Pirates and the Environment: Bajo Tribe Study in Marine Conservation

Abstract

Pirate is considered as one of the oldest professions in the world. The existence of pirates in the archipelago was first recorded in the 5th century AD. In the period of 15th to the 16th century, pirate activities increased due to political and economic changes in the archipelago. One of them was the arrival of European traders which made most people in the archipelago encouraged to do piracy, including those done by Bajo tribe. The tribe which is from Sulawesi was a respected pirate at that time who had a wide operations area in the archipelago. The piracy targets are Europeans and indigenous traders. Bajo tribe was not only good at piracy but also had a concern for marine and coastal conservation. The coastal areas Preservation can be seen from the efforts to preserve coral reefs, fish and mangrove.