The hard truth is that every resource must be owned under similar
management traditions in order to both optimize yield over the
generations and to maximize the general health and productivity of
utilized biome. A great place to begin is the all important
shoreline and near shore itself. As this item informs, were it is
employed individuals prosper. Otherwise we try to blame the poor for
the bad practices.
The global race to the bottom has hugely diminished the general
productivity of the oceanic biome everywhere. Yet I still have to
listen to the same self serving arguments from industry attempting to
justify sailing away with the last net full of jelly fish.
Cooperation and mutually applied rules will work and even restore the
natural productivity. We can even go way beyond that of course, as
we have done is agriculture.
This study will help hugely in clearly demonstrating that reality to
policy makers who can insist on the adoption of these protocols and
block access without them. So far we are a lone voice or two, but
this is mere common sense that has worked not just elsewhere but
across industry and agriculture everywhere.
Fisheries benefit
from 400-year-old tradition
by Staff Writers
New York NY (SPX) Oct 12, 2012
A
new study by the WildlifeConservation Society and
James Cook University says that coral reefs in Aceh, Indonesia are
benefiting from a decidedly low-tech, traditional management system
that dates back to the 17th century.
Known as "Panglima
Laot" - the customary system focuses on social harmony and
reducing conflict among communities over marine resources. According
to the study, reefs benefitting from Panglima Laot contain as much
eight time more fish and hard-coral cover due to mutually agreed upon
gear restrictions especially prohibiting the use of nets.
The
study, which appears in the October issue of the journal Oryx, is by
Stuart Campbell, Rizya Ardiwijaya, Shinta Pardede, Tasrif
Kartawijaya, Ahmad Mukmunin, Yudi Herdiana of
the Wildlife Conservation Society; and Josh Cinner,
Andrew Hoey, Morgan Pratchett, and Andrew Baird of James Cook
University.
The authors say
Panglima Laot has a number of design principles associated with
successful fisheries management institutions. These include
clearly defined membership rights, rules that limit resource use, the
right of resource users to make, enforce and change the rules, and
graduated sanctions and mechanisms for conflict resolution.
These principles are
the key to the ability of the institution to reduce conflict among
communities, provide sustainable access to marine resources, and
limit the destruction of marine habitats.
"No-take
fishing areas can be impractical in regions where people rely heavily
on reef fish for food," said the study's lead author Dr. Stuart
Campbell of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
"The guiding
principle of Panglima Laot was successful in minimizing habitat
degradation and maintaining fish biomass despite ongoing access to
the fishery. Such mechanisms to reduce conflict are the key to
success of marine resource management, particularly in settings which
lack resources for enforcement."
However, the
institution has not been uniformly successful. In particular, reef
conditions in the adjacent island group of Pulau Aceh were poor
possibly because of destructive fishing and poor coastal management.
The precise causes of this breakdown of the Panglima Laot system are
the focus of current research efforts in the region.
Other work by WCS and
James Cook University suggests that fishers who are poorer and had
lower levels of participation in resource management, had
correspondingly lower levels of both trust in local institutions and
involvement in community events. These groups subsequently felt less
benefit from the customary PL system. In these places fishing is
largely uncontrolled.
When the PL system is
strong, and motivated by the aim of producing social harmony,
restrictions on gear use by the Panglima Laot in Aceh have direct
conservation benefits such as high coral cover and enhanced fish
biomass.
Additional surveys
over a wider geographical scale and over a longer period are required
to reveal whether these findings also apply across larger scales and
over time.
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