Managing a living cultural landscape: Bali’s subaks and the UNESCO World Heritage Site

The report examines the implementation of the UNESCO World Heritage Site designation in Bali, focusing on the Catur Angga Batukaru (CAB) region. It identifies significant governance gaps, where initial top-down structures failed to include key stakeholders like the subak farmers, leading to the creation of a more inclusive Coordination Forum in 2014. The document details existential threats to the subak system, including rising ritual costs, high land taxes driving land conversion, water scarcity due to tourism priority, and a declining interest in farming among the youth. It argues that the long-term viability of the landscape depends on empowering farmers through a regency-level management body and community-based monitoring aligned with the Tri Hita Karana philosophy.

• The initial governance structure for the World Heritage Site, the Governing Assembly (Dewan Pengelola), was ineffective due to high turnover of civil servants and a top-down perception that alienated local farmers.
• In 2014, the Governing Assembly was replaced by a Coordination Forum (Forum Koordinasi) to better integrate government agencies and include previously excluded stakeholders such as the pekasehs, bendesa adat, and the King of Tabanan.
• Subak farmers face severe financial pressure from the high cost of mandatory rituals, which are central to the subak system; for example, five major annual rituals at Pura Luhur Batukaru cost at least 40 million IDR.
• High land taxes and the profitability of non-agricultural uses are driving land conversion, creating a vicious cycle where non-farming uses increase the assessed tax rates of adjacent agricultural lots.
• Water availability is a critical threat to the subaks, exacerbated by the lack of a coherent water policy and the preferential allocation of water to tourism complexes, such as those in Nusa Dua.
• The viability of the subak system is threatened by a generational shift, as young Balinese increasingly prefer employment in the tourism sector over the labor-intensive and lower-status work of rice farming.
• There is a significant information gap among local communities regarding the World Heritage Site's rules and implications, with farmers requesting more 'farmer-friendly' materials and explicit instructions.
• Tourism growth in areas like Jatiluwih has led to environmental degradation, increased waste, and the 'commodification' of the landscape, such as packaging the rice harvest as a tourist experience.
• The report recommends establishing a formal management body (badan pengelola) at the regency level or an interim authority to prevent the site from being declared 'endangered' by UNESCO.
• The authors propose a community-based monitoring system based on the Tri Hita Karana philosophy, focusing on the relationship with the spiritual realm (Parhyangan), nature (Palemahan), and humans (Pawongan).

APA

Salamanca, A. M., Nugroho, A., Osbeck, M., Bharwani, S., & Dwisasanti, N. (2015). Managing a living cultural landscape: Bali’s subaks and the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/sei-pr-2015-05-bali-cultural-landscape-lr1.pdf

Chicago

Salamanca, Albert M., Agus Nugroho, Maria Osbeck, Sukaina Bharwani, and Nina Dwisasanti. Managing a living cultural landscape: Bali’s subaks and the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2015. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/sei-pr-2015-05-bali-cultural-landscape-lr1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Salamanca |first1=Albert M. |last2=Nugroho |first2=Agus |last3=Osbeck |first3=Maria |last4=Bharwani |first4=Sukaina |last5=Dwisasanti |first5=Nina |title=Managing a living cultural landscape: Bali’s subaks and the UNESCO World Heritage Site |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=2015 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/sei-pr-2015-05-bali-cultural-landscape-lr1.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{salamanca2015managing, author = {Salamanca, Albert M. and Nugroho, Agus and Osbeck, Maria and Bharwani, Sukaina and Dwisasanti, Nina}, title = {{Managing a living cultural landscape: Bali’s subaks and the UNESCO World Heritage Site}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2015}, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/sei-pr-2015-05-bali-cultural-landscape-lr1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }