C. Warren

Tourism as a Tool for Poverty Alleviation: A Critical Analysis of ‘Pro-Poor Tourism’ and Implications for Sustainability

Forecasts of high tourism growth in developing nations, where widespread poverty exists, has led to considerable interest in tourism as a tool for poverty alleviation. Powerful bureaucratic and business alliances have been forged to expand this programme. International development agencies are also turning to tourism as a way of alleviating poverty. This is sometimes termed ‘pro-poor tourism’ (PPT). Distinguished from other forms of ‘alternative tourisms’ such as ecotourism and community-based tourism, the stakeholders involved in this enterprise are no less divided. Ideological divisions manifest themselves in the political struggle over how tourism in developing countries should unfold. This paper identifies the different sustainability positions of prominent pro-poor tourism stakeholders and considers the implications for meeting pro-poor and sustainability objectives. Generally, tourism is too often regarded a panacea without an attendant recognition that, like any other industrial activity, tourism is highly political. As a global industry, tourism operates within a neo-liberal market economy which presents severe challenges to meeting pro-poor and sustainable development objectives. This paper therefore recommends a fundamental re-evaluation of tourisms pro-poor potential in the absence of significant commitment to directly address structural inequities which exacerbate poverty and constrain pro-poor attempts.

The Local Turn: an Introductory Essay Revisiting Leadership, Elite Capture and Good Governance in Indonesian Conservation and Development Programs.

The local turn in good governance theory and practice responded to critiques of the ineffectiveness of state management and the inequity of privatization alternatives in natural resource management. Confounding expectations of greater effectiveness from decentralised governance, including community-based natural resource management, however, critics argue that expanded opportunities for elite capture have become widely associated with program failures. This overview of theoretical controversies on leadership, patronage and elite capture is part of a themed section in this issue that challenges assumptions across a wide range of current policy literature. It introduces a set of Indonesian case studies that examine practices of local leaders and elites and seek to account in structural terms for appropriations both by (‘elite capture’) and of (‘captured elites’) these key figures. These studies explore the structural factors and co-governance practices most likely to promote effective participation of the full spectrum of local interests in pursuit of better local natural resource governance.

Community mapping, local planning and alternative land use strategies in Bali

Abstract Geografisk Tidsskrift, Danish Journal of Geography 105(1):29–41, 2005 Participatoiy community mapping has been one of the tools promoted by Non-Government Organizations in Indonesia to increase public participation in decision-making and local control over resources. It has been taken up by communities seeking to restore customary (adat) authority over the local domain following the demise of the authoritarian Suharto regime, and to respond to the growing pressures and opportunities of globalisation. This study analyses the role of participatoiy community mapping in the process of reasserting local control over land use in Bali, and the challenges that alternative development strategies face in their engagement with wider political and economic structures. In one community, local customary rights were effectively exercised over a site whose adat status was contested by the state and they also succeeded in forcing a withdrawal of project permits over privately held land. Another village refused their own private rights to sell land on the open market, except under seriously restrictive collectively determined conditions. Whether these attempts to reverse privatisation and enclo sure processes will prevail remains to be seen, but they indicate that a one-directional movement in the history of property relations and production regimes is not something that Balinese accept unequivocally.

Higher Abundance of Marine Predators and Changes in Fishers’ Behavior Following Spatial Protection within the World’s Biggest Shark Fishery

