Beyond the physical: environmental relationships in Bali, Indonesia

Abstract

Bali is experiencing a transition from agriculture to tourism, a transformation with economic, social, environmental and political consequences. The Indonesian Government plans to expand the national tourism industry and increase the number of annual foreign visitors to Indonesia from 9.2 million to 20 million by 2020. Tourism is already Bali’s largest industry and the island is Indonesia’s primary tourism destination. The increase in foreign visitors to Bali is expected to have significant social consequences and worsen existing environmental stresses, such as freshwater availability and plastic pollution. According to Balinese NGO IDEP, water tables in parts of Bali have already dropped over 50 meters in less than ten years and 60 per cent of watersheds are at risk of drying up in the future. Indonesia is also the second biggest contributor to marine plastic pollution, accounting for 10 per cent of annual discharge globally.This thesis explores how sociocultural factors influence environmental management in Canggu, a popular international tourism destination in Bali. I focus on the risk of freshwater scarcity and plastic pollution because these are the two most urgent environmental pressures the island faces and threaten the environmental sustainability of Bali’s tourism economy. This thesis also demonstrates the close relationships between religion, tourism and environment in Bali. Balinese people describe themselves and their surroundings in terms of sekala and niskala, a hybrid and interrelated binary way of thinking and being in the world that shapes Bali Hindu engagements with their surroundings.I examine water management, plastic litter and religious practices, to analyse the consequences the shift towards tourism has on the ways Balinese people conceptualise and engage with ‘environment’. This thesis explores how Balinese people navigate ritual practices and environmental relationships while living and working in an international mass tourism destination. The key research question asks: how do Balinese people articulate and relate to their surroundings? I adopt a political ecology analysis of qualitative data collected during ethnographic fieldwork and examine ritual practices that co-constitute Balinese people’s engagements with their physical and metaphysical surroundings. Political ecology enables me to investigate environmental management and the anthropogenic causes and social consequences of environmental pressures. I draw on political ecology to analyse the socioeconomic and political processes that shape water access and plastic pollution. I also use ethnography to examine metaphysical and social relationships.I present two arguments about environmental management: first, I argue that there are types of environmental issues that are solved through ceremonies and therefore stand to some extent outside of government control; and second, environmental management policies and practices should be inclusive of Balinese religious practices, norms and governance structures to ensure the social acceptance of continued tourism development in Bali.Religious relationships with the world shape reactions to tourism, because Bali Hindu devotees respond to the consequences of the tourism influx through rituals and actions directed at deities and intangible actors. The thesis concludes that tourism development physically alters Canggu’s environment and reshapes human relationships with environment.