THE CONSERVATION OF GREEN OPEN SPACES IN BALI
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ASEAN Journal on Hospitality and Tourism, Vol. 1, pp. 63—68
Printed in Indonesia. All rights reserved.
THE CONSERVATION
THE CONSERVATION OF
GREEN OPEN SPACES IN BALI
I GEDE AGUS PUTRA JAYA
Conventional development approaches tended to exploit the land and allocate green
areas as left over spaces. The provision of green open spaces had always been viewed
as unproductive and uneconomical, offering no benefits to the communities. It is pro-
posed in this article that the green open spaces should be viewed as strategic element
in environmental planning, not as a residues of built environment development, but
rather as conserved areas for the sustainability of natural environment, and also for
the continuance of cultural and religious traditions of the Balinese.
Tourism, conservation, green open space, Bali.
BALI : NATURE, CULTURE, TOURISM
Many epithets have been given to Bali, a small island totally unique: “The last paradise
on earth”, “The morning of the world”, “The island of the gods”, “The interesting and
peaceful island”, and what the archeological researcher Bernet Kempers coined: “The
land of thousand temples”. In rights, there are at least 20,000 temples in Bali (Titib,
1999).
Tourism represent the prime generator of development in Bali. Unique culture and
environment are without doubt the most important assets for tourism in Bali. Picard
(1997, quoted in Mudana, 1999) states that culture functions as a “brand image” which
represents the character of Balinese People, whose exceptional ethnicity enriches the
multi-ethnic Indonesia. Aderhold (1998, quoted in Mudana, 1999) states that Bali’s
“unique selling position” is culture, nature and a sense of community. Survey on
tourism motivation shows that 61% of the visitors come to Bali to encounter and
experience its culture. An additional 32% of visitors are drawn by the beauty of its
nature, flora and fauna; and the remaining 7% come for other reasons. These statistics
hold true for both domestic as well as international visitors (Affandi, 1998).
It is undeniable that the continuing development of tourism in Bali has brought a lot of
pressure on the natural environment. Now there is hardly any space not exposed to
tourism, starting from beautiful coastal beaches where most of the resorts have been
built, to the innermost and isolated areas. The coastal regions experience negative
impacts such as abrasion, extinction of the mangrove ecosystem, and sea water
intrusion. The innermost areas face problems such as erosion, the decline of landscape
quality, flooding, and pollution of the ground water.
Irrigated paddy fields situated on relatively flat ground are the most favourable site for
tourism developments. Accordingly, the irrigated paddy fields have decreased by as
much as 8,224 hectares or 1.46% of the entire area of Bali; 82% of this occurred in 9
years period (1980-1989) (Drysdale, 1995). Ravines, gorges, riverbanks, and sloping
areas near forests that in the past had no economic significance are now prime locations
Address correspondence to I Gede Agus Putra Jaya. Tel. +62-361-426596. E-mail: gedeagus@telkom.net
63I GEDE AGUS PUTRA JAYA for the development of tourism facilities; which in the long run would create damage to the landscape and disturb the ecological system. The development of tourism in Bali has also attracted people from outside the island who come to look for jobs and opportunities in tourism sectors. Consequently, the number of people residing on the island increased considerably, creating a pressure on the food supply, which in turn demands additional fertile farmlands to meet the need of the increased population. Hence, the continuing development of tourism facilities creates an unending need for cleared land. Land for housing, hotels, streets, etc gradually increased, while paddy fields, and other environmentally sensitive land (forests, mangroves, swamps, etc) gradually decreased. All in all, the whole concept of land use in Bali has undergone tremendous changes. The more intensive tourism development occurred in one place, the more serious consequences were resulted (Manuaba, 1995: 33), including: First, the physical consequences such as: damage to the physical environment, historic and cultural assets; crowding, traffic jams, and pollution. Second, social consequences that include: inaccessibility of the local people to the venues of tourism and community services; the resentment of local residents towards tourism; lack of appreciation on the benefit of tourism. Third, institutional consequences such as: lack of cooperation amongst tourism pratitioners; lack of support from local authorities; and their inability to respond to the problems and to take the opportunities available in tourism sectors, because each institution and party involved tends to think and act individually. Fourth, planning consequences such as: inability to develop new programs that are clearly directed and programs for maintenance of the existing infrastructure and facilities. These issues have created a negative impression on the development of tourism in Bali. There often emerges unsympathetic phrases such as: “tourism is the destroyer of culture”, “tourism is the scourge of authetic arts and culture”, “tourism is the new colonialism”, etc. Expressions continue to appear and stigmatized the tourism development in Bali. Consequently, tourism is often blamed when something unfortunate occurs in a community (Pitana, 2000). Decision making concerning the development of new tourism areas tends to create lengthy polemics and growing concern for several reasons ( Pitana, 1998) : First, the development of new tourism areas will almost certainly swallow up rich and fertile farmlands, and cause greater pressure on the environment to exceed its bearing capacity. Second, the spreading of tourism areas will bring an undesirable socio-cultural impacts, to the point that the Balinese will be uprooted from their own cultural roots. Moreover, many of the potential tourism areas would disturb the sacred place of the Hindu Balinese people. Third, the development of new tourism areas would displace the local people, as those who hold power continuously pressure residents to give up their productive lands. Through the existing building codes, the government endeavoured to protect the unique culture and nature of Bali. However, the implementation of codes tends to be inconsistent and sometimes contradictory to the essence, principles, and goals that the codes sought to achieve. Wyasa (1999) identified four major problems. First, there is 64
THE CONSERVATION
careless indifference to the spiritual, sacred and psychological aspects of the
community. Cases in point are the land reclamations of the Padanggalak Beach,
Serangan Island, the Bali Nirwana Resort, etc. Second, there is development of tourism
without regard to proximity to the sacred places. Examples of this include Sanur,
Merthasari, Peti Tenget, Jimbaran, Kuta, Nusa Dua and Ubud. Third, there is a
disregard to the bearing capacity of the natural environment. Cases in point are the Bali
Galeria in Kuta, developed in a mangrove forest without benefit of an environmental
impact analysis (AMDAL); a thermal electric power plant (PLTP) project in bedugul
developed in tourism park; the land reclamation of Serangan Island without regard to
the special environment and social concerns of the community; hotels and other tourism
businesses built without regard to fragile shore environments, etc. Fourth, there is a
disregard of the social functions and participation of the community in the development
and operation of projects, such as land clearance project at Bali Nirwana Resort, Bukit
Pecatu Graha, etc.
