Customary Marine Tenure

The aim of this annotated bibliography is to inform and guide future research for use in Native Title sea claims, particularly in southern Australia. While there is a plethora of scholarly literature in relation to traditional Northern Australian systems of marine tenure including Peterson & Rigsby 2014; Memmott & Trigger 1998; Gray & Zann 1985), there is a significant gap in relation to the country’s southern seas. Just as we expect to find regional differences in law, custom, and spirituality in land tenure, it is arguably reasonable to expect that regional differences might be found in relation to marine tenure. The purpose of developing this bibliography is not necessarily to construct a presumed ‘north versus south’ difference, but to focus on what is for southern Australia – or at least, how it has been interpreted and represented in academic, ethnographic, historical, and legal records. This bibliography was constructed over a limited three-week period at the Centre for Native Title Anthropology at the Australian National University in Canberra, from 12 February to 2 March 2018.

Through its commitment to addressing extreme poverty, USAID is integrating a deeper understanding of the importance of small-scale fisheries and the role marine tenure plays in supporting food security, inclusive economic growth, biodiversity conservation, and other priority development objectives. There is growing evidence that tenure and property rights problems can contribute to political instability, population displacement, food insecurity, and environmental destruction significantly undermining or preventing successful implementation of development programs. Tenure over natural resources refers to the social relations, institutions, and rules that govern people’s access to and use of land, water, and natural resources. Small-scale fishers and coastal communities with secure tenure over a given fishery, fishing ground, or territory have a strong interest in acting collectively to manage their resources sustainably.

By analysing various conflicts, this book discusses the social, political, economic and legal attributes that are attached to the practice of traditional (communal) marine tenure. Selling the Sea pushes the discourse beyond the conventional approach which looks at marine tenure only as a means of resource management, and offers a more comprehensive understanding of what marine tenure is. For those working in the areas of marine resource management and fisheries, this book is a critical but also complementary reading to the conventional discourse on the issue.

This paper presents a case study of qualitative survey in the identification of customary marine tenure system in Maluku Islands. The customary marine tenure could be identified by coverage of the area, social right holding unit and legality and its enforcement. This means that in order to build a customary marine tenure models in the community at case study area, it is important to find indications of the above concepts. One of the qualitative survey methods could be done by interviewing the indigenous community using the existing maps and revised them after the interviews. The case study shows that the qualitative survey method is fairly effective for identifying the customary marine tenure system in Maluku Islands.

While there is a plethora of scholarly literature in relation to traditional Northern Australian systems of marine tenure, there is a significant gap in relation to the country’s southern seas. Just as we expect to find regional differences in law, custom, and spirituality in land tenure, it is arguably reasonable to expect that regional differences might be found in relation to marine tenure.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP)
stretches along the Queensland coast of Australia. It
has often been showcased both locally and internationally
as the worldÕs most successfully managed
marine park. However, in its management of this
park, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
(GBRMPA) has come under scrutiny by researchers
and indigenous people alike. This paper presents
an update on issues concerning indigenous rights,
management strategies and GBRMPA.