Nestled in the misty mountains of northern Bali, organic coffee farmer Putu Ardana is leading the way in reviving classical agriculture and sacred lands from progress and mass tourism.
Ardana, 67, grows, harvests and roasts Arabica beans without chemicals or fertilizers in his village of Munduk, located 800 meters above sea level. He uses water from nearby Lake Tamblingan, which is sacred to him and other members of the indigenous Dalem Tamblingan community. other people who first settled around the local lakes and forests in the ninth century.
The island province of Bali is also at the center of Indonesian tourism. This popular destination accounts for part of the country’s $20 billion annual tourism revenue and the peak of its tens of millions of visitors. Eighty percent of the Balinese economy is devoted to tourism.
But Ardana believes that “tourism must be a side effect. . . and not our main goal or our way of life. “
Bali’s mass tourism, concentrated in southern cities, has long since “reached a tipping point,” says Stroma Cole, a professor at the University of Westminster who studies tourism and water in Bali. More than 65% of Bali’s new water is used for tourism, contributing to water scarcity, exacerbated by expanding urbanization, recent droughts, and climate change. Half of the province’s 400 rivers are dry and experts warn that Bali could run out of water within a few years. Local Balinese are the most affected by water scarcity. the water crisis that has jeopardized food security and threatened cultural sites and classical practices.
In 2017, the Indonesian government designated Munduk as an environmental “tourist village,” along with six other people. But in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jakarta came up with an even more ambitious tourism plan, which aimed to attract millions more tourists and tourists. turning rural villages and ecologically sensitive spaces into tourist hotspots like Bali. The government says it will focus on sustainable and inclusive tourism that will put locals first and protect the environment. Among the designated tourist sites is Munduk, which highlights the demanding situations of economic equilibrium. expansion with real, sustainable benefits for other people and the environment.
Dotted with lush jungles and white-sand beaches, Bali is known as the “jewel” of Indonesian tourism. It consistently ranks among the most productive destinations in the world. In 2019, of the 16 million foreign tourists who visited Indonesia, six million landed in Bali. Last year, almost a fraction of the 11. 7 million foreigners who arrived in the country visited Bali. This year, the island province aims to attract seven million visitors.
Mass tourism in Bali has brought economic development. Its GDP has increased tenfold and it employs at least a quarter of the Balinese workforce. It has also contributed to water scarcity and the development of disparities in wealth and quality of life.
Balinese tourism relies heavily on foreign investors and local elites who have bulldozed farmland, displaced residents, and exploited dwindling groundwater materials to build luxury villas and resorts that need water. Tourism-related water demand in Bali increased by as much as 295 percent between 1988 and 2013. , and the average tourist consumes 3 times more water than local residents. The province loses about 1,850 acres of farmland a year due to tourism.
“Tourism on the island continues to grow, but for whom?Bali’s water crisis is much more than a water shortage. It’s a crisis that affects people’s quality of life, livelihoods and classical Balinese culture,” says Jaeyeon Choe, a researcher at Bournemouth University who studies sustainable tourism and network progression in Bali.
Bali’s freshwater aquifers have fallen to a record 20 percent as water is diverted from rural spaces and agriculture to tourism development, according to a study by the IDEP Foundation, an Indonesian NGO, and Politeknik Negeri University Bali.
“What scares us. . . is that we may not have white water in two, three or five years,” says Fransiskus Edward Angimony, an IDEP researcher who works with the foundation’s Bali Water Protection program.
Known as the “village above the clouds” with its spring-fed waterfalls, Munduk is a must-see source of fresh water for Bali. Its mountain lakes provide 35 percent of the province’s water supply. But the city of 6,000 other people is also linked to Indonesia’s plan to expand “high-quality sustainable tourism” that will attract 40 million visitors by 2025.
Deforestation due to illegal logging and conversion of land to monocultures, such as hydrangea flowers, as well as the development for tourism purposes, have depleted the Munduk Lakes in recent years. ” When I was a child in the 1970s, I saw that the waters of “Our lakes were still full. Now we have less water every year,” says Made Sawika, a resident of Munduk and the town’s director of tourism. Some locals fear that the push toward tourism reflects South Bali’s mistakes in intensifying water scarcity, reinforcing inequalities and eroding cultural practices.
Land and tax costs in Munduk have skyrocketed since it became a resort town, and only a minority of citizens benefit from those changes. “It has generated money for a few, but it destroys our land and water resources, as well as our unique Balinese civilization. “, says Ardana.
Residents of Munduk (and other Balinese villages) clash with tourism developers over considerations about water loss and encroachment on ecologically and culturally sensitive sites. “We glorify our water, our forests and our lands. It is our source of life and it will have to be protected,” says Diandra Orissa, 19, from Munduk, a young indigenous leader who spoke at the COP28 summit in Dubai last year.
In recent years, foreign and local investors have received permits granted through the state to expand tourist sites in Alas Mertajati, the forest domain that covers Lake Tamblingan. In 2021, a motion led by indigenous youth from Munduk halted such expansion over fears that it would destroy the local flora and fauna.
“But new [tourism developments] are popping up. A lot of land in Bali was bought for tourism purposes, even when the locals rejected the idea. This does not deserve to take place in ecologically sensitive spaces that are especially opposed to the will of the people. Cole says.
Munduk’s ecotourism mandate and ecological status mean that fish farming and nautical tourism remain banned on Lake Tamblingan. Businesses such as hotels require special permits for construction. All hotels in Munduk are offered as eco-resorts.
Puri Lumbung, a local hotel where musician David Bowie stayed, relies on classical Balinese architecture rather than air-conditioning to cool its 20 villas. The assets draw water from designated aquifers and conscientiously monitor their consumption. Munduk Moding Plantation, a luxury eco-friendly hotel complex, filters wastewater through the gardens, allowing it to reuse the water on its grounds.
Despite these efforts and the relief in hotel water consumption, “the truth is that . . . if you have more tourists, you want more hotel rooms and you use more water,” which leaves less water for residents, Cole says. that there will be less water in Munduk if we have more hotels,” says Sawika.
Meanwhile, some promoters and tour operators are betting on the system. “The hotels may have six or seven wells from which they draw water, but they will only claim two to minimize their taxes,” said a local businessman who requested anonymity.
Local participation and buy-in remain imperative to Munduk’s water conservation efforts. The other people of Munduk recently partnered with the Bali Water Foundation to expand a prototype water recharge well to collect rainwater. But even if the task is successful, “the 40-year water cycle means we won’t see the benefits for another 40 years,” Angimony explains.
At the same time, leaders of networks such as Ardana have pushed for the protection of the village’s land and water resources through promotion and a return to organic farming: “This offers an alternative source of income for tourism and also raises awareness of our valuable resources. and agricultural heritage,” he said. Community leaders like Ardana have taken the initiative to support organic farming, a tourism option that provides a source of income for locals, “an awareness of the land and our agricultural heritage,” he says.
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The government is now focusing on its five “priority superspaces” for tourism, located in ecologically and culturally sensitive spaces, which it hopes will be the country’s new Balis. But this plan only “provides an illusion of prosperity while concealing the innermost problem. “” Says the angimony.
“The government needs other people to make Bali . . . be the style [of growth] that we deserve to follow. But Bali is not doing well. The mass tourism we have created in Bali poses many problems. We don’t reject tourism, but we want a bigger style.
This story was told with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.