisheries are important trawling grounds are also mentioned, there is no reference to the fishing grounds where traditional conflicts between trawlers and small-scale fishermen fish. For exam- municipal fishermen in fisheries ple, Manila Bay, San Miguel Bay literature until the early 1980s. Visayas, Leyte, Samar etc. are also Perhaps, these conflicts were not areas where there is a large concen- given their due importance in spite of tration of municipal fishermen. their existence in the 1970s. More over, these conflicts must have What is quite special about been seen as a price to be paid for technology-based conflicts in the enhancing production at a time when Philippines is that unlike Malaysia or efficient technology was seen as the Indonesia the incidence of open, con- principal weapon for alleviating pover- flicts with trawlers is insignificant, in ty. The perception of conflicts as aris- spite of a long history of struggle from ing from a clash between the 1970s. The structure of conflicts incompatible technologies gained is slowly changing. As a result of ground only when these conflicts depletion of trawlable resources in the erupted into violence in some of the coastal waters, the trawlers are mov- Southeast Asian countries like ing out in search of other species. Malaysia and Indonesia. There is relatively much less talk and concern expressed about trawling in Conflicts as they are addressed in the municipal waters now. This was the Philippines like in many other confirmed by the fishermen I talked marine contexts have essentially got to at a national convention in to do with the co-existence of incom- Batangas City, organized by Asian patible technologies in an environ- Social Institute in December 1988. ment of growing population pressure According to the fishermen, the main on a shrinking resource base. This is reason for trawlers moving out of further aggravated by degradation of municipal waters is dissipation of pro- the coastal zone by pollution, destruc- fit. The national regulations were least tive fishing prac-tices, destruction of responsible for this phenomenon. mangrove forests and coral reefs. In a worsening resource environment it According to some, the techno-
59 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA logy-based conflicts now are between This attitude of fishermen speaks (i) basnig operators and small eloquently about the inherent limita- fishermen and (ii) purse-seine tions of any fishery management operators and fish aggregating system. Certain practices like blast devices’ (FAD) operators. After much fishing and cyanide poisoning though prodding, all fishermen, however, ad- they meet with disapproval at the mitted that the problem with the ut- state level, do not meet with social most severity is destructive fishing disapproval at the local level. The practices by municipal fishermen local community will not hold an act themselves using dynamite (blast of this kind against its interests. In fishing) and cyanide (for drugging other words, these practices, or, for fish). Concern was also expressed that matter, the use of fine mesh nets against muro-ami fishing, a method do not violate the professional ethics introduced by Japanese to catch cor- or the behavioural norms of the local al fish. community. At the same time, pro- blems caused by trawling seem to Though the magnitude of damage evoke the entire support of the village done by blast fishing and cyanide in admonishing it, irrespective of the poisoning was obvious, the percep- relatively smaller damage caused to tion of this magnitude in terms of the the resource and the fishing ground actual situation was not so evident as by trawling vis a vis destructive fishing the concern against trawling. In other methods. The admonition is more so words, even when a fisherman ar- when it is a commercial trawler and ticulates the hierarchy of problems af- not a ‘baby’ trawler (below 3 GT). fecting his fishery and fishing ground, there is a refraction of the actual Though fishermen have been situation conditioned by his preferen- demanding a blanket ban on trawling tial use of information rather than by we have not yet come across any the actual situation. This information study on whether or not any serious is mostly derived from outside differences in attitude towards com- sources mainly social activists. Or mercial and baby trawlers exists. Are perhaps it is more convenient to the villagers soft on baby trawlers blame trawling because of his low operating from the locality in the participation in this kind of fishing. traditional fishing ground as against Whereas, in destructive fishing prac- the port-based commercial trawlers tices almost all the small-fishermen violating their communal waters? If are involved. perceptible differences occur, to what
60 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 extent are they related to the power words without any scope for correc- structure within the barangay or tive measures being taken to municipality controlling the trading salavage a deteriorating situation. outlets? Is the suki relationship — a patron-client relationship covering all History of fishing legislation the economic transactions of in the Philippines fishermen — in any way muffling the real voice of subsistence fishermen? The Philippines has a history of From the municipalities I visited in fishing legislation dating back to Lamon Bay these questions could not 1932. The distinction between be answered because of absence of ‘municipal’ and ‘commercial’ fisheries trawler owners in the area. Never- was made this year mainly with the theless, from hearsay evidence it can purpose of licensing and taxing be said that there is a difference in vessels in the commercial class attitude towards commercial vessels (Spoehr, A. op. cit.). Jurisdiction of and municipal trawlers within a waters upto three nautical miles (5.5 municipality. Therefore, one wonders km) from the coastline was granted whether the movement against com- to the municipality in the same year mercial trawlers is manipulated by the according to Commonwealth Act local elite who want to ensure trawl- No.4003 (Smith. I.R. et al 1983). ing rights for their own fleet. This they do by exploiting the sentiments of After the introduction of trawling subsistence fisherfolk about resource- and its subsequent emergence as the depletion and habitat destruction. dominant fishing gear for catching This has to be looked into in more demersal species, many kinds of detail. legislation were passed at sporadic intervals with the idea of protecting The organisations working among resources from over- exploitation. fishermen (which are by and large Regulations were also made to pre- organised from above), perhaps as a vent the use of explosives and tactical step, seem to be avoiding any poisonous substances in fishing threat to the established order. In a operations. situation where the credibility of the executive and the judiciary is low, The thrust of the early legislation such an approach has only led to law- on conservation of resources and making (as a ritual) without any effort generation of revenue was maintain- at enforcement. It remains a war of ed when a comprehensive fisheries
61 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA policy was formulated and introduc- legislation, i.e., two years after ed in the form of Presidential Decree ratification of the new constitution. No. 704 in 1975. A major shift from The operational aspects of fishing this tradition was observed only and fisheries are regulated according recently when the new Philippines to the Presidential Decree 704 and its constitution, ratified on 2 Feb 1987, various amendments even now. talks about supporting and protecting the interests of subsistence The presidential Decree No. 704 fishermen. was passed with the idea of con- solidating all laws and decrees affec- According to the Constitution, Ar- ting fishing and fisheries. The main ticle XIII, Section 7: focus of the Decree was the revitaliza- tion of the production structure to in- «The State shall protect the rights of subsistence fishermen, especially of crease supply to the domestic local communities, to the preferential market; to achieve import substitution use of the communal marine and fish of fish and fishery products through resources, both inland and offshore. It wise utilization, proper conservation shall provide support to such and integrated development. fishermen through appropriate technology and research, adequate According to this Decree, a financial, production and marketing licence, lease agreement or permit assistance and other services. The was made compulsory for all fishing state shall also protect, develop and vessels. Commercial fishing vessels conserve such resources. The protec- tion shall extend to offshore fishing about 3 GT and above are prohibited grounds of subsistence fishermen from operating in waters below 7 against foreign intrusion. Fishworkers fathoms, ostensibly to ensure the shall receive a just share from their rights of municipal fishermen (this is labour in the utilization of marine and not spelt out in the Decree). The baby fishing resources.» trawlers using fishing boats of 3GT or The Philippines is perhaps the on- less, are however, allowed to operate ly country where the rights of the sub- in waters beyond 4 fathoms from the sistence fishermen to the preferential coast provided they are authorised to use of fish resources are guaranteed do so by existing municipal or- by the constitution. dinances. Thus, by inference, trawl- ing is completely prohibited up to 4 However, the provisions of this ar- fathoms depth zone. However, ticle have not yet been implemented. through a subsequent amendment, The bills are still in the process of P.D.No.1015 in 1976 provision was
62 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 made for banning trawling operations boats of three gross tonnes or less within a distance of 7 kilometers (3.78 and to increase their catch per unit nautical miles) from the shore line, if effort» (PLOI No.1328). public interest so requires’, thus pass- ing an apparent reference to existing Thus, at the national level, restric- conflicts. For banning, the recom- tions on commercial vessels were in mendation had to come from the three stages. Secretary of Fisheries (replaced by a Firstly, commercial operations Minister now). within 7 fathoms depth zone from the According to the Decree No. 1015, shore were prohibited. Among the Letter of Instruction No.480 was municipal fishing craft, restrictions issued in the same year prohibiting were placed on baby trawlers in the trawling and purse-seining (commer- sense that they could operate only in cial) within a distance of 7 kilometers waters beyond 4 fathoms, provided from the shorelines of the provinces municipal ordinances permitted it of Northern Leyte, Southern Leyte, (otherwise, they also had to operate Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, beyond 7 fathoms). Secondly, com- Western Samar and Sorsogon. mercial fishing activities, specifically trawling and purse-seining were pro- Subsequently, through a letter of hibited in selected areas within 7 Instruction No.1328 in 1983 the Presi- kilometers from the coast line and, dent of the Philippines prohibited thirdly, operation of commercial trawl- commercial trawling and purse- ing and purse-sening were banned seining (i.e. boats above 3 GT) within within 7 kilometers all over the pro- a marine area of 7 kilometers from the vinces of the Philippines. shoreline of all provinces of the Philip- pines. This letter of Instruction ex- The penalty for violation of clos- plicitly states as its objective, the ed areas, however, is quite nominal urgency «to improve the standard of and it is clearly spelt out only for viola- living in the rural fishing com- tions by trawlers. The penalty, as munities», to protect municipal mentioned in P. D. 704 of 1975 is: ‘a fishery resources against the heavy fine of not less than 1000 pesos (US exploitation of fish and aquatic $ 50) or imprisonment for a period of resources on the entire marine water not exceeding one year, or both fine areas…, to provide municipal and and imprisonment at the discretion of small-scale fishermen a wider area the court’. The task of enforcement is within which to operate the fishing entrusted with Bureau of Fisheries
63 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), plosive with intention for illegal fishing Philippine Constabulary/Integrated could bring a penalty of imprisonment National Police and Philippine from 12 to 25 years and if the ex- Coastguard ‘through close coopera- plosive is actually used it could be 25 tion and systematic coordination of years to life imprisonment. If the use the personnel under their respective of explosives resulted in loss of supervision’ (Memorandum of Agree- human life the penalty is life imprison- ment on the Joint Implementation and ment to death. Enforcement of All Fishery Laws, The strong punitive measures Decrees, Proclama-tions, Memoran- perhaps reveal the widespread use of dum Circulars, General Orders, Let- explosives in the Philippine ar- ters of Instruc-tions and All Rules and chipelago. According to a position Regulations promulgated thereunder, paper prepared by Bureau of 1976). Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Penalty for violation of closed (BFAR) on use of dynamite, other ex- areas within the municipal jurisdiction plosives and poisonous substances of 3 nautical miles from the shoreline about 60 percent of the coral reefs of is, however, vested with the municipal the Philippines have been destroyed governments. The penalty would vary by these illegal fishing methods from municipality to municipality ac- (BFAR 1988). cording to the provision made in the Thus, we can see that the impor- municipal ordinances. tant problems faced by the Philippine Among the violations, the one at- fisheries are addressed in the legisla- tracting the heaviest punishment ac- tion process. But to what extent have cording to P.D.704, is gathering fish these regulations been successfully with the aid of explosives and obnox- implemented? ious or poisonous substances or by the use of electricity. The penalty was originally 10 to 12 years if explosives Enforcement of fishing were used, 12 to 20 years if injury to legislation any person was caused and 20 years to life imprisonment or death in the In order to get a clear idea about case of loss of life. It was further in- the process of enforcement I had creased through a Presidential discussions with the Director of En- Decree No. 1058 in 1976. According forcement, Bureau of Fisheries and to this Decree mere possession of ex- Aquatic Resources, Commander of
64 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1
Philippines Coastguard, Mayors of seven fathoms deep or less (iv) ban three municipalities and the police on exportation of bangu fry and (v) belonging to Philippine Constabulary pollution of waters are mentioned in in the Lamon Bay. P.D.704, the only offence on which some action is taken is illegal fishing. Another important aspect in the As far as violation of the 7 km-ban is implementation of law is its concerned, not a single case has awareness among the fisherfolk. been charged so far in the Philip- Regarding this I had discussions with pines. In other words, section 35 of fishermen at a National Convention P.D.705, its subsequent amendments of Small Fishermen, Batangas city, in P.D. No.1015, Letters of Instruc- community organizers of the Asian tions Nos. 480 and 1328 are not im- Social Institute, and leaders of plemented at all. This was admitted Pamalakaya, an organization of small by Commander Quevas of Coast fishermen and peasants. guard and Mr. Gamilla, Director of The enforcement is at two levels. Enforcement, BFAR. As I mentioned earlier, BFAR, Coastguards and Philippine Con- Though the concerned depart- stabulary/Integrated National Police ments are supposed to send a bi- together are supposed to implement monthly report ‘pinpointing the areas the law in all instances except in where illegal fishing is rampant and cases of transgression of commercial containing a list of persons ap- vessels into municipal waters. This is prehended for having violated the left to the municipal council to im- fishery laws, decrees, rules and plement. regulations’ (Memorandum of Agree- ment, 1976), these reports mention In spite of the ‘Memorandum of only apprehensions of illegal fishing Agreement’ between various agen- activities. A Fisheries Administrative cies entrusted with the task of im- Order No.156 was further issued in plementing and enforcing provisions 1986 specifically on the implementa- of Presidential Decrees which clear- tion of L.I.1328 prohibiting the opera- ly spell out the role of respective tion of com-mercial purse-seine and agencies, the enforcement machinery trawl operations within 7 km, and it is a gross failure in the Philippines. insisted on a monthly report from the Though five specific offences viz. imple-menting agencies on their ac- (i) illegal fishing (ii) fishing with fine complishments. This order also is not mesh nets (iii) trawl fishing in waters complied with.