Fisheries are complex social-ecological systems, where managers struggle to balance the socio-economic interests of fishing communities with the biology and ecology of fisheries species. Spatial closures are a popular measure to address conservation and fisheries management goals, including the protection of shark populations. However, very little research has been published on the effectiveness of shark-specific closures to protect sharks, or their impacts on fisher behavior. Situated within the global center of tropical marine biodiversity, Indonesia’s shark fishery contributes more to the international shark fin trade than any other nation. Here we evaluate the effect of shark-specific closures on sharks and other species of interest, as well as shark fishers’ responses to losing access to their former fishing grounds. We assessed shark diversity and abundance in an open access zone (OAZ) and two No-Take Zones (NTZs) of a Marine Protected Area within the recently established shark sanctuary in Raja Ampat, Indonesia, where sharks have high monetary value as a tourism attraction. Shark abundance was significantly higher in the privately managed NTZs than in the OAZ. Across all management zones, neither zone size, depth nor reef complexity explained variations in shark abundance, suggesting that governance is the main driver of successful shark conservation areas. These trends were also reflected in species targeted by small-scale reef fisheries, including snappers, emperor, groupers, tunas, mackerels, and large-bodied wrasse and parrotfish. Interviews with shark fishers who lost access to their primary fishing grounds when the shark sanctuary was established showed that while most fishers (88%) knew that sharks were protected in Raja Ampat, many were unsure about the purpose of the sanctuary. Few fishers felt that the agencies implementing fishing bans understood their livelihood needs. We found that shark fishers adapted to the loss of former fishing grounds by shifting fishing effort to other locations or diversifying their livelihoods, including illegal petrol transport. While conserving sharks for tourism can be effective, it may inadvertently result in displacing fishing effort to unprotected regions. We propose that effective shark conservation in Indonesia will need to combine strategic spatial protection with efforts to support livelihood security and diversification.

Leadership, Social Capital and Coastal Community Resource Governance: the Case of the Destructive Seaweed Harvest in West Bali

This paper concerns resource governance in a remote Balinese coastal community, which faces severe environmental challenges due to overexploitation and habitat destruction. It explores some of the issues raised in ‘social capital’ debates regarding leadership and public participation toward sustainable natural resource governance. Given the strength of Balinese customary law and the high degree of participation required in the ritual-social domain, Bali represents a model context for examining these issues. Through a case study of destructive resource exploitation and evolving rules-in-use, this paper analyses the ambiguous role of ‘bonding’ social capital and the complexities of negotiating collective action on environmental problems where conflicting interests and dense social ties make local action difficult. The paper finds that a more complex appreciation of vertical (authority) and horizontal (solidarity) relationships between leaders and ordinary villagers is required, and that a more nuanced institutional bricolage and exploratory scenario approach to analysis of evolving rules in use would enhance associated policy interventions.

Consciousness in social transformation: The Bajau laut of East Malaysia

The role of consciousness in social transformation as reflected in the experience of the Bajau laut (see Bajau) of Malaysia should be of particular interest to dialectically-oriented anthropologists. The Bajau case is exceptional because of the rapid and radical nature of change, and the accommodation of Bajau ideology to the new situation.

An exploratory study of community expectations regarding public forests in Western Australia

Summary For much of the 20th century the management of public forests in Western Australia focused on timber production and economic outputs. Shifts in environmental attitudes over the last four decades have contributed to a much broader set of community expectations. This paper analysed these expectations regarding public forests in south-western Australia at the start of the 21st century. A two-stage survey approach included a face-to-face interview followed by a questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of a comprehensive list of 176 items that forests potentially provide, such as conservation, scenery, bushwalking and timber products, and respondents were asked to indicate the extent of their support for each. Those surveyed covered a range of ages and affiliations including academia, conservation, forestry, primary production, Indigenous interests and young people. Clearly evident was strong support for the aesthetic values of these forests and their natural environment, with weaker but still notable support for using forest resources. The comprehensive list of items in the questionnaire provides a novel, rapid means of assessing community expectations, with potential benefits for forestry planning and policy development.

Community Driven Development and Structural Disadvantage: Interrogating the Social Turn in Development Programming in Indonesia

Abstract Community-driven development (CDD) programmes have emerged on a large scale in the Global South following research and policy work regarding social capital, capabilities and empowerment. This paper analyses one of the largest international examples of the ‘social’ turn, examining the effects of the CDD approach in governmental, structural and relational terms. While the CDD approach successfully generated new political rationalities and governmental technologies, the ability of development programming driven by social capital concepts to empower marginalised sections of society remains in question. The ambiguities associated with CDD outcomes indicate the contradictions at the heart of social capital debate.

Adat and Dinas: Balinese Communities in the Indonesian State.

This study focuses on the dynamics of community organization in contemporary Bali and of the ambivalent relationship between village institutions, adat, and those of the Indonesian state, dinas. Focusing on the banjar--the civic community in Bali--the book traces its role in serving the needs of the its members and the tensions implicit in its role as intermediary in the implementation of development policies.