Sasi, a traditional natural resource conservation and management system

Location: Indonesia

Principal organisations: AIPP and Aman

Sasi is a 400 year old traditional conservation system and natural resource management concept that is effective in regulating resources use in indigenous communities, solving conflicts and protecting vulnerable groups such as women and children, particularly widows and orphans. In the Haruku community where Sasi has been used, regulations have been put in place to implement customary laws and traditional knowledge for a more sustainable usage of natural resources and lands owned by the community, and to successfully protect the community’s territory through collective and united action against development projects pushed forward by powerful external actors.