65 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA
In spite of the ‘Memorandum of satisfactory job for all these depart- Agreement’ it is quite clear that there ments. Moreover, among the duties is no effective co-ordination between they perform, the lowest priority is the various agencies concerned. This given to enforcement of fishing was evident from the manner BFAR regulations. And among the regula- and the Coastguard expressed their tions the one with the lowest priority misgivings about each other. Accor- is implementation of the seven km ding to Commander Quevas, BFAR ban! In fact, not a single case has is not really serious about implemen- been charged by the Coastguard in tation of various provisions. A similar this respect. Similarly, BFAR has also view was also expressed by the not charged a single violation of this Philippine Constabulary which mans prohibition. Regarding their inability the police stations in Perez Island. to enforce fisheries laws BFAR has a host of reasons to give. These Though the ‘Memorandum’ was reasons are expressed, however, in drawn up there was no effort on the the context of difficulty in apprehen- part of the government to strengthen ding violations under section 33 which the implementing machinery to deal with illegal fishing (meaning, undertake its task effectively. Thus, mainly fishing with dynamite and in real terms, precious little is done cyanide) nevertheless, they can be by the government to ensure the ef- valid in the enforcement of other ficacy of legislation though sufficient regulations also. number of «paper tigers» were created. To quote from their position paper on illegal fishing:
«To be strict in the implementation of Reasons for poor fishery laws is quite difficult because enforcement of possible retaliatory actions from violators and lawless elements. »
Commander Quevas briefed the The enforcement officers are practical difficulties they face. The sometimes harassed, relieved of their Coastguard is to protect the interests duties and transferred to inconvenient of twenty departments, mostly places as a result of political in- mutually exclusive ones. Considering terference. the vast waters of the Philippines and its archipelagic character, he said it is The institutional problems spelt physically impossible to do a out by the paper are:
66 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1
«(a) Lack of support and sufficient municipal level itself. One of the resources exemplified by the absence reasons for this approach is the non of/or lack of operation/effectively co-operation from BFAR and the lack functioning equipments of facilities which include the lack of firearms pro- of credibility of the judicial machinery. vided for active law enforcement, for And secondly, because of various in- personal defence or protection pur- surgent movements in the Philippines poses against the violators/enemies they do not want to offend the (b)…(because of) existing low pay or violators fearing a reprisal later. funding support, despite the risk and Therefore, they opt for an amicable danger in their assigned duties, law enforcement personnel could easily settlement by requesting the violators succumb to temptations which are to pay a small amount (which is nor- simply graft and corruption.» mally less than half the fine specified in the P.D.704) as compensation. Lack of support from the judiciary Here again the municipal government is another factor mentioned in the takes cognizance of the violation on- paper, which was also corroborated ly if the fishermen bring it to their by the municipal authorities and the notice. Coastguard. In the municipalities of Perez, Lastly and most importantly, there Alabat and Quezon Quezon that I are no safeguards and support ex- visited, the main problems were tended to law enforcement officers dynamiting of fish, cyanide-poisoning against harassment and counter- of coral fish, encroachment of basnigs charges (on technical grounds). In into the waters around traditional Fish such a situation, the mother agencies Aggregating Devices (boya fishing) do not provide them with legal using powerful lights at night and the counsels or financial support. There use of fine-mesh nets (called hulbot are cases where the law enforcement or buli buli, a variant of trawl-net in- officers get suspended. This functions troduced only three years ago). as a clear disincentive to law en- forcers in booking violators. In Perez during October- December about twenty buli buli The local municipal governments operators were apprehended are also quite lax in implementing the because of encroachment into laws. Their approach is quite different municipal waters but they were not from that of the national government. formally charged. They were allowed They would rather prefer to settle the to go on payment of a nominal fine violations/disputes informally at the to the municipality. The approach of
67 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA the municipality would differ accor- will have to be booked! In these ding to the nature of the violator. For municipalities with coral reefs and example, if a citizen of the municipali- mangrove forests, dynamiting is an ty is apprehended for illegal fishing important method for catching fish using dynamite, a case will be formal- and the mayor would not like to risk ly charged and forwarded to the court his political future for the sake of im- whereas if the violator is a ‘stranger’ plementing fisheries regulations. from a different island the issue is According to the organizers of amicably settled. Asian Social Institute, these are the The scenario in the other two municipalities where there is some municipalities I visited was different semblance of implementation. If the from Perez. In Alabat the P.D.704 of situation is like this here, one can ima- 1975 was ratified only in 1987! The gine what it would be like in other 7 km ban is not yet ratified by the municipalities. Thus, at the national municipality. Even illegal fishing is not and local level the enforcement referred to the court because of ap- machinery is grossly inadequate and parent non co-operation of the BFAR incapable of implementing the regula- and lack of credibility of the judiciary. tions, exposing the total fallacy of Though there are seasonal encroach- presidential decrees. ment (during Jan-Aug) into municipal Even after the change of govern- waters by trawlers from Manila, ment and the ratification of a new Cavite, Lucina provinces no action is constitution there is no discernible in- taken against them mainly out of fear. terest shown by the government in The trawlers are supposed to be arm- qualitatively improv-ing the situation ed to the teeth! Even municipal prevailing on the enforcement front. fishermen are afraid of these en- croachers. As far as violations within A classic example of lack of the municipality are concerned, the political will on the part of the govern- mayors of Alabast and Quezon ment was quite evident in the case of Quezon are more tactical because of San Miguel Bay as demonstrated by political reasons. The political out- the ICLARM study (Smith et al 1983). come of the election is quite depen- According to the existing rules which dent of the fishermen and if the disallow trawling within 4 fathom mayor strictly implements the law isobath, 55 percent of the Bay is in- against illegal fishing and use of fine- accessible to trawling. In 30 percent mesh nets, the majority of fishermen of the Bay’s surface area trawlers
68 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 below 3 GT could be permitted and various provisions of presidential only in 15 percent of the Bay can decrees among the non-trawl trawlers above 3 GT fish. In the Bay municipal fishermen, it was quite area only two out of the total twelve shocking to notice that most of them municipalities have passed resolu- (in Perez, Alabat & Quezon Quezon) tions legalizing trawling within 4 to 7 became aware of these provisions on- fathoms. However, in these particular ly in 1987-88 as a result of the interac- municipalities the 4 fathom mark is tion with the community organizers of beyond the municipal boundary ASI, i.e., about five to twelve years (which is 3 nautical miles), thus mak- after the decrees/letters of instruc- ing these ordinances superfluous. tions were promulgated. Mr. Santos, Therefore, in this Bay vessels below Head of the Legal Division, dealing 3 GT can fish only in areas above 7 with municipal fisheries admitted that fathom isobath and this means only there were no mass-contact program- 15 percent of the waters are legally mes organised by BFAR to accessible to trawling! However, disseminate the content of various small trawlers indulged in in- decrees and LOI among fishermen. discriminate trawling all over the Bay irrespective of this According to Smith, I, et al Destructive fishing
«…if only existing legislation were en- practices forced, the problems of competition and conflict between small-scale and The impression I got from the trawl gear could be avoided. Certain- fishermen at the national convention ly, confinement of small trawlers to that and in the municipalities I visited is 15 percent area of the Bay (San Miguel) where they can legally operate that the encroachment of trawlers into would do much to shift the distribution prohibited waters is decreasing over of catch and incomes from the large- time. The reason given by the scale trawl fishery in favour of the non- fishermen is that the municipal waters trawl fishery». (Smith et al. ibid.). are not rich fishing grounds any more for trawlers. They are, therefore, mov- ing into deep waters or using other Awareness of legislation gear. Some of the fishermen were among fishermen very critical of destructive fishing us- ing dynamite and cyanide. According Regarding the awareness of to them, it is the problem which has
69 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA the gravest consequences for plied by agents of ornamental fish resources. But at the same time there dealers in Hong Kong. The is no disapproval of the practice at the preference of part-time fishermen for local level. The fishermen from Tawi destructive fishing practices have to Tawi, the southern most islands in the be looked into in more detail, Philippine archipelago, e.g., even especially in archipelagic waters. This defended dynamiting claiming that in phenomenon was also observed in In- spite of using dynamite as the prin- donesian archipelago. cipal fishing method from the 1940s It is also interesting to observe there is no depletion of resources in that farmer/agricultural labourer their waters. fishermen are also less militant com- The practice of dynamiting/ pared to full-time fishermen. Even if cyanide poisoning or fish seems to be the trawlers are violating prohibitions concomitant with farming activities. in municipal waters, right in front of But this is largely a coral reef-specific their eyes, they do not, out of fear, try activity. Two reasons are mainly at- to mobilize the enforcement authori- tributed by fishermen for the use of ty to apprehend the violators. The dynamite. Firstly, it is cost-efficient: commercial fishermen are feared to the cost of one day’s operation is on- be armed or members of the outlaw- ly equivalent to one US dollar. ed National People’s Army (NPA). Secondly, it saves a lot of time, (little time need to be spent in preparing Conclusion and repairing gear before and after the operation!). The second reason The tensions between trawlers is particularly important because it and traditional gear-groups are of facilitates fishing on a day they have relatively recent origin in the Philip- to undertake farming activities. pines. Various regulatory measures Destructive fishing practices, ir- had been taken, mainly with the pur- respective of the severe penalties pose of conservation of resources which can go upto death sentence, and, until 1983 there was no mention are rampant all over the Philippines of the conflicts in the municipal and, ironically, the main source of Waters. dynamite is the Army itself, followed by mining companies! Cyanide As the situation is today, trawling fishing is used for catching ornamen- is prohibited in waters below 7 tal fish for aquaria and cyanide is sup- fathoms isobath and trawlers and
70 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 purse-seiners above 3 GT are bann- the worst problem affecting the ed all over the Philippines in waters Philippine fisheries. beyond 7 km from the shoreline. Ac- cording to the new constitution, rights However, the enforcement scene of the subsistence fishermen to the is very dismal. The awareness of preferential use of fishery resources various regulations also seem to be are also guaranteed, however little is poor among the municipal fishermen. done to ensure these rights to sub- The Philippines is a sad case of sistence fishermen. total lack of legitimacy for the Social and political factors seem legislative process, the enforcement to determine the nature of articulation authority and the judiciary. In this con- of protest. There seems to exist dif- test the decrees only become alibi for ference in attitude towards trawlers providing a semblance of equity. locally based and those coming from Moreover, the regulations/decrees do not take into consideration the outside. This is influenced by the ex- geographical variations according to tent of integration of subsistence resource availability, organization and fishermen into the local power- means of production, complexity of structure. At the same time, the fishing ground etc. prevailing political atmosphere — resulting from insurgencies — also in- In a situation like this it is impossi- fluences the nature of protest. ble to have any meaningful im- plementation unless alternative As in Malaysia, in spite of poor en- means are used. At a Conference on forcement there is less tension in the Environmental Law Education and 1980s. The fishermen attribute this to Practice, organized by the Haribon a decrease in frequency of transgres- Foundation for the Conservation of sions into municipal waters. More National Resources on 15 December than the efficacy of enforcement, this 1988, in Manila, the inadequacy of the is because of resource depletion for- judicial system was discussed. It was cing commercial trawlers into deeper observed that law cannot be above waters. the dominant interests of society. One Nevertheless, tensions between of the participants suggested per- fish aggregating device operators and suasive tactics outside the judicial purse-seine fishermen are severe. system (which according to him is Destructive fishing practices are still «unfair, corrupt sand unreliable») for continuing unabated. This is perhaps settle-ment of disputes, thus advo-
71 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA cating promotion of arbitration without (like in Norway, for example). In other involving the judiciary. words, the most meaningful resolu- tion of conflicts within the fisheries Even if arbitration is carried out sector really lies outside, not within. outside the ambit of judiciary, it is highly unlikely that the poor fishermen will be able to receive justice because of the inequality inbuilt into the Philip- New draft bills pine society as a whole. Even if extra- under discussion judicial methods are resorted to, it is likely that these methods will also be After the ratification of the new appropriated by the ‘better-offs’ in the constitution which lays special em- respective communities. Unless the phasis on the rights of subsistence opportunity cost of labour increases fishermen, there has been a rethink- the situation in the fishing sector is dif- ing in political circles regarding the ficult to change for the better. adequacy of P.D.704 in resolving pro- In this situation unless the social blems of small fishermen. As a result, condition of production and organisa- a new bill was introduced in the tion change, legislation process will House of Representatives on the 18th not have much relevance. But this May 1988 (House Bill No.9580) ‘to transformation has to be aided by promote... distributive justice and both intra and inter-sectoral factors. achieve genuine national economic Thus, for example, there could, on the development’ with priority to sub- one hand, be a seaward expansion sistence fishermen and special em- of the fishing grounds towards untap- phasis on resource conservation. The ped areas and, on the other, there bill envisages the setting up of should be inter-sectoral mobility of Resource Management Councils at labour leading to reduced pressure the municipal, provincial and national on the municipal waters. Generally levels to manage communal waters speaking, only in a situation of im- (defined as waters within 25 fathom provement in economic conditions isobath from the shoreline), coastal will an atmosphere for the efficacy of waters (waters beyond the seaward legislation develop. Otherwise, it boundary of communal waters to a should be a case where the national distance of 30 nautical miles) and off- economy is capable of subsidising shore water (waters beyond the particular groups of fishermen coastal waters). The demarcation of because of growth in other sectors. the sea into three areas is also gear-
72 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 specific. Within the communal waters, Resources (BFAR) (for offshore only passive gear (including hook waters). They should have a and line, fish pens / traps, gill-nets etc) minimum experience of three to five are allowed and in the other two years in the respective fisheries. demarcated fisheries both active and passive gear can be used. Similarly, The draft bill aims at devolution of within the communal waters only power to the RMCs for the Manage- vessels below 3 GT can be used. And ment and control of the Philippine in all the three fisheries only Filipinos waters and fishery resources. It also can operate, thus precluding any makes provisions for arbitrating foreign collaboration. disputes at the coastal, provincial and national levels through the RMCs The users of communal waters thus minimizing the dependence on are supposed to be subsistence the judicial machinery. fishermen who are directly involved in fishing activity (but do not under- If implemented, this will be a take operation without active par- radical measure for managing the ticipation) with or without the fisheries sector with minimum in- assistance of fishworkers (defined as volvement of the government those who are employed by an machinery. According to a senior of- operator or a fisherman). And the ficial in the BFAR, this is far too users of coastal and offshore waters radical and therefore they have sub- according to the draft law will be mitted another bill to remove the fishery operators (defined as those ‘revolutionary’ content of House Bill who own and provide the means to 9580. This Draft Bill (No.18422), sub- engage in fisheries) registered with mitted by BFAR, is very similar to the and licensed by the provincial govern- P.D.704 in essence except for the ment (for coastal areas) and with the declaration of policy objectives and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic the definition of municipal waters.
