When the Sea Becomes a Teacher of Sustainability: Sasi laut in Tanimbar

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-545-4_41How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Sasi; Tanimbar; Indigenous; Ecological; Maritime; Sustainability

Abstract

The tradition of Sasi laut in the Tanimbar Islands, Maluku, represents an ecological and spiritual heritage of a maritime society that lives from and within the sea, viewing it as a moral and social space. In this system, the sea is Amid the pressures of globalization, climate change, and coastal exploitation, Sasi functions as a form of indigenous governance, a customary system that binds humans, nature, and belief within an integrated socio-ecological ecosystem. This article explores how Sasi laut operates not only as an indigenous restriction but also as a holistic framework that balances use and preservation. Through an ethnographic approach and theoretical analysis grounded in the concepts of common-pool resources and the blue economy, this research reveals Sasi’s role in maintaining biodiversity, strengthening communal solidarity, and fostering collective prosperity. The challenges of modernization call for the integration of traditional ecological knowledge with contemporary marine science so that the people of Tanimbar may continue to “guard the breath of the sea” in the digital era.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Muh. Nur Rahmat Yasim
AU  - Muh. Yahya
AU  - Andi Batara  Al Isra
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/13
TI  - When the Sea Becomes a Teacher of Sustainability: Sasi laut in Tanimbar
BT  - Proceedings of the World Conference on Governance and Social Sciences 2025 (WCGSS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 612
EP  - 623
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-545-4_41
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-545-4_41
ID  - Yasim2026
ER  -