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I. N. Parker
and ecological resilience (Adger et al. 2013; Murphy et al. 2016: 102). In many
Melanesian and Pacific societies, beliefs about proper interactions between people
and nature are reflected in the organized stewardship of resources and habitats that
reflect social values in ways that also support ecosystem services (Berkes and Folke
2003; McMillen et al. 2014).
Research into cultural ecosystem services, values and local worldviews about
people’s relationship to the environment has mobilized a search for examples of
strategies or institutional approaches that incorporate religious belief and scientific
principles (Chan et al. 2016). Luetz and Nunn (2020) identify how religious worldviews frame how people think about and engage with the natural world. Misunderstandings about the intentions and goals for environmental protection have led
to conflicts between indigenous groups and outsiders. Yet in some Pacific island
communities and elsewhere, Christianity, local perceptions about nonhuman beings
and scientific management have fostered new institutions for supporting livelihoods
and habitats (Awuah-Nyamekye 2019; Scoville-Simonds 2018; Tarusarira 2017).
As a way of dealing with social and ecological change West Papuan communities
in the Raja Ampat islands of Indonesian New Guinea have adapted Christianity and
local spiritual practices as forms of interlinked conservation of marine reef and forest
zones. Communities here have transposed beliefs about human–environment relations into new types of protected zones that are sometimes commensurate with—and
also distinct from—environmental programs introduced from abroad. Environmental
protection includes marine protected areas (MPAs) or forest reserves (cagar alam)
established by international conservation organizations or Indonesian government
agencies, ritually-closed sea or land zones known as sasi (McLeod et al. 2009), and
zones of nonhuman spirits managed by clans. In Raja Ampat, different values support
resource management practices, with different stakes involved for the people who
support them.
Around Waigeo island, a center of environmental programs in Raja Ampat, sasi
is a genre of locally-inflected conservation that has evolved in unexpected ways
following large-scale interventions in the 2000s to protect the region’s coral reef
ecosystems. There are two distinct forms of sasi concurrently enforced among
resident Beteo and Ma’ya communities: sasi gereja, a type of Christian villagebased resource protection common in Beteo areas and sasi mon, a set of rules
and regulations for territories inhabited by Ma’ya ancestors or nonhuman spirits.
These zones have become interlinked with donor-funded MPAs throughout Raja
Ampat, contributing to governance that comingles endogenous spiritual practices
with exogenous ecosystem-based management.
I first provide an overview of studies that describe local mechanisms of resource
management, before introducing Indonesia’s Raja Ampat islands as a meeting place
of people and species. I then discuss how Papuan evangelical Christianity, beliefs
in non-human spirits and newly introduced conservation programs have become
interlinked in ways that have adapted belief to support natural resource management
and socio-ecological resilience.
I. N. Parker
and ecological resilience (Adger et al. 2013; Murphy et al. 2016: 102). In many
Melanesian and Pacific societies, beliefs about proper interactions between people
and nature are reflected in the organized stewardship of resources and habitats that
reflect social values in ways that also support ecosystem services (Berkes and Folke
2003; McMillen et al. 2014).
Research into cultural ecosystem services, values and local worldviews about
people’s relationship to the environment has mobilized a search for examples of
strategies or institutional approaches that incorporate religious belief and scientific
principles (Chan et al. 2016). Luetz and Nunn (2020) identify how religious worldviews frame how people think about and engage with the natural world. Misunderstandings about the intentions and goals for environmental protection have led
to conflicts between indigenous groups and outsiders. Yet in some Pacific island
communities and elsewhere, Christianity, local perceptions about nonhuman beings
and scientific management have fostered new institutions for supporting livelihoods
and habitats (Awuah-Nyamekye 2019; Scoville-Simonds 2018; Tarusarira 2017).
As a way of dealing with social and ecological change West Papuan communities
in the Raja Ampat islands of Indonesian New Guinea have adapted Christianity and
local spiritual practices as forms of interlinked conservation of marine reef and forest
zones. Communities here have transposed beliefs about human–environment relations into new types of protected zones that are sometimes commensurate with—and
also distinct from—environmental programs introduced from abroad. Environmental
protection includes marine protected areas (MPAs) or forest reserves (cagar alam)
established by international conservation organizations or Indonesian government
agencies, ritually-closed sea or land zones known as sasi (McLeod et al. 2009), and
zones of nonhuman spirits managed by clans. In Raja Ampat, different values support
resource management practices, with different stakes involved for the people who
support them.
Around Waigeo island, a center of environmental programs in Raja Ampat, sasi
is a genre of locally-inflected conservation that has evolved in unexpected ways
following large-scale interventions in the 2000s to protect the region’s coral reef
ecosystems. There are two distinct forms of sasi concurrently enforced among
resident Beteo and Ma’ya communities: sasi gereja, a type of Christian villagebased resource protection common in Beteo areas and sasi mon, a set of rules
and regulations for territories inhabited by Ma’ya ancestors or nonhuman spirits.
These zones have become interlinked with donor-funded MPAs throughout Raja
Ampat, contributing to governance that comingles endogenous spiritual practices
with exogenous ecosystem-based management.
I first provide an overview of studies that describe local mechanisms of resource
management, before introducing Indonesia’s Raja Ampat islands as a meeting place
of people and species. I then discuss how Papuan evangelical Christianity, beliefs
in non-human spirits and newly introduced conservation programs have become
interlinked in ways that have adapted belief to support natural resource management
and socio-ecological resilience.