Washington, Oct 15 (IANS): Coral reefs in Indonesian Aceh are benefiting from a low-tech, traditional management system going back to the 17th century, says a study.

Known as "Panglima Laot", the age-old system focuses on social harmony and reducing conflict among communities over marine resources, says new research from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the James Cook University.

Reefs benefitting from Panglima Laot contain eight times more fish and hard-coral cover due to mutually agreed upon gear restrictions especially prohibiting the use of nets, says a new study, the journal Oryx reports.

Study authors say Panglima Laot has a number of design principles tied with successful fisheries management institutions.

These include clearly defined membership rights, rules that limit resource use, the right of resource users to make, enforce and change the rules, and graduated sanctions and mechanisms for conflict resolution.

"No-take fishing areas can be impractical in regions where people rely heavily on reef fish for food," said Stuart Campbell of the WCS, who led the study.

"The guiding principle of Panglima Laot was successful in minimizing habitat degradation and maintaining fish biomass despite ongoing access to the fishery," said Campbell, according to a WCS statement.

"Such mechanisms to reduce conflict are the key to success of marine resource management, particularly in settings which lack resources for enforcement," added Campbell.

However, the institution has not been uniformly successful. In particular, reef conditions in the adjacent island group of Pulau Aceh were poor possibly because of destructive fishing and poor coastal management. The precise causes of this breakdown of the Panglima Laot system are the focus of current research efforts in the region.