73 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA
74 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1
THAILAND
ith a coastline of 2614 kms accounted for 11 percent of the total WThailand accounted for 2 export earnings of the country. million tonnes of marine catch in the (SEAFDEC 1988). year 1986 — the highest in the Southeast Asian region. About 70 The fisheries sector contributed to percent of the total catch is trash and 1.6 percent of the country’s GDP and under-sized fish and is converted in- accounted for 9 percent of agricultural to fishmeal which accounts for the GDP in 1986 (ibid.). Fishery products highest volume of marine products constitute an important source of pro- exports from Thailand. tein for the Thai people. The per- capita consumption of fish is approxi- The marine fisheries sector is mately 22.5 kg. largely export-oriented with over 70 percent of production moving into According to the latest Marine fishmeal, canning and frozen food in- Fishery Census (1985) there are dustries (in the order of importance). about 140,000 fishermen and 60,000 In 1987 Thailand earned an estimated fishery establishments in Thailand. US$ 1.2 billion from her fish exports, About 8,000 fishermen are in the sub- out-earning rice, the country’s one- sistence sector, 100,000 in the small- time top export (Teresa Sofia, 1988). scale and 13,000 in the commercial Export earnings from marine products sector (1).
(1) According to the National Statistical Office (NSO) all fishing establishments with powered vessels of and below 10 GT belong to the small-scale sector and all establishments without boats belong to the subsistence sector. All establishments with inboard-powered vessels of 10 GT and above are large-scale operators. (Teresa Sofia. ibid.) Fishery establishment ‘refers to an economic unit which was engaged in marine capture fishery/coastal aquaculture during the past one year’ (1985 Marine Fishery Census of Thailand, NSO and Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture and Co-ops 1987).
75 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA
Nearly half of the total number of depended on the capacity of the in- fishermen are fully dependent on dividual to pay taxes which were fishing as the only source of income. rather heavy (almost 7 percent of Of the three sectors mentioned the total value of production) (1). above, the largest share to the total Infrastructural facilities were good production is from the commercial sector (almost ninety percent). The for the market to absorb fresh fish. Ice contribution of the small-scale sector also was used in the 1920s for preser- is 8 percent and that of the sub- vation. As a result, large quantities of sistence sector is negligible. Thus, fish moved within the domestic less than 10 percent of the total market particularly from the head of number of fishermen account for 90 the Gulf of Siam by rail and steamer percent of production. to Bangkok. Inland fish resources were subjected to a lot of stress leading to overfishing and farmers History and development were forced to eat marine fish. of Thai fisheries Although the contribution of the marine sector was not significant in Traditionally, fish is the most im- the domestic market, there was a portant source of protein for the Thai broad-based group of gear. Most im- population who are predominantly portant among them was the bamboo hinayana Buddhists. ‘There is rice in stake trap used in the estuaries. A the fields, fish in the water’ is the way variety of seines and gill-nets was also people used to express their used in addition to troll-lines and set- livelihood (Insor, D. 1966) from time lines. The marine sector also catered immemorial. Until the early decades to the export market. Large quantities of this century, this taste for fish was of small fish were caught even then largely confined to the rivers and and were used for feeding domestic lakes of Thailand. Inland fisheries was animals and fertilizing land (Smith, second only to agriculture as the main H.M ibid.). The fishing units in the occupation of the Thais. It was the marine sector were also subject to chief employer of coastwise popula- taxation and this effectively took away tion and a large revenue earner for the «open access» status of fishery the State (Smith, H.M. 1925). Access in Thailand, enjoyed by almost all the to the fishery was not open and it other countries of the world.
(1) Calculated from Smith, H.M. ibid..
76 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1
The shortage on inland fish coupl- ticularly prawns and shrimps ed with the development of infrastruc- (Sakiyama, T 1984.). The local urban tural facilities must have triggered markets were also able to offer bet- interest in marine fisheries in a big- ter prices because of the increasing ger way. Two new gear — the purchasing power of the citizens con- Chinese purse-seine and Japanese sequent upon the economic «boom». trawl — were introduced in 1925 and And, thirdly, to exploit the market 1930. In 1960, on the eve of the in- potential there were immigrant troduction of the otter-board-trawl Chinese fishermen from Fukien, from West Germany, the total marine Guangdong provinces and Hainan production had already outstripped Island of China who integrated opera- the inland fish production by over 30 tions of fishing (particularly trawling) per cent. and marketing through kinship links From 1961 onwards, as result of (Sakiyama ibid.). They were also the introduction of otter-board- adept at maintaining good relation- trawling from West Germany there ships with institutional banking. was a rapid expansion of fishing ef- Since infrastructural facilities were fort and investment by the commer- already being built into the economy, cial sector. Many factors seem to the transition from a largely localized have contributed to the development industry into one organized on a na- of commercial fishery in Thailand. tional and international level was fairly Firstly, the 1950s and 1960s were the quick. What is significant about this decades when Thailand experienced transition is that it did not result in any an economic boom with capital being discernible conflicts. Unlike in injected into all sections of the neighbouring Malaysia where the in- primary industry (Hinton, P. 1985). troduction of trawling was met with The Government subsidised loans at immediate reaction from the tradi- low interests which were available for tional sector, there were no such con- investors in the commercial sector flicts in Thailand in the nascent stages (Panayotou & Jetanovanich 1987). of the introduction of trawling. Secondly, the demand-side fac- tors were favourable to the develop- As sakiyama observes: ment of fisheries. With the increase «In Thailand relatively harmonious in per capita income in the West there religious and ethnic relationship have was a strong impetus to international been maintained between local and demand for marine products, par- immigrant Chinese fishermen, who
77 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA
have entered marine fishing with few The above factors do not imply conflicts resulting between them and that there were only a few households local traditional fishermen, mostly catching fish from the sea. As ethnic Thais and Malays». Nagalaksana points out. (Sakiyama ibid)
The main reason for the absence «Almost without exception, every adult of conflicts seem to be related, first- rural inhabitant regardless of sex knows by life-time experience how to ly, to the lack of an organized tradi- catch fish». (Nagalaksana, C. 1987). tional marine fishery and secondly, to its diminutive size. The most impor- For a large proportion of the tant gear in the marine sector, as we coastal population, particularly in have mentioned before, was the bam- north Thailand, fishing perhaps was boo stake trap operated by lessees a supplementary activity to rice far- who paid taxes to the government. ming and horticulture, and met con- Since commercial operations were sumption requirements rather than contingent on one’s capacity to pay being directed towards the market. tax, fisheries may not have been a Large tracts of mangroves and in- worthwhile occupation for the dented coastline must have facilitated marginal population to follow. easy access to fish. Secondly, the population-land ratio in Thailand earlier was quite low. So The situation in south Thailand there was no pressure to move from seems to have been different. Accor- farming to fishing as the principal oc- ding to some of my informants, in the cupation. And thirdly, the develop- south there are a large number of ment of commercial marine fishery fishermen eking out subsistence from coincided with an impressive growth fishing. Most of these fishermen are in the Thai economy. The 7 percent descendants of immigrant Malay growth in national income in the fishermen. They share the concern 1960s opened up avenues for for resources expressed by their employment outside fishing. This is counterparts in Malaysia and resent an important difference between trawling technology (Sakiyama, ibid.) Thailand and other Southeast Asian (1) According to Sakiyama (ibid.). countries during the initial stages of most fishermen on the east coast of the introduction of trawling. south Thailand are engaged in gill-
(1) But according to Fraser, T.M (1966) resentment is mainly because of their inability to raise capital to compete on an equal footing.
78 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 netting or purse seining using craft difficult by the definition of the small- of the size 1-5 GT. According to scale sector. The definition of the Thomas (1975) as reported in Hinton small-scale sector according to Na- (1985), violent clashes took place bet- tional Statistical Office (NSO) (See ween coastal villagers and crews of footnote 1 - p. 75) is different from that large fishing vessels in south Thailand of the Department of Fisheries, which in the early 1970s. has a gear-based definition (2). These definitions do not seem to do justice There seems to be a difference to the perception of ‘conflicts’ as ar- in perception of the trawling problem ticulated by the fishermen. Thus, for between the north and the south. This example, according to a fisherman of seems to be related to the degree of Trat (who is also a community dependence on fishing as the prin- cipal source of livelihood. The nor- organizer), the major conflict in their therners are perhaps less dependent waters is actually between ‘small’ and on fishing compared to the ‘big’ trawlers, and the traditional southerners. Or is it that communal fishermen (operating gill-nets, crab- factors account for this difference in nets, hook & line and squid traps) perception — that Buddhists are support the ‘small’ trawlers. These more tolerant of ‘injustice’ than there small-sized trawlers are from the Muslim counterparts? The regional locality and there seems to be little differences in perception, regarding tension between the traditional commercialisation of fisheries and fishermen and these trawlers. factors responsible for it will make an Within the locality the focus is interesting study. more on avoidance of conflicts bet- There is only very rudimentary ween trawlers and traditional gear. evidence on the existence of conflicts Thus, e.g., as Teresa Sofia observes between commercial and small from another part of the east coast, fishermen in the northern waters of the gill-net operators and the trawlers the Gulf of Thailand. (1) The nature of in the locality operate at different the conflict itself, particularly of times to avoid conflicts (Teresa, S. op. trawlers with operators of traditional cit.). In these two areas the conflicts gear is not properly discussed seems to be determined by the village anywhere. The problem is also made ethos which seem to accommodate
(1) Even in the south there is no literature for the situation in the 1980s. (2)All gear excluding trawl, purse-seine, Spanish mackerel gill-net, mackerel encircling gill-net, bamboo stake-trap are defined as small-scale gear. According to this definition, 80 per cent of total production is from the large-scale sector.
79 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA incompatible technologies provided Conflicts involving trawlers are they are locally based. But the largely inter-regional. Inter-gear factors determining the social conflicts are circumstantial and consent of these technologies have localised, i.e., within the traditional to be studied. users of the inshore waters. Incursion of commercial interests into the However, in the fishing villages I province, in the form of investment in visited in Trat province there are con- flicts within the traditional gear base: prawn culture, at the same time, is between gill-nets and crab-nets; hook strongly opposed. & line and dynamite/ cyanide; squid trap and crab-net/gill-net and finally push-nets and oyster fishermen. In History of fisheries the first type of conflicts, the gear gets legislation entangled leading to fights; in the se- cond, hook & line fishermen are con- Thailand is one of the first coun- cerned about the wanton destruction tries in the world to introduce an Act of fish by dynamiting/ cyanide poison- to manage its fishery. Thus, in 1864 ing. In the third, traps get entangled the Water Duty Act was introduced with the crab and gill-nets. Oyster primarily with the objective of manag- fishermen fight push-nets because of ing the inland waters. The Act divid- indiscriminate killing of cockles. ed the fishing grounds into a These conflicts sometimes lead sanctuary area and a reserved area to open fights but there is no resort to (Isvilanoda, S. et. al, in press). Fishing judiciary for their resolution. The was prohibited in the sanctuary area, conflicts are seen as part of the risk which was defined as the area close they have to undertake while fishing. to monasteries or places of worship. Interestingly, almost all the fishermen Similarly, the law also prohibited have a combination of these gear fishing during the spawning season (except dynamiting and cyanide that coincides with the monsoon and poisoning). Therefore, these conflicts the use of toxic substances for killing are purely circumstantial. There is no fish. The reserved area was that division of labour according to gear. designated for persons who paid du- But all these fishermen unite to fight ty depending on the nature and the against granting ownership rights of area of the fishing ground and the mangrove forests to individuals for gear used. The Minister of Finance conversion into prawn culture ponds. had the authority to determine and
80 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 collect the duties and the Minister of that are now in operation, and there Lands and Agriculture to look after must be formulated new regulations, the conservation of fishery. applicable to the country at large and drawn primarily with a view to the But as Dr. Smith points out, preservation of the industry» (Smith, H.M. ibid.). «Those (regulations) that are strictly protective or conservative, as Perhaps as a result of Dr. Smith distinguished from those that pertain becoming the first Director of to the imposing of taxes, the raising of Fisheries in Thailand, increased at- revenue,…, constitute an insignificant tention was paid to conservation of part and are not very impressive ef- resources, particularly in the inland fective or adequate…» (Smith, H.M. waters in the 1930s. op. cit.) (parenthesis added)
and, The Fisheries Act of 1947 «that Ministry (Lands and Agriculture) has no powers or authority for the pro- mulgation or enforcement of conser- Although various fisheries tax vancy and regulative measures» (ibid.) laws were enacted between 1901 and (parenthesis added). 1938, the first comprehensive fisheries act was enacted only in However, due credit should be 1947. Like in the case of previous given to the fact that the need to con- laws this Act also covered both inland serve fishery resources was recogni- and marine fisheries. As Moore sed by the Thais as early as the 1860s. observes: Dr. Smith, in his seminal review of the fisheries situation in the «Having been drawn up in 1947 before the development of marine fisheries, erstwhile Siam in the 1920s after stu- the Act is drafted primarily with inland dying the fishing practices and the fisheries in mind» (Moore, G.1978). priorities of the government made an impassionate plea for proper conser- On an area basis the fisheries vation of fishing resources to cater sector was divided into four to the food requirements of the categories. These were: population: i) Preservation fisheries «There must be a thorough revision of ii) Leasable fisheries the entire body of fishery regulations iii) Reserved fisheries and
81 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA
(iv) Public fisheries (1) of the fishing implements.
