ABSTRACT
Prior to the introduction of seaweed farming, Pitu Sunggu residents enjoyed communal and non-exclusive rights to the sea from fishing and catching crabs. To farm seaweed, however, a person must be able to claim exclusive rights to an area of the sea, prevent others from using it, and ensure the exclusive right to harvest the seaweed. This requires a transition of property rights, where parts of the sea are no longer a communal resource but subject to use rights that are exclusive and semi-permanent and where quasi-private plots can be bought, sold, and rented. This chapter explores how members of Pitu Sunggu village – with little intervention from above – have negotiated and allocated these property rights in a period of just two decades Some residents were proactive in claiming large areas of sea space at an early stage of industry development, and now assert their ownership of large areas of the sea. Their ability to profit from this access relies on their ability to employ large numbers of casual labourers to bind seaweed lines, as well as on access to capital for operation of the farm. The chapter highlights how seaweed farming has reconfigured local understandings of sea space access, with diverse impacts on village residents, and implications for marine spatial planning at higher levels of government.
