Resilience in Action: Adaptive Governance for Subaks, Rice Terraces, and Water Temples in Bali, Indonesia

Abstract

Although there is a growing literature on resilience and collaborative approaches to ecosystem management, there are relatively few empirical case studies on the process of adaptive governance. Moreover, previous research offers limited insights into the conditions that facilitate new ecosystem management trajectories. By analyzing the emergence of an adaptive co-management initiative in Bali, the UNESCO World Heritage Cultural Landscape of Bali Province, this dissertation seeks to contribute to recent research on institutional governance approaches to enhance ecosystem management and social well-being. To that end, it addresses two questions. First, it identifies and explores three primary characteristics that fostered a new multi-level adaptive governance approach to cultural landscape management in Bali: the widespread perception of environmental crisis on the island that triggered collective action and the political will for a new form of ecosystem management; the emergence of a shared ideology--articulated in the Balinese Hindu philosophy of tri hita karana, or "the three causes of prosperity"--that unified diverse actors and actor networks and established a common platform for ecological resource management; and context-specific governance strategies that built on existing institutions and local-level initiatives. The second question centers on an analysis of the emergence of the management plan for the World Heritage site in Bali. The management plan was developed to support the Balinese subak in its struggle to adapt to current and future pressures that threaten to undermine the island's unique social-ecological system. For centuries, the subak have maintained Bali's terraced rice paddy landscape as a network of semi-autonomous irrigation associations, mediated through water temples. The adaptive co-management plan draws on principles of adaptive governance to connect subaks with other actors and actor groups across multiple institutional levels and regional jurisdictions. Research findings support the likelihood that the World Heritage initiative can promote transformative change in cultural landscape management in Bali. As the initiative develops, it will provide a fertile site for future research on adaptive governance, to better understand interdependent social-ecological relationships and the evolution of adaptive co-management approaches.