14 For Kin, God and Other Beings: Mixtures of Conservation …
275
Conservation as a Faith-Based Adaptation to Change
In the 2000s, marine-oriented Church sasi zones expanded near Waigeo island.
Originally a way to mark valued fruiting or palm trees or garden sites, they later
became a means to protect egg-laying fish aggregating during spawning. Consultants from Jakarta and elsewhere held workshops in different villages as part of a
World Bank coral reef management initiative (COREMAP). Over several meetings,
Beteo-speaking villages near Waigeo island agreed to support the banning of trawling
nets (jaring harimau), curtail shark fishing and to restrict hunting sea turtles. West
Papuan churches became involved by linking conservation to a claim that care for the
environment provided a vehicle for redemption. Soon afterwards, CI and TNC began
working with Papuan church-affiliated advisors who promoted sasi gereja alongside
larger-scale marine zoning projects. In extending to the sea over the past decade,
such practices have also broadened from family-managed to village-level oversight.
In Raja Ampat today, Church sasi has become a measure of West Papuan virtue
as well as communal shortcomings. To the Beteo people of Deer village off Kofiau
island, sasi gereja signals that Raja Ampat’s marine realm is an integral part of
people’s spiritual lives. People speak affectionately about manta rays, nudibranchs,
and reef sharks. Young men mourn seeing blast craters of dead elkhorn coral. On
Waigeo island, moral responsibility for the land and sea is connected to the desire
to abide by Christian values that are important to people’s sense of identity in a
Muslim-majority country.
In survey responses and group discussions, tribal advisers, congregants and
conservation staff commented how sasi gereja has become a way to act rightly
towards nature and among others. One informant said, “It is easy to organize people
through the church…Everyone prays to stop people from harvesting sea cucumber…in certain places they say, ‘leave it there.’” At a church in Saporkren village
(Fig. 14.3), the priest asked congregants to thank Jesus for providing abundant fish
and bountiful gardens. On Manyaifun island another pastor viewed sasi as an integral practice to his church as well as a means to ensure a community’s livelihood.
“We bring [offerings] to the church so that the Lord protects them; so that the Lord
guards our things…we are grateful for the results that he provides us.” On Rutum
Island on the Ayau atoll north of Waigeo near Palau in November 2014, a marine
ranger explained that sasi is “primarily for protection of the marine environment and
particularly to ensure that species that have decreased will be maintained for future
generations.” He said, “We respect sasi because of our faith in God.” He distinguished such practices from conservation-sponsored management, which he says,
“is a government thing.”
When asked about the differences between village regulations and sasi gereja,
an advisor at Misool’s Nature Conservancy office said that sasi gereja is considered
to be the most effective because people are afraid to enter closed sasi gereja zones:
they are fearful of punishment (kutuk) from God or nature spirits. At a fisheries
discussion in the nearby settlement of Go, participants remarked that God would
have animals—including crocodiles, wild boar, and certain venomous snakes—act
275
Conservation as a Faith-Based Adaptation to Change
In the 2000s, marine-oriented Church sasi zones expanded near Waigeo island.
Originally a way to mark valued fruiting or palm trees or garden sites, they later
became a means to protect egg-laying fish aggregating during spawning. Consultants from Jakarta and elsewhere held workshops in different villages as part of a
World Bank coral reef management initiative (COREMAP). Over several meetings,
Beteo-speaking villages near Waigeo island agreed to support the banning of trawling
nets (jaring harimau), curtail shark fishing and to restrict hunting sea turtles. West
Papuan churches became involved by linking conservation to a claim that care for the
environment provided a vehicle for redemption. Soon afterwards, CI and TNC began
working with Papuan church-affiliated advisors who promoted sasi gereja alongside
larger-scale marine zoning projects. In extending to the sea over the past decade,
such practices have also broadened from family-managed to village-level oversight.
In Raja Ampat today, Church sasi has become a measure of West Papuan virtue
as well as communal shortcomings. To the Beteo people of Deer village off Kofiau
island, sasi gereja signals that Raja Ampat’s marine realm is an integral part of
people’s spiritual lives. People speak affectionately about manta rays, nudibranchs,
and reef sharks. Young men mourn seeing blast craters of dead elkhorn coral. On
Waigeo island, moral responsibility for the land and sea is connected to the desire
to abide by Christian values that are important to people’s sense of identity in a
Muslim-majority country.
In survey responses and group discussions, tribal advisers, congregants and
conservation staff commented how sasi gereja has become a way to act rightly
towards nature and among others. One informant said, “It is easy to organize people
through the church…Everyone prays to stop people from harvesting sea cucumber…in certain places they say, ‘leave it there.’” At a church in Saporkren village
(Fig. 14.3), the priest asked congregants to thank Jesus for providing abundant fish
and bountiful gardens. On Manyaifun island another pastor viewed sasi as an integral practice to his church as well as a means to ensure a community’s livelihood.
“We bring [offerings] to the church so that the Lord protects them; so that the Lord
guards our things…we are grateful for the results that he provides us.” On Rutum
Island on the Ayau atoll north of Waigeo near Palau in November 2014, a marine
ranger explained that sasi is “primarily for protection of the marine environment and
particularly to ensure that species that have decreased will be maintained for future
generations.” He said, “We respect sasi because of our faith in God.” He distinguished such practices from conservation-sponsored management, which he says,
“is a government thing.”
When asked about the differences between village regulations and sasi gereja,
an advisor at Misool’s Nature Conservancy office said that sasi gereja is considered
to be the most effective because people are afraid to enter closed sasi gereja zones:
they are fearful of punishment (kutuk) from God or nature spirits. At a fisheries
discussion in the nearby settlement of Go, participants remarked that God would
have animals—including crocodiles, wild boar, and certain venomous snakes—act