There has always been a challenge in balancing Bali's complex development issues with its unique beauty and magic. The events of the past few years have brought more elements to the situation - and an initiative which could help bring about positive change.
Before the economic crisis, Bali's population was growing relatively slowly compared to other parts of Indonesia. In-migration from other parts of the country are now changing Bali's face dramatically. In 1998 the growth rate was 1%; in the following two years it has leapt to almost 3%. Most of these migrants from other parts of Indonesia come here because of Bali's safety and comparative prosperity. They settle in the southern area, creating a huge demand for housing and jobs.
Small and medium industries are increasingly located in areas planned for tourism use in Kuta, Legian, Seminyak and Kerobokan. The positive impacts of increasing jobs and export income have also led to significant problems such as traffic chaos, flooding, deteriorating water and air quality and general ugliness. Yet these little businesses create 20% of all the jobs in Bali and account for 80% of its commodity exports.
Add this new challenge to Bali's other development issues. The island's main industries are tourism (30-36% of GDP), agriculture (20%) and small and medium sized industries or SMEs (20-26%) The ranges reflect the effects of recent political and economic unrest.
Although historically these three industries have been complementary, they are now often in conflict with each other as they compete for increasingly scarce land. Hundreds of hectares of prime agricultural land are being taken out of production as hotels and other quasi-tourism (such as villas ) facilities are built on them. Bali now has over 33,000 hotel rooms ( includes all star hotels and simple accommodation) with another 10,000 approved for construction.
The tourists want views of the rice fields so guess where these new hotels will be built? The farmer's children don't usually mind losing their land. They'd rather be working in shops or driving tourist buses than planting rice anyway. They are not distressed by the fact that Bali may soon have to start importing rice. And the tourists who come so far to feast their eyes on rice padis are having to drive ever further past endless home stays and wood carvers to find one. Many Balinese don't recognize these conflicts. Many expats don't either; how many of us are living in houses built on what used to be sawah? How many Balinese are now really working in the sawah?
So Bali's environment is beset from many directions - uncontrolled development that takes agricultural land out of production, uncontrolled growth of small and medium-sized industries, and the many pressures of a rapidly growing population.
Bali's government is well aware of these issues. In February 2000, the Provincial government in conjunction with the World Bank brought Environmental Planner Douglas Martin to Bali to study the impacts of urban growth and tourism on the environmental and cultural infrastructure of Bali. He and his team have produced a comprehensive Green Plan for Bali or Rencana Aksi Bali Hijau, with carefully designed strategies and proposals for improving the various situations.
" Up until now, we've been analyzing the situation and developing proposals for implementation. Now we have to continue to build support for the plan in the general Balinese community," Doug explains. "We took the proposals to all nine of the local parliaments and seven of them completely support our plan. We've met some resistance from some of the stakeholders in the business community, however. Fortunately the Governor of Bali is an educated and enlightened man."
The Governor supports the Green Plan and has provided funding to start the ball rolling. This next phase includes the preparation of the Bali Strategic Environmental Plan (BSEP) which involves policy development, broad strategic land-use planning and changes to current development control procedures.
" BSEP will be the most important policy and land use planning initiative to be undertaken by the Provincial Government since the adoption of the current 1996 Spatial Plan," says Doug. "That Plan contains very general zonings and setbacks to rivers, streams and steep areas which have proved ineffective and are largely ignored under current development control procedures. The Provincial Government and the World Bank recognize that there is a growing concern among many people that the current planning system is vague and out of touch with current reality in the Province. Any future plan should reflect the values of our community and clearly state those planning outcomes which need to be achieved."
Also, recent regional autonomy now requires the Provincial Government to work in partnership with the District (Kabupaten) Governments rather than in a hierarchical fashion as during the 'New Order' period. New development control procedures will be introduced so that clear direction can be given to local government on issues and land of National or Provincial importance.
The new plan will also try to obtain agreement between local governments and key stakeholders on major Provincial Planning policies. These include economic development priorities, population and urban density targets, areas of national or provincial significance with high nature conservation value, areas of national or provincial significance with high cultural conservation value, protection and management of key natural resources and protection of water resources and quality. Thus, decisions will need to be consensus-based so that local governments can carry out the more detailed spatial planning using Provincial/Local Agreements.
The new plan will use Tri Hita Karana as its guiding philosophy. This is the Balinese Philosophy which seeks to find balance and harmony between human and gods, between human and human, and between human and the environment. Environment in this sense includes both the physical and the cultural environments.
The major challenge for BSEP is to obtain agreement between local governments and communities at the 'Desa Adat' level. Implementation of the plan will not be possible without this cooperation. "It's vital for the Balinese community to understand that enforcement of any new planning system must come from within," emphasizes Doug.
If you'd like to become part of the study stakeholder forum and receive copies of the study newsletters, please contact BSEP at telephone 0361-23307, fax 0361-239096 or email socei@indo.net.id. A study website will be established shortly
