Systemic collapse: How neoliberal fisheries policies and corporate plunder fuel ecological and human crises in Southeast Asia

Indigenous and local knowledge systems, such as the *sasi laut* in Indonesia or *pamana* in the Philippines, have historically managed marine resources sustainably by enforcing rotational fishing, size limits, and sacred zones. These systems are eroded by state policies that criminalize customary practices and grant industrial fleets access to communal waters. The loss of these systems accelerates biodiversity collapse, as industrial methods prioritize extraction over regeneration, ignoring millennia of ecological balance maintained by indigenous communities.

The current crisis stems from colonial-era fishing monopolies (e.g., Dutch *visscherij* in Indonesia) and post-colonial state centralization, which replaced decentralized governance with extractivist policies. Structural adjustment programs in the 1980s-90s, imposed by the IMF and World Bank, privatized coastal zones, enabling industrial fleets to dominate while small-scale fishers were dispossessed. The Green Revolution’s expansion into aquaculture further degraded mangroves and displaced coastal communities, creating a feedback loop of ecological and social collapse.

Comparative studies show that regions with strong customary marine tenure (e.g., Pacific Islands, parts of Africa) have lower rates of overfishing than Southeast Asia, where colonial and neoliberal policies disrupted these systems. In Japan, *satoumi* integrated coastal management has maintained fish stocks for centuries, while in Chile, *caletas* (fishing coves) with communal governance have resisted industrial encroachment. These models highlight the universal applicability of community-based resource management, yet Southeast Asian states have systematically dismantled them in favor of export-oriented aquaculture.

Scientific consensus confirms that industrial fishing (trawling, purse seining) depletes fish stocks 4x faster than small-scale methods, with trawlers destroying 90% of benthic habitats per pass. Studies in the South China Sea show that community-managed zones have 3-5x higher biomass than open-access areas, yet these findings are sidelined in favor of market-based 'solutions' like catch shares. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) warns that 90% of global fish stocks are fully exploited or overfished, with Southeast Asia as a hotspot due to weak governance and corporate capture.

Artistic and spiritual traditions across Southeast Asia frame the sea as a living entity (*Dewi Laut* in Java, *Naga* serpents in Cambodia) deserving reverence, not extraction. Performances like the *Wayang Kulit* in Bali and *Pantun* poetry in Malaysia often depict the sea as a reciprocal relationship, where human actions have karmic consequences. Contemporary artists such as the Thai collective *Baan Noorg Collaborative Arts and Culture* use multimedia to critique industrial fishing, while Buddhist monks in Thailand ordain fish to protest trawling, blending activism with spiritual practice.

Scenario modeling by the FAO and WorldFish suggests that without radical policy shifts, Southeast Asian fisheries will collapse by 2040, displacing 20-30 million coastal livelihoods. Alternative futures include community-led co-management (e.g., Philippines’ *Fisheries Code*), which could restore 50% of depleted stocks within 20 years, or corporate aquaculture expansion, which would accelerate mangrove loss and social conflict. The most resilient path involves dismantling industrial subsidies, reinvesting in small-scale fisheries, and integrating indigenous knowledge into national policy frameworks.

Women fishers, who comprise 50-70% of the processing and marketing labor force, are systematically excluded from decision-making yet bear the brunt of overfishing’s economic fallout. Ethnic minorities (e.g., Orang Laut in Indonesia, Sea Gypsies in Myanmar) face displacement as industrial fleets encroach on their ancestral waters, with their traditional knowledge dismissed as 'backward.' Migrant fishers from Cambodia and Myanmar are trafficked into forced labor on industrial vessels, their suffering invisible in mainstream narratives that focus on 'ecological' rather than human rights crises.