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I. N. Parker
Amidst these conflicting interests, many Papuans in Raja Ampat view environmental projects as a means to assert cultural rights to landownership. People have
re-sacralized reef or forest areas by involving church leaders or cultural mediators
who advise environmental organizations about customary rules and practices (adat)
and places of spiritual significance, and then help resolve resource disputes. The
Evangelical Church of West Papua has played a key role in the emergence of new
forms of successful conservation: people have noted the return of manta rays to sandy
shoals, larger fish aggregations and bigger sea cucumbers for sale abroad. Protection
of reefscapes close to villages has in turn fostered the rise of an endogenous villagebased tourism market, which has become an engine for economic development and
a fulcrum of local politics.
In Raja Ampat, as with Melanesian societies in the Solomon Islands (see Hviding
1996; Leal Filho et al. 2020), clan-managed zones extend from land to sea and include
marked fishing sites, bays and lagoons. First arrivals and families who established a
garden, coconut grove, or house can claim rights to compensation for use of forest
products, hunting, gardening, fishing or collecting marine animals. Through marriage
alliance, the passage of time and collective recognition, use rights can eventually
become ownership claims. These issues have become more important as the spread
of tourism developments has led to several inter-village conflicts.
Study Sites and Methods
This study is based on three research trips to the Raja Ampat archipelago of 12 months
duration between July 2012 and October 2015. The main research populations include
Beteo and Ambel-speaking West Papuan informants and kin-networks on Waigeo,
Gam, Mansuar Besar and Kri Islands. Other informants included Papuan, Indonesian
and non-local staff of CI, WWF and TNC as well as the Flora and Fauna International and Yayasan Nazaret Papua, a local Christian charity who advises conservation
groups.
Participant observation related to conservation practices, beliefs, values about the
nonhuman world and ecotourism, fisheries surveys, and structured interviews, in
Bahasa Indonesia and Papuan Malay forms the basis of this study (Creswell and
Creswell 2017). Data collected includes two dozen key informant and life history
interviews, conversations and recorded talks with 200 cultural intermediaries, 12
group discussions, taxonomies of 300 important locally-named species, a mixedmethods protocol for small-scale fisheries research (n = 95); oral transcription of
narratives about resource conflicts, and clan histories; and notes from conservationfocused workshops.
4
4 Research Incorporated Institutional Review Board (IRB) protections for human research via
University of Califoria San Diego IRB (Project 130737S) that included three primary consent
regimes and two corollary consent procedures for audio and photo recordings. Research in Indonesia
I. N. Parker
Amidst these conflicting interests, many Papuans in Raja Ampat view environmental projects as a means to assert cultural rights to landownership. People have
re-sacralized reef or forest areas by involving church leaders or cultural mediators
who advise environmental organizations about customary rules and practices (adat)
and places of spiritual significance, and then help resolve resource disputes. The
Evangelical Church of West Papua has played a key role in the emergence of new
forms of successful conservation: people have noted the return of manta rays to sandy
shoals, larger fish aggregations and bigger sea cucumbers for sale abroad. Protection
of reefscapes close to villages has in turn fostered the rise of an endogenous villagebased tourism market, which has become an engine for economic development and
a fulcrum of local politics.
In Raja Ampat, as with Melanesian societies in the Solomon Islands (see Hviding
1996; Leal Filho et al. 2020), clan-managed zones extend from land to sea and include
marked fishing sites, bays and lagoons. First arrivals and families who established a
garden, coconut grove, or house can claim rights to compensation for use of forest
products, hunting, gardening, fishing or collecting marine animals. Through marriage
alliance, the passage of time and collective recognition, use rights can eventually
become ownership claims. These issues have become more important as the spread
of tourism developments has led to several inter-village conflicts.
Study Sites and Methods
This study is based on three research trips to the Raja Ampat archipelago of 12 months
duration between July 2012 and October 2015. The main research populations include
Beteo and Ambel-speaking West Papuan informants and kin-networks on Waigeo,
Gam, Mansuar Besar and Kri Islands. Other informants included Papuan, Indonesian
and non-local staff of CI, WWF and TNC as well as the Flora and Fauna International and Yayasan Nazaret Papua, a local Christian charity who advises conservation
groups.
Participant observation related to conservation practices, beliefs, values about the
nonhuman world and ecotourism, fisheries surveys, and structured interviews, in
Bahasa Indonesia and Papuan Malay forms the basis of this study (Creswell and
Creswell 2017). Data collected includes two dozen key informant and life history
interviews, conversations and recorded talks with 200 cultural intermediaries, 12
group discussions, taxonomies of 300 important locally-named species, a mixedmethods protocol for small-scale fisheries research (n = 95); oral transcription of
narratives about resource conflicts, and clan histories; and notes from conservationfocused workshops.
4
4 Research Incorporated Institutional Review Board (IRB) protections for human research via
University of Califoria San Diego IRB (Project 130737S) that included three primary consent
regimes and two corollary consent procedures for audio and photo recordings. Research in Indonesia