An introduction to pre-existing local management systems in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Although known from colonial times, pre-existing systems of fisheries management in tropical nations have not usually been used as an alternative to introduced Western scientific approaches. During the colonial era non-Western models were disparaged openly, whereas nowadays commonly they are dismissively labeled as 'traditional' or 'special' cases. Often predicated on misguided theories, during the 1950s and 1960s a massive and experimental packaged transfer of social, economic, financial, educational, and legal systems, together with their underlying cultural values and aspirations regarded pre-existing economies, management systems, and often social and cultural systems as obstacles to modernization. Modernization provided the justification for foreign designers of fisheries management schemes to claim that pre-existing systems were either primitive or unsustainable or often 'non-existent'. This was reinforced by a general ignorance of the tropics and prejudice on the part of scientists and educators, whose careers were enhanced by work in temperate regions. The generic 'design principles' and functioning of pre-existing systems is summarized, together with the status of knowledge on Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.