Preservation fisheries refer to The Act provided the legal basis fishing grounds in the precincts of a for the management of fisheries. monastery or a place of worship However, its main focus was on similar to the sanctuary area accor- revenue generation like in all the ding to the 1864 Water Duty Act. previous fisheries tax law. It pro- Leasable fisheries are fishing hibited the operation of stationary grounds leased out on the basis of an gear in public waters. Access to auction for a period of one year, en- public waters was open but registra- suring exclusive right to the tion was mandatory. designated area. However, sub- Moore (op. cit.) finds this Act sistence fishing was permitted in this anachronistic considering the fact area. the Thailand has a multi-million dollar Reserved fisheries are sites industry based on marine fisheries. licensed out on the basis of fixed He further opines, fee, according to the size of the sta- tionary gear. «The changes in the law of the sea, the adoption of a policy of limiting entry in- All waters excluding the three to certain sectors of Thai fisheries, and mentioned above were public the negotiation of foreign fishing fisheries. agreements indicate a substantial redirection of policies, policies which The Act empowered the Minister it is suggested cannot be properly im- to issue notices regarding registration plemented through the existing legisla- of fishing gear and fishermen, licen- tion». (Moore, ibid.). sing of fishing implements (meaning Rather than any amendments to fishing gear) and specifica-tion of the existing Act which «will serve on- fisheries tax for the operation of ly to pull further apart the fabric of a licensed implements. law that was intended only as the The Minister also had the power framework for the control of small to impose conservation controls like scale inland fisheries» (ibid.) he ad- mesh size regulation, closed season, vocated a general revision of the Act quota restriction, minimum size of to serve as a basis for the manage- species and restriction on the nature ment and regulation of Thai fisheries.
(1) We did not come across any material on the division of the fishing ground according to this classification.
82 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1
Fisheries Acts (No.2) 1953 devised from 1952 onwards to con- & (No.3) 1985 serve stocks of various groups of species. Almost all these regulations Despite Moore’s recommenda- emphasized the need to control tions, there were no attempts to fishing effort. Thus the Ministry of undertake a general revision of the Agriculture and Co-operatives fisheries laws. There were two through a decree in 1972 proscribed amendments, the second being the trawl and powered push-nets in more important one. Even these waters upto 3 km from the shore and amendments did not take into con- within 400m from other located sideration the current requirements of fishing gear. What is quite special the fishery sector. The principal task about the regulation on trawl gear is of these amendments particularly of that unlike in the Philippines, the Fisheries Act of 1985, was to Malaysia and Indonesia in the enhance the fines for violations rather Southeast Asian region the prohibi- than to undertake a general revision. tion in Thailand is for protecting the nursery and breeding grounds rather From a careful reading of the than to resolve conflicts between Fisheries Act of 1947 and its subse- incompatible gear-groups (personal quent amendments in 1953 and 1985 discussion with Inspector General of it is evident that within its framework Fisheries, Thailand). On being it is possible to resolve many of the specifically asked whether small management problems of the fishermen have made any formal plea fisheries. Even though there is ‘open for banning trawling, the officials of access’ to ‘public waters’ it is the enforcement department and the regulated by various provisions of the Inspector General of Fisheries replied Act. Thus even in ‘public waters’ in the negative. fishermen have to respect various regulations pertaining to conserva- tion, and without registration nobody could enter any fishery. But none of Reasons for poor the provisions for conservation seem management to be evoked in any meaningful man- ner so that the regulations can at least In spite of the fact that the govern- function as a deterrent. ment was cognizant of the need for conservation, the Gulf of Thailand has Under the aegis of these Acts been described as «potentially a various regulatory schemes were marine desert» (Sakiyama op. cit.) or
83 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA an «underwater desert» (Bangkok fishing grounds (Panayotou & Bank, 1977, quoted in Hinton, P. op Jetanovanich 1987) and was the cit.). The resource depletion and the country most affected by the pre-ponderance of trash fish and declaration in this region. This led to undersized fish underscore the failure an intensification of fishing in their of the management schemes. This is territorial waters (Thailand was the quite evident from the fact that only last country to declare its EEZ in the 0.2 percent of the total value of Southeast Asian region, in 1981). marine catch is expended on enforce- It is difficult to control the ment (from the Inspector General of expansion of fishing effort in the terri- Fisheries, Bangkok). The vicious torial waters. Firstly, the rich fisher- circle of overcapitalization of the men are politically very powerful. The fishery and over fishing along with the Fishermen’s Co-operative Society clout of trawler fishermen, lack of (FCS), Fishermen’s Group and the political will and the declaration of the Fishermen’s Associa-tion are con- Exclusive Economic Zone by other trolled, particularly by owners or skip- countries in the 1970s seem to have pers of trawlers and/or purse-seiners. aggravated the predicament of Thai Not only are they able to fish where fisheries so much so that the lament they wish but are also capable of of Dr. Smith remains as valid today as obtaining a steady supply of in 1925. reasonably priced fuel and scarce As we have mentioned in the credit (Sakiyama op. cit.). beginning, the Thai marine fishery is In 1980 the government tried to basically an export-oriented one. It is stop the registration of trawlers and also designed to be operated in the push-nets to control fishing effort but rich waters off the coasts of other the move was thwarted because the countries in the South China Sea and Fishermen’s Association did not the Indian Ocean. Before the agree with the proposed restrictions. declaration of the EEZ in South and In 1983, because of resource deple- Southeast Asian countries almost tion, the government decided to close one half of the total Thai trawl catches the fishing ground in the Gulf around was believed to have originated from Prachuab, Chumpon and Surat. international waters. As a result of the Trawling and purse-seining were declaration of EEZ by the prohibited for a period of two months. neighbouring countries, Thailand lost However, these fishermen refused to about 780,000 sq. km of distant water accept the prohibition and the restric-
84 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 tions had to be relaxed by the govern- According to them there are basically ment. Two factors are revealed by the four difficulties. Firstly, the indented above examples. Firstly, the big nature of the coastline and size of the operators do not believe in the con- fishing ground make enforcement servation of the fishery for regenera- very difficult. Secondly, the villagers tion and Secondly, the government, by and large do not co-operate with either because of a lack of political them in apprehending the violators. will or the clout of trawler/purse-seine Thirdly, there are budgetary and operators was unable to implement personnel con-straints. And finally, the management measures the judiciary does not cooperate with (Isvilanoda et. al. op. cit). the officials. Most of the violations changed by the officials are Officials of the enforcement dismissed by the court. department in a discussion with me agreed that the enforcement of The following list was provided fishing regulations is very sloppy. by the enforcement department on However, they say, they are trying to the number of violations recorded improve the efficacy of enforcement. between 1986 and 1988.
Table I Number of Prosecutions for the Violation of Fishery Regulations (1986-1988) Sl. Years Nature of violation Gear No. 1986 1987 1988
1. Pair trawling 10 11 43 Closed season and 3 km ban 2. Other trawling 10 20 31 -do- 3. Purse-seines 11 25 32 Closed season 4. Push-net 31 25 21 3 km ban 5. Bag-net 441 398 228 Not known
Source: Enforcement Section, Department of Fisheries, Bangkok.
Considering the fact that there ficult to believe that a more 0.03 are over 7,000 trawlers, 1,000 purse- percent of trawlers and purse-seiners seiners and 1,500 push-nets it is dif- and 0.01 percent of push-net
85 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA operators violated regulations. The traditional sector and its weak political higher incidence of apprehension clout, which stands in sharp contrast (10 percent) or bag-net operators is with the power, and influence of the perhaps because regulations on this trawler lobby in Thailand. gear have been in operation since the early-20th century. Because of economic and social specificities, the trajectory of fisheries What Teresa Sofia opines on development in Thailand was the basis of field work in Ao Cho in different from other countries in the Trat province reiterates the poor region. The rapid industrialisation of enforcement of regulations: a modest fishery into one of the largest in the world was achieved at «Perhaps the most important the cost of killing the ‘golden goose’ problem with marine fisheries of rich fishing grounds. In spite of policies in Thailand is not the lack of legislation that is reasonably measures of proposals, but the enforcement of these measures» sufficient to check this tendency very (Teresa Sofia op. cit.) little has been done. She further observes: In this context, an observation made by Dr. Smith in 1925 still It is highly unlikely that the marine makes sense: police is able to effectively enforce any of the measures mentioned, «The history of fisheries and fishery there is simply not enough patrol regulations everywhere has been boats and personnel, there are that fishermen and governments are numerous security problems and loathe to make even so small a many officers (themselves local concession to the requirements of people) sympathize with the nature, and the result is that we see fishermen’s view point and turn a fisheries languishing and resources blind eye over the matter» (ibid.). gradually diminishing and proceeding to the point of commercial extinction, whereas, Conclusion with very little restriction on fishing operations the same resources Unlike in the other Southeast might have been preserved Asian countries of our study, the unimpaired for indefinite periods of time» (Smith, H.M. op. cit.). incidence of conflicts following the use of incompatible technologies seems to To use an analogy, what is hap- be low in Thailand. This is perhaps pening in the Gulf of Thailand is akin related to the diminutive size of the to slaughter tapping of rubber trees
86 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 once their commercial life is over. the nature of destruction, if revenue is Lack of enforcement is the key factor forthcoming especially from exports, promoting over-exploitation. At the the State has a tendency to swap same time, it is linked up with the foreign exchange for long-term political milieu of the State and the sustenance of the fishery. clout of the offenders. Irrespective of
87 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA
88 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1
JAPAN
apan is the biggest producer and Offshore fishery refers to opera- Jconsumer of fish in the world. In tions beyond 12 miles using powered 1986 Japan harvested 12 million vessels above 10 GT. Medium and tonnes of fish. The per capita small enterprises are engaged in this consumption of fish is approximately operation. The fishing trip may extend 70 kg accounting for one half of the from one day to a week. dietary supply of protein. But only 0.4 Distant-water fishery is in percent of the total population of 120 waters beyond the Japanese EEZ million is actively involved in fishing. and off those of various coastal For the sake of fisheries nations around the world. management, Japanese marine About 80 percent of the labour fishery is divided into Coastal fishery, force comprises family members Off-shore fishery and Distant-water engaged in coastal fisheries. The fishery. These sub-divisions are not remaining 20 percent is engaged in legally defined but there is an distant-water and off-shore fisheries. operational distinction. Although coastal fisheries account for Coastal fishery refers to only 27.2 percent of the total produc- operations (including mariculture) tion, they account for 48 percent of within the 12-mile territorial waters the total value which is the highest using powered vessels of less than contribution in terms of value among 10 gross tones. These are mostly all the three sub-sectors. This is be- family enterprise engaged in a cause of the concentration on capture variety of single day operations. and culture of high-value species.
89 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA
The focus of this chapter is almost like an invisible fortification of mainly on the historical evolution of the sea and the fishermen did not Japanese coastal fishery enjoy freedom of movement from management. one village to another.
