Traditional Resources Management Practices SASI In Raja Ampat, West Papua Indonesia

Sasi is a traditional resource management practice used by local communities in mostof the eastern part of Indonesia to open and close areas for fishing single or multiple fisheries species in certain period. Since 2012,... [ view full abstract ]

Sasi is a traditional resource management practice used by local communities in mostof the eastern part of Indonesia to open and close areas for fishing single or multiple fisheries species in certain period. Since 2012, local community in Folley village, Raja Ampat has declared 297 hectares of their coastal areas as a sasi for sea cucumbers as important resources for their communities. They protect the sasi areas by conducting regular patrol and harvested the sea cucumbers only for 1 or 2 weeks per year. Supported by the local government and religion leader, the local community set a harvest strategy, including size limitation before opening it for harvest. The Nature Conservancy’s scientist provided scientific consideration to ensure the harvest strategy match with sustainable use principles. The trained monitoring team, consist of local community, local government and other partners collected data of number, size and species of sea cucumbers during the harvesting period. The annual data show increased number of sea cucumber species in sasi areas from 6 species in 2013 to 11 species in 2016 and increasing average total harvest from 191 individuals per day on 2013 to 681 individuals per day on 2016. The Income of local community from open the sasi area also increased approximately 3 times from 2013 to 2016. Revenue from harvest used to support interests of villagers that mutually agreed upon. This positive result indicating that the sasi is effective natural resource management to improve both species biodiversity and income for local communities in Raja Ampat.