Exploring the Social-Ecological System of Small Scale Fisheries Management: The Case of Seagrass-Fisheries Linkages at Bintan Island, Riau Islands Province, Indonesia

This paper is aimed mainly for exploring the connectivity of biodiversity domain and fisheries based livelihood domain in the context of Social-Ecological System (SES) with special concern to the Seagrass Ecosystems of Bintan Island, Riau Islands Province. In this paper we are also trying to (1) identify spatial distribution of social-ecological system of seagrass in the Bintan Islands, Riau Islands Province; (2) estimate seagrass residence index for biota found in the seagrass ecosystem; (3) provide ecosystem services map for the system; and (4) estimate the tactical decision of EAFM for the case of small scale fisheries (SSF) . A social-ecological system (SES) approach was used in developing the methodology and sampling frame for conducting this research. Using the Seagrass Residence Index (SRI) suggested by (McArthur and Boland, 2006), this research reveals that SRI ranges from 0.10 to 1.00. From the analysis of social-ecological connectivity of the seagrass ecosystem, it is also revealed that the spatial distribution of small scale fisheries in the ecosystem is relatively close to their villages. By this, tactical decisions for ecosystem approach to small scale fisheries management have been also constituted.

Keywords: seagrass ecosystems, seagrass residence index, social-ecological system, ecosystem approach to small scale fisheries management, Bintan Island