Traditional management of reef fishing

Summary

The Asia-Pacific region is especially rich in traditional community-based arrangements for reef fisheries management. Such systems are also known from reefs in the Caribbean and the Middle East. Literature on the subject is diverse, but scant and scattered, and many technical terms are used imprecisely. The exact origins of this management are unknown, but most debate surrounds its derivation from conservation practices as against its role in conflict resolution and avoidance. In some areas connections have been established with commercial use and defence of resources, and with resource-related taxation and tribute.

Traditional management systems in the Asia-Pacific region are based on property rights and associated regimes which reflect local structures of power and social organization. The systems are backed by authority which varies from area to area and may include secular leaders, religious leaders or specialists. Sets of rules governing the systems also vary among areas, but common characteristics are exclusivity, transferability, and enforcement. The rules are monitored and sanctions applied where necessary.

These traditional management systems have already disintegrated quite widely, and many factors have contributed to the decline, including processes such as colonialism, replacement of traditional local authority, education, commercialization and economic development. Yet there are strengths of such management, for instance their focus on allocationproblems, their implementation by controlled access to defined areas, and their enforcement by local authority. In many cases such systems may no longer be relevant to management objectives. They must be a viable alternative, however, in the rural hinterlands of far-flung archipelagic states such as Indonesia or Kiribati, where local authority remains and management by central government is cost-ineffective and ineffectual.