Effects of marine customary management on coral reef fish biomass

Customary management is a set of cultural systems designed to conserve environmental resources, embedded in the belief systems and traditional practices of local people. In Indonesia, customary management, such as sasi,... [ view full abstract ]

Customary management is a set of cultural systems designed to conserve environmental resources, embedded in the belief systems and traditional practices of local people. In Indonesia, customary management, such as sasi, panglima laot, awig-awig, among others, limit resource use by imposing spatially-explicit fisheries rules. These practices have been carried out for generations, and existed long before conventional marine conservation approaches such as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) were implemented. Few studies have investigated the effect of customary management on coral reefs and fish biomass in Indonesia, and those that do are restricted to a narrow range of customary management practices. In this study, we explored fish biomass differences between customary closure and fished reefs across a wide spectrum of customary management approaches. We also examine how customary management affects food security among settlements that have customary closed areas or those which do not. We used ecological, social, and governance data from 109 settlements across five regions in the Sunda Banda Seascape, Indonesia. We employed linear mixed-effect models to examine the relationship between customary management practices and both ecological and social outcomes. Our results inform how local knowledge and practices can be applied to support biodiversity conservation and marine protection goals, while still allowing extractive resource use.