Pak I Made Suarnatha

Jaringan Ekowisata Desa (Village Ecotourism Network)

Ceningan Island walk

In the forest gardens of Pelaga

In response to some of the problems brought to Bali by mass tourism in Bali, the Village Ecotourism Network (Jaringan Ekowisata Desa or JED) was launched by four villages in 2002. JED is owned and run by the communities of the four villages and one environment NGO, the Wisnu Foundation.

Each village has a different character. Kiadan Pelaga village is a producer of organic coffee, located in the central Bali highlands where the air is cool and clean. Dukuh Sibetan village produces snakeskin fruit (salak), which gets it’s name from it’s smooth and scaly skin. The Sibetan farmers make Bali’s only salak wine. Tenganan Pegringsingan is an ancient village famous for double ikat weaving and it’s culture, which is different from other villages in Bali. The forest around Tenganan is one of Bali’s healthiest remaining natural forests. Nusa Ceningan is a small island off Bali’s east coast. The Ceningan people are seaweed farmers. The sea around Ceningan Island varies from crashing waves on the southern tip to coral gardens on the north, from the quiet shallows of the western plantations to the river-like flows dividing Ceningan from Penida Island on the east.

JED invites tourists to come to the villages to see and experience village life. Local guides escort visitors to the forest-gardens and explain the variety and uses of the plants. The visitors also learn about the governance and culture of the villages. Trekking, snorkeling (in Ceningan), and overnight family homestays are also available.

The objectives of JED are to increase the incomes of the villages by diversifying and supplementing their agricultural livelihoods and to raise funds and awareness for conservation. JED has been designed to ensure that income does not only benefit those community members practically involved in JED (through catering, guiding, hosting homestays etc), but the whole community. A percentage of profit is allocated to the banjar (community group) or village, a percentage to the local temple and a percentage to a fund for future environmental conservation projects. In the meantime JED is teaching both the Balinese and the visitors about environmentally responsible tourism. At the village level, the local guides are relearning about their ecosystems and finding new pride in their local natural resources. The hope is that JED will generate enough local cohesion and pride so as to provide a serious future contender for potentially damaging outside investment.

More information and contact at www.jed.or.id.

Project Update: November 2006

Since being awarded the RSG, JED have been busy starting to implement the year’s workplan. One of the first things we did was organise guide training for our local village guides. Most have them had never actually been on a tour themselves, and so we went on a ‘study tour’ to give them the opportunity to see some experienced guides at work. For three days we did tours and sat and talked with professional guides. The JED guides learned a lot about handling visitors and helping them understand environmental issues in Bali. The guides have also all now completed a basic first aid training course.

We’ve had some promotional successes, with an article printed on us in The Australian newspaper in September (amongst various local publications), and gaining sponsorship to send a staff member to speak about JED at the annual Ecotourism Australia conference in Townsville this week. JED has also recently been chosen (one of 100 projects in the
world) for inclusion in the new responsible tourism program by Responsible Travel and Conservation International.

Project Update: July 2007

JED celebrated 5th anniversary on June 5th 2007. On the day, we also celebrated the environment day. JED and Wisnu Foundation invited communities in JED villages and the people around the office area to come and involve in planting some trees in the office area.

We are expecting awareness from the people to environment surround them, besides we will use plantation to support the program in foundation and to support the ceremony that we held during the year.

Based on our internal record, JED had handled some visitors to visit our four villages and start increasing. All of them gave great appreciation since they already deserve a proper service. The villagers already got F& B, first aid and ECO Guide training before handling the visitors.

In regards with the multi purpose plantation that we are going to plant in the villages, please kindly noted that the details data of the identified plantation will be reported on our next report by attaching the list of the plantation which are good for the soil and could be used to support ceremony.

Final Report

Read more about the activities undertaken and findings of this project in the final report below.

File Download	Size
FINAL REPORT.doc	41.5 KB