Pave Paradise

Dear Jan:

Last week, I wrote to you about the resilience of Balinese society in the face of waves of westernization. I wish I could say that the same for the physical environment. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, tourism has transformed the southwest coast of Bali into a “plastic strip of paradise.” That is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the impact of development on the island. Environmental problems here are sadly pervasive and more land is being lost to developers all the time.

As a recent study put it, “The rapid and unplanned tourism development of Bali has had a great impact on its natural environment, affecting water resources, increasing pollution and localized flooding and putting pressure on the island’s infrastructure.” One is struck by these realities upon arrival in Bali. Billboards, concrete, trash and traffic jams are all part of the experience. Arriving at one of the beach towns, this is what is likely to welcome you:

I first came to Bali as a child in the late 1960′s, and it is hard for me not to compare the pristine beaches and undisturbed vistas of that time with what I see today. The Kuta of my childhood was an endless stretch of undisturbed white sand with not a hotel, restaurant or shop in sight. There were some bungalows for rent and a few warung (open air food stands), but that was about it. If one wanted anything more elaborate, one had to travel on backroads to the sleepy capital town of Denpasar.

Denpasar today is a sprawling city of half a million people, where much of the solid waste is not collected or disposed of. Instead, it is deposited in “informal” landfills, dumped into canals or left on the streets:

Back in Kuta, and along the whole coastline, the formerly unspoiled beaches often look like this:

And replacing my childhood memories of moonlight and quiet walks along the beach, this is what nighttime in Kuta looks like today:

Everywhere, it seems new hotels and shopping centers are being erected. Sanur, where I live, has historically been a quieter, gentler alternative to Kuta. But suddenly, it is mushrooming with new development, making the town feel like a big construction site. This is just one of the projects I walk by everyday; soon it will be a vast new hotel complex:

One of Sanur’s natural wonders is an extensive network of mangroves. I visited the mangrove forest yesterday on my way to a friend’s house and this is what I found:

Nearby, some fishermen were casting their rods, and I wondered if most of what they catch these days isn’t tainted by the ubiquitous waste:

The worst of the environmental impact is in the most populous parts of the island, but there are growing problems everywhere. In more rural areas, there has been a steady loss of both forest and agricultural land in the face of development. This has led to soil erosion, increased flooding, habitat loss and the pollution of watercourses. These problems are not unique — indeed they can be found throughout Indonesia and the developing world — but somehow they are more jarring in a place that people dream of as a tropical Eden.

When one thinks about it, Bali has not had a lot of time to catch up with the pace of its own development. Serious environmental impacts only became discernible in the 1980′s and 90′s. The island of my childhood is still well within memory for many Balinese. Lately, however, there are hopeful signs that the people of Bali, especially its women and younger generation, are beginning to pay attention to environmental issues. Throughout the island, there are a growing number of organizations and programs focused on improving the environment.

One innovative project is the Women’s Cooperative Waste Recycling Micro Enterprise, which is being piloted in the Ubud area. Members of the cooperative sort plastic and paper in their own homes and about once a week bring their waste to a central bin built with donated funds from the local village authorities. This simple, sustainable program has received recognition by the local government as an outstanding effort by Balinese women to solve a communal problem.

An increasing number of NGO’s are focused on raising environmental awareness among Balinese youth, doing outreach through schools and youth groups. Eco Bali Recycling and Green Sanur are two organizations in our town that are sponsoring youth education and clean up programs:

The Indonesian equivalent of the EPA is also supporting grassroots environmental projects. An Environmental Awareness Program for villages was established in 2001 and a number of villages across Bali have joined the program that addresses on-the-ground environmental issues such as wastewater. There are also locally-based programs aimed at reforestation of upland regions as well as coastline rehabilitation. One example is a coral reef restoration project driven by the local community of fisherman in Serangan, just south of Sanur. Serangan is also the home of the Turtle Conservation project, again run and managed by local fishing families with support from the EPA.

So it seems that environmental awareness is gradually sifting through the layers of Balinese society and resulting in some encouraging action. Not surprisingly, Balinese artists are eager to contribute to this growing consciousness, as they are concerned in general about the cultural and physical impacts of westernization on the island. Here is a painting I saw in Ubud recently entitled “Till the Last One Falls:”

That’s enough commentary for now — I am off to Sumatra with Alec tomorrow to do a jungle trek and see orangutans and elephants — I’ll write to you all about it when I get back! Love, Katherine