Thus it was a reciprocal arrange- ment (though unequal in content) The feudal period between the feudal lords and the fishermen. In return for the taxes and The traditional concepts of services that the latter provided, they fishing rights found their way into the were given fishing rights and trading codified laws of the nation states privileges. A salient feature of this from the Tokugawa period in Japan arrangement, which exists even (1603 to 1867 AD). Village-based today in Japanese coastal fisheries, is fishing territories were established that the responsibility (for labour and and developed by the feudal lords taxes) was delegated to the village between 1560 and 1808. The sea and not to individuals. Secondly, was regarded as an integral part of relations between a village and the the feudal domain and considered to outside world were regulated by the be an extension of the land. authorities. But within the village, matters were left to the villagers. The fishing rights were granted ostensibly for two reasons. Firstly, for However, the formation of village- Kako (corvee labour) and secondly, based fishing territories was uneven for taxes. The foremost duties as because of unequal development of defined by the feudal fiefs were the the market, varying geographical and provision of Kako and payment of topographical circumstances and taxes in cash and kind. Kako was differing produc-tive capacities of the mainly for naval defence and guar- fisheries. By 1650s most exclusive ding the coast, transportation for the fishing terri-tories had been firmly rulers and for rescuing ships in established. distress. There seems to be a third reason for granting fishing rights to The establishment of exclusive the coastal villages viz. administra- fishing territories does not mean that tive. Since the entire coastal waters this is the only type of fishing rights. were apportioned among coastal «To make an otherwise rigid system villages, it served the security in- of exclusive territories, flexible and terests of the fiefs. The rights were workable» (Culland, A.1984), com-
90 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 mon fishing territories were also authorities. These rights could be demarcated where fishermen from sold, mortgaged or inherited. more than one village could fish Though the feudal authorities subject to prescriptive and mutual tried to divide fishing rights between agreements. Thus there was a dual affluent net owners and small system of exclusive and common fishermen, the territorial rights system fishing territories which continue to be had very little egalitarian content. so even now. As Culland remarks, Within the village a fraction of «the system of sea tenure was thus a villagers monopolised the fishing patchwork of criss-crossing rights that grounds in return for payment of had developed through prescriptive taxes. The establishment of a public and mutual agreements» (ibid.). fund in 1762 (in Fukuoka) with the Within the exclusive-rights area idea of providing cheap credit to small and the common fishing territory, fishermen was mainly for strength- fishing operations were subject to a ening their clout vis-à-vis the interests licensing system which was largely of large owners. At the same time, the specific to the gear and the species. licensing scheme was very strictly The granting of licences in the case imposed on the large gear operators of small-scale gear like gill-nets, set- to discourage monopolisa-tion of nets, drift-nets and traps was vested fisheries by a few owners (ibid.). In with the village leadership. This other words, there were some efforts practice continues even today. The on the part of the feudal authorities to only difference is that the village balance the power between different leadership is now vested with the gear-groups (but, significantly, not Fisheries Co-operative Association between the rich and the poor). Since (FCA). But no licences were required there is no critical analysis of the for simple technologies like hook and feudal strategies vis-à-vis allocation line, seaweed and shell collection. of rights, we are unable to say anything more about the priorities of A third type of rights was also the authorities — whether it is due to given, but only to the affluent net administrative reasons or financial owners by the feudal authorities. This reasons or for securing corvee labour. was mainly species-specific. Whales, tuna, and sardines could be caught Though exclusive fishing ter- under this system of prescriptive ritories were established, there was rights which was perhaps the most no indication on how borders should rewarding source of revenue for the be defined on land (regarding access
91 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA to sandy beaches) and at sea (demar- government. A new system of cating different fishing territories). operation was introduced under which This, in addition to the privatisation of the individual fisherman had to pay a fishing grounds and monopolisation use tax. But because of heavy of gear, led to various disputes. These opposition from the fishermen this disputes were either between system was replaced by fisheries co- villages or between different gear- operatives in 1887 «to co-ordinate the groups. The former were largely over use of coastal fishing grounds» boundaries, the rights to common (Ruddle, K. 1987). fishing, and licensing of large nets. The latter were because of labour The first national fisheries law shortage, gear destruction and was enacted in 1901 and it was mainly impact on shoal movement. with the idea of maintaining peace and order in the fishing villages (ibid.). Poaching was another inter- The law was based on traditional village problem undertaken practices without any effort to remove probably with the intention of the inequities during the feudal acquiring prescriptive rights to period. The feudal rights were sup- common fishing in the water of the plemented and formally categorised neighbouring villages. Concern was into those for capture fisheries, also expressed regarding resource beach-seines, set-nets and depletion caused by larger gear. mariculture. The fishing village guilds, of which fishermen were members Implicit in the above discussion during the feudal times, were made are three factors. Firstly, the develop- the nucleus under the new law and ment of the market in Japan, designated as Fisheries Associations particularly its uniform development (FAs). Their functions were more or across the country. Secondly, the less the same till 1910 viz. granting of existence of rich resources and fisheries rights and the issuance of thirdly, the existence of technology licences within the territorial limits of and skill to capture and supply fish to the villages. But in 1910 the law was the market. amended and FAs were permitted to engage in economic activities, in- cluding co-operative marketing. The post feudal period However, the principal function remained the former. In 1876, fiefs were abolished and all fisheries reverted to the central The 1901 Fisheries Law also did
92 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 precious little to alleviate small-scale «During the pre-War years, many fishermen from exploitation by fishing villages were dominated by middlemen and fish wholesalers. merchants, landlords, or absentee net masters, who lent out their This situation was made worse by fishing rights and lived off the motorization and gear modernization commission they received. In many which began in the 1920s, resulting instances, such people were also in efficient offshore vessels fishing in the controlling officers of the village coastal waters. The recession in the fishermen union (Fishermen 1930s aggravated their distress even Association). The actual fishermen merely rented land and house, and further. The Meiji government borrowed operating expenses from reorganised the FAs to improve their the people» (parenthesis added). condition. One Association per village was established. The joint The truth must be somewhere fishing rights areas were extended between the rosy picture painted by further offshore to protect them from Ruddle and the dismal picture by offshore fishermen. Attempts were Zengyoren. One is likely to agree made to break the grip of the more with the latter view because middlemen by encouraging co- under Meiji law the concept of fisher- operative marketing by the FAs. man was not defined. Therefore, all According to Ruddle: those who lived in the coastal village, irrespective of whether he was an «from the late 1930s, with the great absentee or actual fisherman, got decline in the number of middlemen, membership in the FAs. The wholesalers and moneylenders, absentee fishermen in all likelihood many of the residual elements of must have maneuvered the Associa- feudalism were essentially eliminated tion to protect their interests that pri- from Japanese fishing villages and marily lay in fixed net fishery. Further- fish landing ports. Henceforth, the fishermen themselves were the more, as Comitini (1967) remarks: masters of the coastal fishing grounds and their communities…» «Even though the fishermen’s (ibid.) association was the legal owner of the fishing right, it could not itself engage in However, Zengyoren (National fishing operations. Its importance lay Federation of Fisheries Cooperative primarily in its control over the Association) is of a different view. Ac- fishermen. Thus, even though the cording to their ‘Fisheries fishermen fished independently, they were subject to regulation laid down by Cooperatives in Japan’ (Zengyoren the association. The section of the law nd.), prohibiting the association from direct-
93 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA
ly operation the «the fishing rights ty. The main intention behind the ensured that the large scale fixed-net democratization process was to weed rights remained in the hands of the out the last vestiges of feudalism. In- «customary» users. These private right fisheries, pre-empting the best stead of displacing the 1901 law with fishing grounds, were several times a new one, what was attempted was more productive than the common- a strengthening of conventional right fisheries» (Comitini 1967).» laws/customary practices by remov- ing the non-democratic and ex- ploitative content of the previous The post war Law. The customary management administration of coastal principles were also formalised under the new system. fisheries The present management of In an attempt to «democratize» fisheries is in compliance with a dual the institutional structure of Japanese system of rights and licences coastal fishery and to promote fishery administered by the Ministry of productivity, a new fisheries law was Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries enacted in 1949 by the Central according to the Fisheries Law of Government with the assistance of 1949. (see table 1) Most of the respon- the SCAP (Supreme Commander for sibilities for administering coastal the Allied Powers) authority. The most waters are delegated to the significant aspect of the new Law was prefectures. Fishing rights in the that it granted fishery rights and marine context refer to the coastal licences only to fishermen or fishing waters and cover those fisheries enterprises actually engaged in «that either employ fixed gear or that fishing. It prohibited the transfer or exploit a relatively immovable leasing of fishing rights. This Law benthos» (Ruddle 87). All coastal was complemented by the Fisheries waters where fishing is permitted are Cooperative Association Law of 1948 divided among FCAs. In contrast, which had the objective of improving the licences govern those fisheries the economic and social status of that catch migratory or highly mobile fishermen and fish processors in ad- species and are issued for coastal, dition to increasing fishery productivi- offshore and distant water fishing.
94 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1
Table I
The Structure of Japanese Fishing Rights and Licences Rights
Categories Granted to
(1) JOINT FISHERY RIGHTS A. Gathering seaweed, shellfish and other benthos B. Specific to small-scale net fisheries Exclusively to FCA’s C. Beach seines, unmotorized trawling, fish shelters
(2) DEMARCATED FISHERY RIGHTS A. Special Demarcated Rights Exclusively to FCA’s private B. Demarcated Rights organizations and individuals
(3) LARGE-SCALE SET-NET FISHERY RIGHTS -do
Licences
(1) LARGE-SCALE OPERATIONS IN Mostly to private DISTANT WATERS Organizations and individuals
(2) MEDIUM-SCALE OPERATIONS IN DEEP WATERS -do-
(3) SMALL-SCALE NEARSHORE OPERATIONS FCA’s or individuals
(Source: Ruddle, K. 1987)
95 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA
The fishery rights system protects and set-net rights only if it has areas coastal fisheries and fishermen suitable for them within its territory. against encroachments of other Thus the tentativeness of Meiji fisheries and other economic sectors fishing rights was removed and the by granting them property rights. rights were neatly categorized for Joint rights are issued for the capture and culture fisheries with coordinated use of a fishing area and reference to the species caught and its resources by all members of an the technology used. In other words, FCA. The allocation of fishing territory the species caught, technology among the types of gear mentioned in used and the fishing ground became the table and the fishermen to be clear determinants of fishing rights. engaged in their operation are Therefore, there is no ambiguity internally decided by an FCA (ibid.). about its definition. Demarcated Rights are granted Fishing licences for aquaculture and are usually valid for five years. The Special Demar- Licences for small-scale cated Fishing Rights are granted fisheries in coastal waters are when many fishermen would want to granted by the prefecture to individual engage in aquaculture in a large area fishermen. They do not have the legal of the sea. And Demarcated Fishing status of property rights. « In prin- Rights are granted for pond ciple, licences are issued for fisheries aquaculture. not covered by fishing rights and in particular for migratory species taken Rights for Large-Scale Set-Net from trawlers larger than 15 GT and fisheries are largely species-specific purse-seiners over 40 GT». (ibid.) and are managed by the prefecture. When joint rights embrace the entire Prior fishing experience is a sea territory of an FCA, demarcated precondition for applying for fisheries rights and those for set-nets are rights. To be considered as a fisher- granted only for specific areas within man 90 to 120 days must be spend the joint rights area. All fishermen actually fishing in the sea. It is also belonging to a specific FCA are en- important that they must have not titled to fish within its sea territory but been found guilty of flagrant violations only a limited number of fishermen of the Fisheries Law or labour are granted set-net and demarcated regulations and not in possession of rights. An FCA is granted demarcated other fishery rights.
96 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1
Table II
Administration of Japanese Fisheries
Organ Area of Function Composition Jurisdiction Central Fishery National level To deliberate 25 Commissioners Adjustment Council Under the Min. Important of Agriculture, matters relating 15-representatives Forestry and to the enforcement of fishery operators Fishing of 1949 law & fishery employees 10-persons of learning and experience Fishery Adjustment Prefectural To carry on Commission matters relating To the fisheries. a) Sea – Area Every Within the sphere 15 Commissioners Fishery prefecture of the sea-area Adjustment in which it is set up 9 - elected by Commision fishermen. 4- fishing specialists 2- representing public interests. b) United Sea-Area 2 or more Need based Fishery prefectures Adjustment Commission
Source: Ruddle, K. 1987.
97 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA
Allocation problems in the rights are essentially self-managed by the to large-scale set-net fisheries and in FCAs and they form the vital link demarcated fisheries are pre-empted between individual fishermen and the by granting top priority to the FCAs. central and prefectural government.
The management of coastal The national and prefectural fisheries through this dual system of agencies are established as per the rights and licences is at three levels. Fisheries Law of 1949 and the FCAs At the national level there is the as per the Fisheries Cooperative Central Fishery Adjustment Council Associations Law of 1948. Thus, in and at the prefectural level, the Japan the co-operative movement is Fishery Adjustment Commission. well integrated into the Fisheries Law There are two types of FACs. One is and because of this, the law has great the Sea-Area Fishery Adjustment deal of legitimacy, unlike most of the Commission and the other, the United fishing nations in the Asian region. Sea-Area Fishery Adjust-ment Commission. The former — about 65 The efficacy of Japanese in number is formed in every fisheries management is essentially prefecture, whereas the latter is because of its organisational struc- established only when there is a need ture which facilitates a proper integra- for it, e.g., to control the fisheries of tion of national management principles seasonally migratory species which with the local customary practices. In would require the coordinated effort other words, there is no «kink» in the of more than one prefecture. (See legislation between the national and Table II). And lastly, there is Fisheries local levels. In addition, the regula- Co-operative Association, more than tions are flexible and contextually 3000 in number, established in every applicable according to the discretion fishing village and entrusted with the of the FCAs because the responsi- duty of implementing the Law with the bility to interpret the Law according to participation of fishermen. the specificities of the region is left to the local FCA. Thus, the room for The FCA plays the most central positive manoeuvrability enables the role in the management of coastal viable functioning of a system in a waters. Its principal functioning is country of multiple fisheries. «planning, management and sustain- ed development of the sea territory for The social basis of its organisa- which the individual community has tional structure is the behavioural tenure» (ibid.). The near-shore waters norms of Japanese society where
98 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1
«harmony together with community largely in the context of inter sectoral or group orientation still strongly problems when there are issues of influence... social behaviour » (ibid.). pollution and reclamation affecting In other words, the relatively the livelihood or the tenurial rights of successful implementation of the coastal fishermen. legislation and regulation through its The demarcation of the fishing organizational structure is because of industry into coastal, offshore and specific value judgements of society distant water is mainly with the that inspire belief in legitimacy. This is objective of easing competition perhaps further linked with the spirit of between different class interests nationalism or a national ideology (See Comitini op. cit.). According to which has given the State a great Oka (quoted in Comitini, op. cit.) the deal of legitimacy. implicit objectives of fishery control in What is most interesting about Japan is to leave the high the development of Japanese fishing productivity fishing grounds (coastal industry is that the Fishery Law of waters) to low efficiency boats and 1949 could successfully achieve the the low productivity (offshore twin goals of democratisation and grounds) areas to high-efficiency enhancement in production by boats since low-efficiency boats making these goals compatible with cannot exploit the off-shore grounds each other. successfully. Again the rationale for management, according to Oka, is Two aspects of the 1949 Law are not the maintenance of balance worth mentioning. Firstly, the Law between fishing effort and total yield successfully demarcates the fishing but on the other hand, «a counter industry into coastal, offshore and measure against a recession in the distant water fishery and successfully fishery business caused by prevents any conflicts between the fluctuations in the Japanese three. This does not mean that there economy» (ibid.). are no conflicts within these sectors. But for resolution of intra-sectoral conflicts there is no resort to judicial machinery because the organiza- Management of conflicts tional structure is such that these problems can be settled within the One of the salient aspects of industry through the FCA or SAACs. conflicts in the fisheries sector of Japan Resort to the judicial machinery arises is that, the conflicts are not between
99 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA coastal and offshore fisher-men. They there was increasing pressure on are primarily between two sectors of the coastal waters. A series of the economy (i.e. between fisheries govern-ment policies were and industry), localized, inter- formulated to generate the flow of prefectural or intra-prefectural in labour to the industrial sector at the nature and within the coastal region. expense of agriculture and fisheries As Ruddle points out, one of the (lwakiri, S. 1979). The policy of rapid major sources of fisheries conflict in indus-trialization and high economic Japan was the «differential rates at growth led to large scale reclamation which different communities adopted of coastal areas on the one hand new technologies» (Ruddle op. cit.. and pollution of inshore waters on The major disputes have stemmed the other. According to the from entry rights disputes, gear Environment Agency, in 1973, 21.2 conflicts, illegal fishing, bound-ary per cent (5650 km) of the total length jurisdictions, island ownership, etc. (26,539 km) of Japan’s coast-line With the advancement of the has been com-pletely reclaimed and economy the nature of conflicts also closed to the people (ibid.). This was have changed in Japan. particularly severe in the Tokyo Bay area and the Seto Inland sea. Thus, During the feudal time the as a result of new priorities the principal conflicts were over access to conflicts graduated from intra- sandy beaches (for the operation of sectoral to inter-sectoral in beach seines) and the demarcation of character. the boundary at sea. Therefore, the What is quite interesting to conflicts were either land or sea observe in conflict management is based. During the Meiji period the that intra-sectoral problems are conflicts became largely technology- resolved with the assistance of based because of the introduction of various agencies which have a trawling and other efficient fishing representational character and func- technologies like purse-seining. Thus, tioning within the sector. Whereas, for example, the conflicts between inter-sectoral problems are largely trawler fishermen, traditional anglers referred to the adjudication of the and longliners in the Essa strait court of law. In other words, traditional following the introduction of trawling conflicts originating in the pre-War era in 1919-21 period still continue. are resolved within the sector and With the rapid industrialization of those which are a product of the post- Japan during the post-War period War period are referred to the courts.