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED ?
A question emerges as to how Bali was able to nurture its environment and cultural
traditions so wisely for so long, before tourism development flourished so intensively?
The environmental protection concepts and practices are integrated in the Balinese
traditional culture and religious creed. The attitudes towards nature are expressed as
self-regulation; the traditions as self-adjustment, the sacred rituals as social system, and
the customary laws as control mechanism.
Nevertheless, it is not fair to blame the degradation of the natural and cultural
environments of the Balinese entirely to the tourism development. If we examine this
issue more closely, we will see that there are several primary causes to these effects.
First, a careless indifference to the traditional concepts and practices has caused the
development to be inconsistent with the ecosystem and the living culture of the
Balinese. Secondly, conventional development approaches tended to exploit the land
and allocate green areas as left over spaces. The provision of green open spaces had
always been viewed as unproductive and uneconomical, offering no benefits to the
communities. Green open spaces were considered as reserved spaces that at any time
could be transformed into different functions of built environment in line with the
future needs.
Third, development projects often disrupt the existing systems at place in the
community and its surroundings, such as relations with other villages, communities,
and associations (banjars). Fourth, a lost of the “sense of belonging” occurred among
the Balinese people, due to the limited involvement of the members of community in
the development’s decision making processes. As a matter of fact, the integrity of
nature and culture in traditional communities have been maintained through social
controls and participations. The protection of nature, threats of drought, fire, floods,
hurricanes, and landslides were always handled within the traditional frameworks.
The social system, the cultural values and norms, and the religion of the Balinese
people are now under evergrowing threat. This critical situation is aggravated by the
inability of the planners to anticipate the fast growing tourism development projects,
with regard to their locations, environmental impacts, and social and cultural concerns
of the community.
65I GEDE AGUS PUTRA JAYA GREEN OPEN SPACES The problems being faced in reality are extremely complex, demanding an integrated and comprehensive approach. The momentum has come for setting up basic planning policies to solve the urgent problems, in particular in regard with the green open spaces which constitute an integral part of the ecosystem. Green open spaces must be viewed as strategic element in environmental planning, not as a residues of built environment development, but rather as conserved areas to protect the balance of nature and ecosystem. The conservation of green open spaces is important not only for the sustainability of natural environment, but also for the continuance of cultural and religious traditions of the Balinese. Its focus should not just on quantitative goals of adding the stock of green open spaces, but also on participation of the communities at various levels as the guardians of their living culture and environment. The planning authority in Bali should also start to think of adopting regulated high density development scheme, instead of horisontally spread and unregulated development scheme currently put into practice. High density development scheme will effectively protect the green open spaces and reduce the costs for infrastructure. It will surely provide better living environment, and prevent the swallowing up of fertile farmland and nature areas for tourism development and other purposes. The conservation of green open spaces and the adoption of high density development scheme are two basic strategies required to ensure the sustainability of nature and culture of the Balinese people. The effectiveness of these basic strategies will rest on four primary elements: major attractions, linkages, activity nodes, and greenbelts. Major attractions will function as magnets for movements within the green open spaces system, such as tourist objects, traditional villages, scenic locations, irrigated paddy fields. Linkages represent pathways connecting major attractions, including pathway for human movements, ritual processions, subak irrigation control, etc. Activity nodes represent spots where community activities take place, such as paddy fields, water springs, irrigation channels and intersections, and traditional markets. Greenbelts function as transition areas that protect the nature from the pestilence of built up areas, such as green fields and pastures. To establish an integrated protection of culture and nature, environmental planning in Bali should be based on the following taxonomy of spaces: First, spaces for cultural and natural points of interests. Second, space for cultural and natural preservation. Third, spaces for economic and commercial activities, including tourism facilities. Fourth, spaces for daily living. Fifth, spaces for miscellaneous purposes. The mapping of different category of spaces should be carried out immediately, so that the critical areas of green open spaces can be identified, and regulations and guidelines of built up areas can be set up and implemented effectively. 66
THE CONSERVATION
CONCLUSION
Regulations and guidelines on built up areas should be implemented with high degrees
of flexibility and adaptability. For the existing built up areas, attempt should be made to
bring order to them, considering that such areas are mostly evolved from uncontrolled
development driven by economic factors, linear growth of settlements following the
transportation routes, and development of tourism facilities. For natural landscapes that
are still undisturbed, the planning should be carried out holistically to maintain the
original character of local settings, which may differ from one location to another.
Different natural conditions will surely have different critical problems and demand
different measures of conservation.
Through adaptive implementation, most feasible and contextual solutions can be
developed, in synergism with the existing planning policies and implementation
programs. It should be realised that vertical or high density development scheme in
several instances may contradict the cultural and religious aspects of the community. To
avoid such conflicting situations, active participation of the community at different
levels (village, banjar, sekehe and subak) should be encouraged since the early planning
stage, particularly in the decision processes. Such continual communications will create
a strong sense of belonging among members of the community.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author is grateful to Frances B Affandi for the translation of the first draft of this
paper.
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