FISHERY LAW THREATENS MALUKU TRADITIONS, ECONOMY,

UNCLAS SURABAYA 000111 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV SENV EFIS PHUM SOCI ID SUBJECT: FISHERY LAW THREATENS MALUKU TRADITIONS, ECONOMY, ENVIRONMENT ¶1. SUMMARY: Jakarta recently passed a law that sets a 12-mile off-shore boundary outside of which the national government controls. This law threatens the local traditions that have governed fishing practices, and sustained coastal resources, in the Maluku islands for centuries. Local groups are organizing to fight against this law. In particular, they plan to challenge the law in the Constitutional Court on the basis of national regulation overstepping local autonomy. If the Court does not overturn the law, some feel the issue should be raised with the United Nations. END SUMMARY ¶2. Maluku province consists of more than 1,000 islands ringing the Banda Sea. Society is divided into multi-ethnic villages, each with its own king. While not a part of the formal governance structure, the king frequently wields more real power than local government officials. In particular, the king has significant influence over how the village both exploits and protects its natural resources. Traditionally, each village has had the long-standing right to exploit maritime resources in an area of the sea that extends from the island to the waters controlled by another village. In this traditional view, there is no distinction between land and sea. Each village looks to its king to control how these resources, especially the fisheries, are exploited. The kings use what they term "local wisdom" and traditional law to govern that exploitation. John Lefmanu, of the environmentally-focused NGO, The Kirani Foundation, contends that this "local wisdom" approach sustains both the local economy and the ecological integrity of the sea. ¶3. In 2007, the national parliament passed a law which contradicts this tradition. Among other things, the law restricts the maritime resource exploitation rights of the inhabitants of small islands in Indonesia to a 12-mile radius from shore. The rest of the sea would become part of national property, to be managed by the Central Government in Jakarta. Kiki Zamal, director of Young Ambassadors for Peace, views this as a direct threat to the economic livelihood and traditional way of life of the Malukus. John Lefmanu expressed concern that this new law would circumvent traditional informal agreements between villages that limit the use of ecologically damaging fishing equipment and avoid depleting fish stocks. ¶4. While the law was passed in 2007, the Ministry of Fisheries did not issue an implementing regulation regarding Jakarta's management of the fisheries until June 2009. The regulation spurred local organizations to consider actions they could take to counter the effects of the law. Two Ambon-based NGOs, Peace Through Development and the Kirani Foundation, organized a seminar on November 5 and 6, 2009, to discuss the law and organize the province's response. Over 50 people attended the seminar, including traditional kings, representatives from both local and provincial government development offices (BAPPEDA), university professors, and NGO activists. ¶5. The group decided to pursue two courses of action. First, they decided to create guidelines to assist villages to codify and formalize their traditional law and "local wisdom" with the goal of protecting traditional rights within the 12-mile area from future erosion. They also decided to directly challenge the law by bringing it to the national Constitutional Court for judicial review, and tasked Peace Through Development to spearhead that effort. They hope the Court will find the law to infringe on the rights of the province. ¶6. Other observers viewed the law as an example of Jakarta's "heavy-handedness" in dealing with Maluku province. A.H. Tulalessy, director of the Center for Environmental Studies at Pattimura University, compared the situation in Maluku with that in Aceh. He expressed frustration that Aceh is allowed to keep 70% of the revenue generated by its natural resources, while Jakarta "steals" all of Maluku's resources. Tulalessy also said that, if the Constitutional Court fails to overturn the law, the Maluku people should take their case to the UN. He argued that the law amounted to a violation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. MCCLELLAND