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According to Ruddle, in inter-sectoral groups within the FCA through covert conflicts traditional methods of resolu- means? At an informal level, inter- tion are generally not useful because mediary and peer pressures are also of clashing world-views of the parties used to resolve minor conflicts. The concerned resulting in the recourse to threat of social ostracization is the judiciary to resolve disputes. ultimate penalty in unyielding cases of conflicts, which facilitates At the local level, customary conformity to the collective will in techniques are employed to avoid or cases of outright theft or deliberate minimise interpersonal conflicts damage to another person’s gear. which include avoidance behavior (i.e. avoiding to fish at the favourite spot when there are other fishermen around, instead of fighting with them) Formal resolution of and the acknowledgement of the conflict rights of a first-corner to a particular fishing spot (Ruddle, op. cit.). While intra-village problems are Prevalence of certain voluntary informally resolved, inter-FCA, intra & customary pratices do not preclude inter prefectural problems are the occurrence of conflicts within an resolved at a formal level. Such con- FCA. But unlike in many other flicts could include violation of closed societies there are social forces that season, destructive fishing, poaching, balance and iron out disputes for the illegal sale of tainted fish and betterment of the village as a whole. problems arising from incompatibility According to Ruddle, consensus of technologies like, for example, the decision-making is very central to the conflicts between set-netters and gill- functioning of FCAs. In other words, netters. These conflicts, if occurring the decision-making process is struc- within a prefecture, are resolved by tured in such a manner that every in- the Sea Area Adjustment Commission terest is represented/ reflected in the and if inter-prefectural, by the United decision taken. We are not clear from Sea Area Adjustment Commission. his discussion how exactly an FCA However, such incidents are not takes care of hierarchy of power numerous in number, and according within a village in this consensus ap- to the Zengyoren, the number of such proach. Could it be that the important violations are dwindling over time pressure groups are able to elicit (personal discussion with the Chief desired response from less powerful Executive of Zengyoren).
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Resolution of inter-sectoral Thus the judiciary originally got problems involved on humanitarian grounds though later it also took up cases of Inter-sectoral problems arise inadequate compensation for the mainly out of the conflicting interests relinquishment of fisheries rights. of industry and fisheries. As we have According to Ruddle there are mentioned before, post-War Japan three reasons for the use of judiciary focused mainly on industrialisation by the fishermen. and economic growth at the expense of the agriculture and fisheries Firstly, traditional processes of sectors. This led to problems for the mediation were not trusted to render fishing communities particularly a just solution because of their problems created by pollution and abuse by polluting companies. coastal reclamation. Until the end of Secondly, the growing realisation 1960s these problems were that the situation had become considered to be a price to be completely atypical and divorced collectively paid for economic from traditional precedents. And progress. However, the desirability thirdly, the desire of fishermen to fix of industrial growth at the expense of accountability on the perpetrators of citizen and community welfare and destruction which was possible only rights was challenged in the 1970s in through the judicial process. the wake of «Big Four» pollution The judicial process had an incidents (Mina-mata disease or added legitimacy because of the mercury poisoning; Itai-itai disease or widespread sympathy for fishermen cadmium poisoning and various as a result of the «Big Four» tragedy. pulmonary disorders) (Ruddle op. cit.). The redress for pollution and partial or total loss of fishing rights In the post-War period, inter- due to reclamation was mainly in the sectoral problems were mostly form of compensation. Thus, as resolved with the help of the judicial Ruddly remarks, machinery. The judiciary got involved mainly due to the refusal of the «reinforcement of that traditional right to compensation may perhaps companies to own responsibility for have been the most important damages done to life by pollution and achievement of the post-war due to the attitude of the government campaign against pollution» which often sided with the polluter. (op.cit.).
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However, the distribution of plying an enhancement of productive compensation is very poor (ibid.) capacity in fishing grounds already and according to Prof. Hirasawa rendered fragile by degrada-tion and there are malpractices in its habitat destruction. (1) distribution (personal discussion). In spite of a reasonably efficient management system, Japanese coastal fisheries are not free from The current problems of problems. Two main problems still Japanese coastal fishery faced by the coastal fisheries are: (i) decline of resources because of With rapid economic growth, im- overfishing and the reduction of provement in welfare, and excellent fishing grounds due to coastal opportunities for mobility of labour, land reclamation projects and fishermen in present day Japan, are marine pollution and increasingly becoming disinterested in fishing as an occupation. As a (ii) ageing of the fishery work force result, more and more FCAs are and the disinterest of youngsters willing or wanting to sell their fishing to join fisheries (Zengyoren op. rights for phenomenal compensation. cit.). Reliance on compen-satory payments Overfishing in the coastal waters has become a way of life for many is mainly because of mechanized local fishing communities. The gear, efficient fishing techniques and amount paid as compensation partly motorized vessels, combined with finds its way back to the fishing sec- fishermen’s «strong natural tendency tor and partly gets invested in real to overfish» (ibid.). This has also led estate and small industrial enter- to over-capitalisation of the fisheries prises. The reinvest-ment in the fishing sector (lwakiri op. cit.) sector has made it more capital- intensive (as somebody jokingly According to the Seventh Fishery remarked, the modern Japanese Census of Japan (1983), about 60 fishing boat is like a battle ship!) im- percent of the individually owned
(1) However, Matsuda and Kaneda (1984) are of the view that the money is not invested in fisheries development. They observe: «As the economic functions of Fisheries Co-operative Association (FCAs) increased so their administrative function began to be misused i.e., they took advantage of their administrative function only for the members’ short-term economic welfare, but neglected both social welfare as well as long-term economic welfare».
103 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA fishery management units are headed «the fisheries Co-operative will be in by men over 50, 25 percent by men danger of becoming bureaucratised over 50, 25 percent by men over 60, and having its democratic nature reduced to a mere formality» (ibid.) and only 15 percent are controlled by men under 40. This is complemented Since the co-operatives are by a shortage for brides in the coastal getting excessively involved in the villages (arising from women abandonment of fishery rights for migrating to urban centres and compensation, the fishermen have marrying from other com-munities). also gradually lost public support Many people expressed the fear that, (Matsuda and Kaneda op. cit.) over time, the coastal fishing sector Because of this, and the inability of will become less and less important. FCAs to accommodate recreational In addition to over-fishing and over- fisheries under the existing legal capitalisation Matsuda and Kaneda framework, Matsuda and Kaneda (op. cit.) also point out that, foresee a limited future for the FCAs. There are about 10-20 million «the productivity of common fishery rights areas has not recreational fishermen who have increased since 1952, regardless of already begun to claim their rights in high subsidies for coastal fisheries the common fishery rights areas. In development, which have included addition, the general public is nationwide ocean ranching claiming rights to the beach. In the programs and artificial reef light of these new developments, projects» (ibid.) combined with the inertia of the The indifference or lack of FCAs, it will be interesting to watch interest of youngsters towards fishing the coastal fisheries of Japan in as an occupation is further reflected future. in the activities of fisheries co- operatives. Members increasingly show no initiative to participate fully in Conclusion the functioning of their FCA. The relationship between the co-operative In spite of problems of over- and the memebers is degenerating in capitalisation, overfishing, and other some places into a simple customer- recent developments the success of supplier relationship (Zengyoren op. coastal fisheries management in cit.). If the tendency continues, Japan is umatched anywhere else in Zengyoren fears that, the world. What are the factors that facilitated this success?
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Japan is a classic case where centration of population in the coastal many positive factors coexisted and areas. Further there was no taboo complemented one another thereby attached to fish-eating (unlike the facilitating the efficacy of the system. Balinese in Indonesia, for example, These factors are not confined only to who were averse to eating fish the fisheries sector — they are vitally because they considered the sea as inter-sectoral in character. Japan, a repository of filth!) (See Polunin again, shows that the successful 1984). management of the fisheries sector By inference, we can see that becomes a concrete reality only when the required skill and technology were there is overall development of the locally available. The sea was also economy. In other words, problems very rich in resources. Availability of within the sector cannot be solved in resources, skill and technology and isolation but only in conjunction with tenurial rights in conjunction with an other sectors. absorptive market provided a broader Historically speaking, granting base for the development of the of tenurial rights to fishermen in the fisheries sector. sea, right from the Tokugawa period The successful democratization onwards provided a proper basis for of the fishing sector, strengthening of the future development of coastal the co-operative movement and the management. Our discussions classification of the fishery into show that these rights form the hub coastal, offshore and distant water, of the management system. This resulted in the betterment of system is unique to Japan. fishermen. While improvement in the In a country where fish is the welfare of coastal fishermen was main source of protein, even in the achieved by reserving the coastal olden days, development of markets waters through joint and demarcated for marine products took place rather rights, the objective of enhanced early. Since the entire population is production was achieved by the fish-eating, the size of the market was successful seaward expansion of as incentive for enhanced production. fishing fleets into the offshore and This was further complemented by distant water areas. In other words, a the settlement pattern of the popula- neat division of fishing space between tion. The archipelagic nature of the the small-scale and large-scale sector country coupled with forested, moun- could be a reason for the success of tainous hinterland resulted in the con- the management system.
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In this context, it is important to viated any increase in pressure on remember that big capital in Japan the limited fishing space within the was able to successfully diversify in-to joint rights jurisdiction. On the other new areas and into new forms of extreme, there is a potential threat technology. The investors were able that the coastal fishery may have to to diversify the technology base to wind up ! The total number of meet the national objective of higher fishermen in Japan has come down production. Thus even when there from around 700,000 in the mid were conflicts within the coastal 1940s (source: Hirasawa, I. personal waters, these were confined to the discussion) to around 200,000 in designated fishery. Of course, the 1983 (The Seventh Fishery Census technology-induced offshore and deep of Japan 1983) and it is dominated by sea fishing ventures were supported fisherman in the age group 50-60. by a rapidly growing economy which This gives credence to the hypothesis paid the highest per unit value for fish that, given a choice, a fisherman has in the world. Therefore, the massive a tendency to decide against fishing. investment in these frontiers were not In other words, among the primary at the mercy of the vagaries of the producing sectors, fisheries is world market, but, on the other hand, perhaps the last resort in a situation were adequately compensated by the of unlimited supply of labour. When national economy. there are opportunities for inter- sectoral mobility there is an outward Even after the declaration of EEZ migration from the primary producing and the oil price rise in the 1970s sectors, particularly from the fishing which adversely affected Japanese distant water operations, the rapid sector. growth achieved by the Japanese The «objective» factors we have economy enabled the importation of mentioned above have definitely fish products to meet domestic played a positive role in the reproduc- requirements. Concomitantly, culture- tion of customary ethos without much fishery was further strengthened in the dilution. The balancing of economic, coastal waters. In other words, the social and political forces was such difficulties within the sector could be that it enabled the strengthening of neutralised to a great extent by certain the ‘consent’ content within the social macro-developments in the economy fabric of relationships in favour of cer- as a whole. tain norms already established in the Demographic factors also alle- marine context. In other words, the
106 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 legitimacy of law has a certain strong the fisheries sector too. The dwindling economic basis and if this basis was fishermen’s population and the grow- weaker there would have been ing involvement of FCAs in for-saking tremendous refraction between fishing rights for compensation are legislation, on the one hand, and its portentous indicators to the future of acceptance and enforceability on the the present framework of fisheries other. management. This is further complicated by the pressures exerted But at the same time, because of by recreational fishermen for fishing the changing economic environment rights and the general public for rights in Japan, there are rapid changes in to the beach.
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CONCLUSION
Conflicts in the coastal waters sector even today.
