Incorporation of Customary Fisheries Management in the Coral Triangle Initiative and Implications for Decentralisation Policy: Rote Island, Indonesia

Abstraksi

Local rules and practices for managing fisheries, also known as Customary Fisheries Management (CFM), have been practised in many countries. Studies found that CFM is effective in managing small-scale marine environments. However, CFM effectiveness has not been widely validated in large-scale marine environments. Using Ostrom's (1990) Institutional Analysis Development (IAD) framework this study assessed how developing countries incorporate CFM in Multilateral Environment Agreements (MEAs). This study examined CFM characteristics (property rights-based resource management and institutional design principles) on Rote Island and their incorporation in the Sawu Sea Marine Protected Area (MPA). The Sawu Sea MPA was established in 2014 as a part of Indonesia's goal to establish 20 million ha MPA as required by the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI). The CTI was declared in 2009 by Indonesia and five other countries in Indo-Pacific region to conserve fisheries and marine resources in the region. By relying on interviews with key participants and document analysis across tiers of government, this study found the incorporation of CFM is shaped by devolution of fisheries management to customary communities and deconcentration of fisheries management to the regional office of the national government. This policy enables self-governing of fisheries at the local level, but it excludes the provincial and district governments that resulted in institutional misfits and weakened multi-level collaboration. Therefore, this study suggests for the establishment of a nested system in decentralisation policy. This will allow lower-level jurisdictions to exercise some degree of self-governing authority over exclusive affairs and higher-level jurisdictions to manage cross-jurisdictional affairs.