The attention that conflicts Such tensions have been either between trawlers and traditional land-based (over access to the gear-groups has received in Asia beach) or sea-based. The latter could tends to give an impression that be territorial disputes in areas where emergence of tensions within the there are tenurial rights to the coastal fisheries sector is a result of the waters or they could be disputes over introduction of trawling. However, overlapping resource-space. Other historically there have been many factors have also contri-buted towards kinds of tensions even between the tension in coastal waters: mud traditional gear-groups. Thus, for discharge following deforestation, example, access to sandy beach for dumping of tailings after mining (e.g. the operation of beach-seine was an Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines), important form of conflict in Japan in industrial pollution, coastal reclama- the feudal period. In Sri Lanka there tion, conversion of mangroves into were conflicts between the local aquaculture-ponds, etc. fishermen (using coir-made beach- seine) and the migrant fishermen Of course, introduction of from India (using cotton beach-seine) technology vastly more efficient than as far as back as in the 1860s. what is in use gives the tensions a Similarly, in certain parts of Thailand, certain edge. This is so with the conflicts between gill-nets and crab- introduction of trawling, developed in nets and squid-trap and crab-nets response to interna-tional demand for are common within the traditional prawns, which builds up to a classic
109 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA case of clash between incompatible ed by a strong patron-client technologies. relationship between the local fisherman and the village trader (e.g. Often, the destruction of fishing Suki relationship in the Philppines), gear and the falling share in the total there seems to be fewer eruptions of production of the non-trawl fishermen conflicts if the trader is also a trawler- are instrumental in the build-up of owner. Alternatively, if the fisherman tension. This is further worsened by belongs to a community, traditionally allegations of resource depletion and known for its militancy (the Buginese inequity from differences in efficiency. community in Indonesia, for example), Even here, tensions do not the occurrence of conflicts are more always lead to open conflicts. The frequent, often marked by violence. experience of Southeast Asian How the degree of militancy decides countries shows that a unique the nature of conflicts also seems to combination of factors —- often be influenced by the nature of specific to each country/society — involvement in fishing —- whether the influences the open manifestation of fisherman is a full-time fisherman or these tensions in the form of conflicts. one who combines fishing with Thus, in Indonesia and Malaysia, the farming operations. In the latter case, ethnic factor in combination with he seems to be less inclined to, or destruction of gear and decline in the involved in, articulating protest. share of total catch of gill-net Conversely, in Indonesia and fishermen was responsible for the Malaysia — where the most intense violent eruptions. In Thailand, conflicts broke out — the fishermen however, the eruption of conflicts was actively involved in open fights were relatively benign because of the mostly full-time fishermen. Thus, dimunitive size of the traditional cultural factors and the extent of sector. Similarly, in certain pockets of involvement in fishing can either the Philippines and Thailand there is subsume conflicts between incom- no apparent incompatibility between patible technologies or exacerbate trawlers and traditional gear-groups them in different societies. when they operate from the same locality. But there is tension if the The role of legislation in trawlers come from outside. conflict management The eruption of tension into conflicts also seems to be determined The response of the State to these by other social factors. In villages mark- conflicts —- primarily between trawling
110 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 and traditional gear —- is through traditional gear-groups in the inshore enactment of legislation. This gesture is waters. more common when there is intense articulation of protest against trawling (e.g. Indonesia and Malaysia). Where the expression of protest is diffused and Efficacy of legislation feeble, either the State does not step in However, the legislative process (e.g. Thailand) or it intervenes in such a has never been comprehensive manner that the legislation, at best, enough to make provisions that are remains an exercise in rhetoric (e.g. the truly efficacious. This is largely due Philippines). to the absence of discussions with But legislation in fisheries has conflicting gear-groups at the not been restricted to conflict formulation state and the lack of an management. Historically, it aimed attempt to disseminate the content of at conservation of resources. various provisions after enactment of Particularly in the Southeast Asian the law. Whatever could be achieved countries, non-quantitative regula- by these laws is further limited by the tions like mesh restrictions, area/ confusion of the judiciary regarding seasonal closure and proscription of their interpretation. This seems to dynamiting/cyanide-fishing were in arise from an inability to understand force, either in isolation or in the specificities of the marine context combination, from the late nineteenth (which are different from the agrarian and early twentieth centuries. (1). scene), particularly it three- dimensional nature. At present, with the exception of Thailand, all countries in this region In any case, zoning is incapable claim that the twin-objectives of of achieving intended goals if three legislation are management of is a preponderance of commercial conflicts and resources. The principal species of prawns in the shallow method for the attainment of these waters ( trawling is used in tropical objectives is the zoning arrangement, waters mainly for catching prawns which grants exclusive use-rights to and is the most efficient method of
(1) An interesting difference between the West and the East is that, in the Northern Atlantic area, e.g., the main focus of early fisheries policies were the protection of fishermen’s rights/interests and the maintenance of their fishing opportunities everywhere rather than the protection of fish (see Derham, P.J. 1987). However, in the Asian waters, earliest regulations were concerned with the conservation of resources (Japan excluded) — Thailand, e.g., had accepted principles of conservation from the nineteenth century onwards (Smith,op. cit.) - and not the protection of the fishermen.
111 FISHING LEGISLATION IN ASIA harvesting them). In such instances, tantamount to only rhetoric to establish the temptation to violate laws is too the State’s apparent «sympathy» for great even at the risk of apprehension the protestors. by the enforcement authorities. But Legislation is Janus-faced and legislation will be effective if the seems to serve a dual purpose. proscribed waters are so overfished What Aubert observed (1973) in the that there is no worthwhile incentive context of inadequate enforcement to violate the zone. But in this case, of the Law of Housemaids in Norway the legislation, would have come too in 1948 is quite relevant to the intra- late to serve any real purpose. sectoral conflicts in fisheries too: Thus, considering the ineffec- tiveness of zoning, Indonesia has «The law appears to yield to the perhaps the best method for resolving demands from one side in the the conflicts, viz., a total ban on substantive clauses, while the other side is fairly well protected by the trawlers in the waters dominated by lack of effective enforcement. The gill-net groups. But there too exist law thus serves a symbolic function stories of covert violations by trawlers and ameliorates group conflicts» under the aegis of corrupt army (Aubert, V. 1973) officials. And to what extent this decision is fishery-related is open to The ‘symbolic function’ of law as question. One should also note that elucidated by Aubert is the purpose the Indonesian experience since served by legislation in the fisheries 1980 suggests that a ban on trawling context too. The appearance ‘to by itself does not solve the problems yield to the demands from one side’ of operators of traditional gear. also has the subtle function to de- escalate conflicts into a manageable Is effective promotion of equitable form. Concurrently, it also tries to exploitation of resources possible prevent the escalation into totally through legislation at all? Since the undesirable realms. Thus, for State represents a powerful coalition of example, in Malaysia and Indonesia, interests which are «allied» with users the government would not want the of the more modern technology, graduation of inter-gear conflicts into legislation becomes more a form of full-fledged ethnic-violence. conflict management aiming at peaceful balance of interests, as we But at the same time, if the con- have cited in the case of Malaysia, flicts have already acquired certain rather than a resolution per se. It may threatening dimensions (this depends
112 SAMUDRA MONOGRAPH No 1 on the perception of the State), the As they rightly point out, the State does not hesitate to resort to most important question is how radical measures (like the total ban in legitimacy is arrived at. This depends Indonesia). In such instances, the so much on an understanding of role of law rises above its ‘symbolic different world-views and the function’. But then the decision is realisation of the necessity to evolve codes of conduct that minimise costs less fishery-related; it is more in to respective user-groups. But as we response to the glaring ethnic have mentioned before, in the dimensions of the conflict rather than absence of ex ante discussions or to the need to develop the traditional any attempt at disseminating the sector and to prevent overfishing. content of legislation, different gear- groups see legislation primarily as a transgression into their legitimate The question of legitimacy rights. Though legally they are in the wrong, morally they feel they are in Even if legislation had been the right vis-a-vis the violations. A enacted, the legitimacy of regulations classic example is the case of is very central in determining its suc- destructive fishing practices using cess. In most cases this is absent, dynamite and cyanide in the whether in the case of zoning viola- Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. tions (e.g. Malaysia, Thailand) or in In these countries, perhaps in many the case of destructive fishing. As others too, dynamiting and use of cyanide become destructive in their Jentoft and Kristoffersen observe in eyes only because of the their study on Lofoten Islands, intermediation of an outside Norway: perception — in this instance, the State’s. Otherwise, these practices «Regulations which the fishermen have local sanction. themselves consider illegitimate will be ineffective because, they will tend to be resisted and by- Reasons for poor enforcement passed by the fishermen. Legitimacy is not just a result of Lack of legitimacy is also an the management decision itself, important reason contributing towards for instance, its distributive effects but also how it is reached». the ineffective enforcement of regulations. As Derham observes: (Jentoft, S. and Kristoffersen, T. 1988-89) «They are often vociferous exponents and demanding of enforcement,
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provided of course it is directed defendant vessel had her gear in the elsewhere, and it is not unknown for water and was towing it.» fishermen to claim a «legitimate (Derham, P.J. op. cit.) expectancy» of non-enforcement as a defense in this situation». The violators of fishing regula- (Derham, P.J. op. cit.) tions seem to be aware of the disposition of the court and, Thus, for example, restrictions therefore, the regulations cannot on trawling are found unjust by its even function as a deterrent. operators but supported by non-trawl Contrarily, the deterrent influence fishermen. At the same time those seems to be replaced by an incentive who use fine mesh-nets and indulge (Scwartz, R and Orleans, S. 1973). in destructive fishing among the tradi-tional gear-groups do not agree Considering the poor legitimacy with the restrictions on these of fisheries regulations, an efficacious methods. implementation of these regulations is only possible through enhance- Corruption among enforcement ment of the fear of apprehension and officials and political interference punishment. This would presuppose also contribute towards poor the beefing-up of the enforcement enforcement in addition to other machinery. Considering the three- difficulties we have mentioned in the dimensional nature of the sea, the respective country reports. fluidity of the medium, the mobility of species, etc., an adequate enforce- The lack of legitimacy and the ment machinery would mean phe- general inertness of enforcement are nomenal investment in men and further compounded by the apathy of material which few countries can the judiciary. The disposition of the afford. This situation is further compli- courts is to vindicate persons cated by the question of political will charged with the violation of fishing in the respective countries. regulation s because of the difficulty in clearly establishing the case. As Derham observes: An alternative approach to conflict management «There appears to be no immutable definition of «fishing» and prosecution cases have been lost because the In the absence of concern for prosecuting authority failed to equity, the State is unlikely to ensure convince the court that fishing per se distributional justice. In such a had taken place even though the predicament what is the way out?
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Japan seems to offer a solution. Its Southeast Asian countries).(2) fisheries management is structured Further its final interpretation rests in such a manner that intra-sectoral with the village-level co-operatives conflicts can be mediated within the and not with the State. sector. According to Ruddle: As Ruddle points out, the viability of any formal corpus of legislation «In the Japanese case, at all levels, they involve much face-to-face depends on the behavioural norms of contact and prolonged discussion, each society. Law as legitimation logic and they appear to be governed less is possible in Japan mainly because of by the rule of the inflexible law to the uniqueness of Japanese society. which most westerners are (3) The consensual decision making accustomed». and obedience to law evolved over (Ruddle, K op. cit.) centuries. So too, integration of values In other words, there does not and a certain degree of homogeneity. seem to be any insularity between different gear-groups and there Cultural traits vary from region seems to be enough room for to region and country to country. dialogue. (Sri Lanka is another Thus, the case of Southeast Asia is country where inter-gear conflicts are in sharp contrast to that of Japan. resolved through dialogue. (1) But There are sharp differences within the difference between Japan and Sri each country particularly along Lanka is that, in the latter it is the communal or ethnic lines. The State that facilitates the dialogue as a content of legislation exhibits certain last resort). Complementing this, is ad- hocism and is more or less the nature of the Japanese fisheries administrative in origin, thus laws (1901 and 1949) which are contributing to its poor legitimacy. essentially a codification of local customs (Kada, Y. 1984) and, Still, it may be worthwhile to therefore, the fisheries law is kind of organise the fishermen on the basis a «legitimation logic on a large formal of different gear and to facilitate face- level» (ibid.). This is the central to-face dialogue for resolving (or difference between Japanese avoiding) conflicts. As Matsuda and fisheries law and that of other Kaneda observe:
(1) Personal communication with Dr. Christy. (2) And, therefore, the connotation of ‘law’ itself is different in Japan vis- a- vis other countries in our study. (3) According to Noda, Y (1976), the aim of law in the Far East is to prevent disputes, unlike the Roman law, the forbearer of all Western law which tries to resolve disputes. He quotes Confucius: « If I judge a dispute I cannot do other than what others do, but what I sincerely want is to do my best to see that there is no dispute».
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«Illegal conduct can be reduced when must be placed on conservation of an agreement between or among resources, particularly in countries interest groups results from thorough where such contingencies are discussion about and a complete understanding of the issues. Open already felt. discussion is the key to success because it provides an early warning However, a viable management of conflicts or potential conflicts». programme will not be easy as long (Matsuda and Kaneda, 1984) as the opportunities of employment and income are limited. Only overall Perhaps the State can take the economic development will lessen initiative to bring different gear- the pressure on fisheries. This is groups with conflicting technologies already happening in some and world-views to evolve a modus countries, e.g., Malaysia. vivendi. However, care should be taken to ensure that dominant The state of conflicts in groups do not, subtly, force their Southeast Asia is very different now. interests upon others in connivance This is in spite of poor enforcement. with the State machinery. In such for The incidence of conflicts has a aiming at a consensus to resolve subsided. There are no incidents of conflicts, emphasis should also be burning of boats or open fights placed on conservation of leading to lose of life in Malaysia or resources. An important point to Indonesia. This amelioration results remember here is that, in spite of from different causes in different evolving a modus vivendi, the state countries: in Indonesia, the ban; in of marine resources in Japan is Malaysia, economic development fragile because of little emphasis on and the relocation programme of conservation. Attempts at controlling fishermen; in the Philippines, fishing effort in Japan is mainly with depletion of coastal related and the idea of regulating supply to the fishery-independent factors in the market, not necessarily for de-escalation of conflicts in these preventing overfishing. In fact this is countries would make an interesting a major lacuna of Japanese fisheries and useful study. In the final management. Considering the analysis, the most meaningful pressure of population on a resolution of conflicts lies both within shrinking resource-base, emphasis and without the fishing sector.
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B I B L I O G R A P H Y
Indonesia
1. ADB, IBRD, 1983. Indonesia Fisheries Sector Study. 2. Bailey, C. et al. 1987. Indonesian Marine Capture Fisheries, ICLARM Manila. 3. Chong, Kee-Chai. et al. 1987. Some experiences and highlights of the Indonesian trawl ban: Bioeconomics and socio-economics. In The proceedings of Indo-Pacific Fishery Commission (IPFC) Darwin, Australia, 16 to 19 February, 1987. 4. Darmoredjo, S. 1983. Fisheries development in Indonesia: A case study. In Case Studies and Working Papers Presented at the Expert Consultations on Strategies for Fisheries Development, 10-14 May, 1983, FAO, Rome. 5. Director General of Fisheries. 1976. Fisheries Statistics of Indonesia, DGF, Jakarta. 6. Director General of Fisheries. 1980. Fisheries Statistics of Indonesia, DGF, Jakarta. 7. Director General of Fisheries. 1986. Fisheries Statistics of Indonesia, DGF, Jakarta. 8. HNSI. 1988. The All Indonesian Fishermen’s Association and its Role in Developing Fishermen, Jakarta. 9. May, B. 1978. The Indonesian Tragedy. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London. 10. Ministry of Agriculture, Director General of Fisheries, Asian Development Bank. 1988. Final Report. Indonesian Fisheries Economy Study. (Main Text). Robert R. Nathan Associates Inc., Hawaiian Agronomics International, Pt. Unisystem Utama (Ltd). 11. Naamin, N. 1984. The banning of trawl fishing in Indonesia. Workshop on the Management of Penaeid Shrimp/Prawns in the Asia-Pacific Region, 29th October to 2nd November, 1984, FAO, Australia.
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12. Naamin, N. 1987. Consequences of excessive fishing effort on fishery resources in Indonesia. In The Proceedings of Indo-Pacific Fishery Commission, Darwin, 16 - 19 February, 1987. 13. Palmier, L. 1985a. Introduction. In Understanding Indonesia, Leslie Palmier (ed), Gower, USA. 14. Palmier, L. 1985b. National integration In Understanding Indonesia, Leslie Palmier (ed), Gower, USA. 15. Sardjono, I. 1980. Trawlers banned in Indonesia. ICLARM Newsletter 3(4):3. 16. Thoolen, H. 1987. (ed) Indonesia and the Rule of Law, Twenty Years of New Order’s Government. Frances Pinter, London. 17. Yamamoto, T. 1977. Development of otter trawl fishery in Indonesia. Seminar Ke II Perikanan Udang, 15-18 March, 1977, Jakarta.
Malaysia
1. Abu Bakar, H.S. & Looi, Ch’ng Kim. 1987. Licence limitation: An approach to the regulation of fishing effort in Peninsular Malaysia. In Proceedings of Indo- Pacific Fishery Commission (IPFC) Darwin, 16-19 February, 1987, RAPA Report: 1987/10. 2. Department of Fisheries. 1987. Annual Fisheries Statistics. Ministry of griculture, Kuala Lumpur. 3. Fisheries Act 1963 (Revised 1978) Jabatan Perikanan, Kuala Lumpur. 4. Fisheries Act 1985. 5. Fredericks, L.J. & Wells, R.J.G. 1980. Marine fisheries policy planning in West Malaysia, Journal of Developing Areas, October 1980: 3-20. 6. Gibbons, D. 1976. Public policy towards fisheries development in Peninsular Malaysia: A critical review emphasizing Penang and Kedah. In Fredericks, L.J. (ed) Proceedings of the Seminar on the Development of the Fisheries Sector in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. 7. Hotta, M & Wang, L.T. 1985. Fishermen’s Relocation Programme in Peninsular Malaysia, FAO. 8. Kesteven, G.L. 1949. Malayan Fisheries: A Handbook Prepared for the Inaugural Meeting of the Indo-Pacific Council, Singapore. 9. Ling, Y.C. 1976. Fishery policies and development with special reference to the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia from the early 1900s. In Fredericks, L.J. (ed) op. cit. 10. Memorandum of the Fishermen’s Network of Malaysia, 1988. 11. SEAFDEC. 1988. Fishery Statistical Bulletin for South China Sea Area 1986, Bangkok.
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12. Selvanathan. ud. Some aspects of the Malaysian fisheries law with regards to fisheries management and conservation. Ministry of Agriculture, Kuala Lumpur. 13. Shari, I. 1985. Problems and prospects of Malaysian fishermen. Seminar on problems and Prospects of Rural Malaysia, 22-26 November, 1985, Consumer’s Association of Penang, Penang. 14. Star 15 May, 1985. 15. Teik, G.C. 1976. The fishing conflict in Penang and Perak: Personal memoir. In Fredericks, L.J. (ed) op. cit.. 16. Working Group 2. 1979. Report on Legal Aspects and Enforcement (Inclusive of State Legal Boundaries ) and EEZ, Pejabat Perikanan, Kuala Lumpur. 17. World Bank. 1983. Malaysia: A Review of Fisheries Policies and Programmes, Agriculture Division 5, East Asia and Pacific Projects Department. 18. Yahaya, J. 1984. A critical evaluation of polcies and programmes affecting fishery management and regulation in Peninsular Malaysia. Workshop on Marine Resource Economics: South East Asian Seas in Transition, East-West Centre, Honolulu. 19. Yahaya, S. 1988. Fishery management and regulation in Peninsular Malaysia: Issues and constraints, Marine Resource Economics, Volume 5, pp 83-98. 20. Yahaya, S. & Yamamoto, T. 1988. A Socio-Economic Study of Fisheries Management and Conservation with Particular Reference to Two Artisanal Fishing Villages in Penang, Peninsular Malaysia, College of Economics, Nihon University (CENU International Publication Series No.1).
The Philippines
1. Bailey, C. 1982. Small-scale Fisheries of San Miguel Bay, Philippines: Social Aspects of Production and Marketing, ICLARM, Manila. 2. Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), 1982. Updated Index to Presidential Decrees on Fisheries, BFAR, Quezon City. 3. BFAR, 1988, Position Paper on Illegal Fishing, BFAR (Unpublished). 4. Compilation of Presidential Decrees (ud) BFAR (Unpublished). 5. Genaden, R.A. & Dalzell, P. 1987. A Review of the Fisheries for Small Pelagic Fishes in Philippine Waters. BFAR, ICLARM, Manila. 6. Letters of Instructions 1328, 929, 550. BFAR. 7. Lotilla, R.P.M. 1988. State policies and the law on fisheries and living aquatic resources. National Agricultural and Fishery Council Seminar — Workshop, 7 October, 1988, Manila (Unpublished). 8. Memorandum of Agreement on the Joint Implementation and Enforcement of all Fishery Laws, Decrees, Proclamations, Memorandum Circulars, General
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Orders, Letters of Instructions and all Rules and Regulations promulgated thereunder, 1976. (Unpublished). 9. Republic Act No.3048. 1961. An Act Prohibiting the Operations of Trawls in Fishing Areas 7 Fathoms Deep or Less. 10. Santos, A.B. 1982. Relevant Laws on Municipal Fisheries, BFAR, Quezon City. 11. Smith, I.R. et al. 1980. Philippine Municipal Fisheries: A Review of Resources, Technology and Socio-economics ICLARM, Manila. 12. Smith, I.R. et al. 1983. Small-scale Fisheries of San Miguel Bay, Philippines: Options for Management and Research, ICLARM, Manila. 13. Smith, I.R & Pauly, D. 1983. Resolving multigear competition in nearshore fisheries, ICLARM, Manila. 14. Spoehr, A. 1984. Change in Philippine capture fisheries: An historical over-view. Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society 12 (1984): 25-56. 15. The Philadelphia Inquirer August, 11, 1986. With cyanide and dynamite, Filipinos kill fish — and the sea.
Thailand
1. Fisheries Act B.E. 2490; Fisheries Act (No.2) B.E. 2496; Fisheries Act (No.3) B.E. 2528. Department of Fisheries, Bangkok. 2. Fraser, T.M. 1966. Fishermen of South Thailand. Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc. 3. Hinton, P. 1985. An approach to the study of traditional systems of coastal resources management in Thailand. In Ruddle, K. & Johannes, R.E.(ed). The Traditional Knowledge and Management of Coastal Systems in Asia and the Pacific, UNESCO, Jakarta. 4. Insor, D. 1966. Thailand. In Guy, Wint (ed). Asia Handbook, Penguin. 5. Isvilanoda, S. et al. Thailand Capture Fisheries Management Practises: Their Development and Constraints (In Press). 6. Moore, G. 1978 a. Legal and Institutional Aspects of Fisheries Management: A New Licensing System, South China Sea Fisheries Development and Coordinating Programme, Manila. 7. Moore, G. 1978 b. Legal and Institutional Aspects of Fisheries Management and Development —- A Second Interim Report (ibid.). 8. Nagalaksana, C. 1987, Social consequences of excessive fishing effort in Thailand. In The Proceedings of Indo-Pacific Fishery Commission (IPFC), Darwin, Australia, 16-19 February, 1987. RAPA Report: 1987/10. 9. National Statistical Office, 1987. 1985 Marine Fishery Census of Thailand, NSO, DOF, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Bangkok. 10. Panayotou, T. 1979. Economic conditions and prospects of small-scale
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fishermen in Thailand: A bleak chapter in a success story. Staff Paper No.35 Department of Agricultural Economics, Kasetsart University, Bangkok. 11. Panayotou, T. & Jetanovanich, S. 1987. The Economics and Management of Thai Marine Fisheries, ICLARM, Manila. 12. Sakiyama, T. 1984. Fisheries cooperatives in South East Asia, An institutional perspective In Senri Ethnological Studies No.17 (ed). Ruddle, K. & Akimichi, T. Maritime Institutions in the Western Pacific, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka. 13. SEAFDEC, 1988. Fisheries Statistical Bulletin for South China Sea Area 1986, Bangkok. 14. Smith, H.M. 1925. A Review of the Aquatic Resources and Fisheries of Siam, with Plans and Recommendations for their Administration, Conservation and Development. Ministry of Lands and Agriculture, Kingdom of Siam. Reprinted by The Secretariat, SEAFDEC, 1983. Bangkok. 15. Teresa Sofia. 1988. Coastal Fisheries in Thailand: The Case Study of Ao Cho, A Fishing Community in the Eastern Coast. Dissertation submitted to Faculdade de Ciencias, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal (Unpublished). 16. Thomas, M.L. 1975. Political Violence in the Muslim Provinces of Southern Thailand. Occasional Paper 28, Institute of South East Asian Studies, Singapore.
Japan
1. Comitini, S.1967. Economic and legal aspects of Japanese fisheries regulations and control, Washington Law Review 49: 179-194. 2. Culland, A. 1984. Sea tenure in Tokugawa Japan: The case of Fukuoka domain In Senri Ethnological Studies No. 17, Ruddle K. & Akimichi, T (ed). Maritime Institutions in the Western Pacific, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka. 3. Iwakiri, S. 1979. Recent Socio-economic Trends in Japanese Fisheries. Lecture note for the Seminar on Fisheries Technology Education, JICA-Kagoshima University, Kagoshima. 4. Japan Fisheries Association. Fisheries of Japan 1988. 5. Matsuda, Y. and Kaneda, Y. 1984. The seven greatest fisheries incidents in Japan. In Senri Ethnological Studies No. 17, Ruddle, K & Akimichi, T (ed) Maritime Institutions in the Western Pacific, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka. 6. Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries 1986. The Seventh Fishery Census of Japan 1983. 7. Polunin, N. 1984. Do traditional marine <
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8. Ruddle, K. 1987. Administration and Conflict Management in Japanese Coastal Fisheries. FAO Fish. Tech. Pap.(273), Rome. 9. ZENGYOREN ud. Fisheries Cooperatives in Japan, Tokyo. 10. ZENGYOREN. 1988. Fishing Industry and Fisheries Cooperatives of Japan, Tokyo. 11. ZENGYOREN. 1988. The Fisheries Law. Law No.267 of 1949, Revised Latest, in Law No.63 of 1975. 12. ZENGYOREN. 1988. The Fisheries Cooperative Associations Law.
Conclusion
1. Aubert, V. 1972. Researches in the Sociology of Law in Barkun, M. (ed) Law and the Social System. Lieber-Atherton, NY. 2. Derham, P.J. 1987. The implementation and enforcement of fisheries legislation In Ulfstein, G. et al. (ed) The Regulation of Fisheries: Legal Economic and Social Aspects, Division for Higher Education and Research, Strasbourg. 3. Jentoft, S. & Kristoffersen, T. 1988-89. Fishermen’s co-management: The case of the Lofoten fishery, In Human Organisation. 4. Matsuda, Y. & Kaneda, Y. 1984. op. cit. 5. Noda, Y. 1976 (trans.) Angelo, H.A. Introduction to Japanese Law, University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo. 6. Ruddle, K. 1987. Administration and Conflict Management in Japanese Coastal Fisheries. FAO Fish. Tech. Pap., (273), Rome. 7. Schwartz, K.D. & Orleans, S. 1973. On legal sanctions. In Barkun, M.(ed) op. cit. 8. Smith, H.M. 1925 op. cit.
124 THE INTERNATIONAL COLLECTIVE IN SUPPORT OF FISHWORKERS
The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) is an international network founded in India in 1986, with the objective of providing fishworkers (men, women and children) with a platform to make their voice heard at the international level so that the numerous problems they face both at land and at sea may be taken into consideration by their governments and the international organisations. In its search for cooperation and solidarity, the Collective joins hands with fishworkers’ organisations and unions. Its characteristic feature lays in its close cooperation between scientists and social workers on the one hand and fishworkers, both from Southern as well as from Northern countries, on the other. The goals of the Collective can be considered as providing the basis of four longterm programs.. Montoring and research programs This program will provide the basis for various development studies in close collabration with scientists and workers of the fishing profession. Training and exchange programs This program will undertake the essential task of exchanging experiences and culminated knowledge. This will include the sharing of findings on new and appropriate technologies, learning from new organisational structures and interaction between the scientiic community and workers, with the objective of demarginalising artisanal fisheries. the interaction is twofold: on the one hand the exchange between fishworkers and scientists and on the other hand the communication between fishworkers of various countries. Action and campaigns ICSF decided to support, at their request, fishworkers organisations facing troubles. Communication The collective has devised various means of communication: SAMUDRA Report SAMUDRA Dossier, SAMUDRA Monograph (*); a collection of video tapes, etc...
(*) The word «samudra« signifies «ocean» in many Asian languages and thus evokes the vastness of the problems that face the fishworkers Fishermen village in Zummaraga island, The Philippines. (photo François Bellec)
FISHING LEGISLATION AND GEAR CONFLICTS IN ASIAN COUNTRIES
The International Collective in Support of Fish-work- ers (ICSF) has an ongoing monitoring programme.This programme consists of studies undertaken to enhance our understanding of the status of the fishworkers, the dynam- ics of external assistance to the fisheries management schemes. This study concentrates on the latter aspect. It examines the history and politics of fisheries management in five Asian countries. It attempts to show how the specif- ic management measures came into being; what the tech- no-ecological and socio-politica factors were that influ- enced the conceptualisation and implementation of these measures; and how these measures are perceived by the fishworkers and the bearing it has on their livelihood. The study was undertaken by Sebastian Mathew, a young freelance fisheries researcher from Kerala State, India, who is associated with the fishworkers’ organisa- tions in India. His earlier studies include assessments about the technological change in fishing and its impact on fishworkers. The opinions and views expressed in the study are those of the author and do not represent the official posi- tion of the ICSF on these issues.
SAMUDRA Dossier n° 1