Article written by: Kaoem Telapak
on November 21, 2024
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Maintaining Sustainable Maritime Tourism in Les Village

17 November 2024, Les Village, Buleleng, Bali, received the 2024 Indonesian Tourism Village Award (ADWI) from the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy. Gede Yudarta, a member of Kaoem Telapak, has a story of how to pioneer a sustainable tourism business in Les Village.

Gede Yudarta said that in the late 90s, before tourism was popular in Les Village, most villagers made a living by catching ornamental fish. The usual fishing method used by the community is to use potassium cyanide poison. This practice, of course, has devastating effects. ‘One, the perpetrators become poisoned, secondly the fish caught become sick, thirdly the coral reefs are damaged, in Les Village almost 75% of the coral reefs are damaged,’ said Gede.

In the 2000s, Gede said, Kaoem Telapak, which was then still called Telapak, came to Les Village, trying to assist the surrounding community. Together with a local organisation, Bahtera Nusantara, they provided training on how to catch environmentally friendly fish. ‘The method uses barrier nets,’ said Gede.

Not only that, they also collaborated to make a documentary film titled Fish Don’t Cry. According to Gede, the documentary is still very relevant today. ‘Until now, if there are school children or other guests visiting, the film will be played,’ says Gede.

After the training, the community received support to start an ornamental fish export business in 2003. In the process of assisting the business, a discourse emerged on developing sustainable tourism in Les Village.

The discourse turned into action when the ornamental fish business could no longer continue, due to the high mortality rate of the fish. ‘Finally, we were looking for ways to develop marine tourism,’ said Gede.

Gede Yudarta, Kaoem Telapak Member from Bali

Seeing the dire situation of coral reefs, the sustainable marine tourism built by Gede and Kaoem Telapak focuses on restoring the condition of coral reefs. Adopt the Coral is the first and flagship programme they offer to tourists. ‘If people love the sea, they will love planting coral reefs,’ said Gede.

After more than ten years, the Adopt the Coral programme still exists. School children who come to Les Village are sure to include coral planting in their programme. For the marine ecosystem, the results are remarkable. Coral reefs are recovering. ‘Now it’s hard to find dead coral reefs, the situation is reversed,’ said Gede.

Now, in addition to planting corals, Les Village has many tourist destinations and activities to offer. ‘There are waterfall tours, English language education, integrated waste management, and traditional salt making,’ Gede reveals.

Les Village’s journey to get ADWI was quite long. From thousands of villages that become tourist destinations, 50 destinations will be selected. Then, the Ministry of Tourism team will visit these 50 tourist destination villages to check. According to Gede, what makes Les Village stand out from other villages is that it applies the concept of sustainable tourism. ‘Because we pioneered it from the beginning, we are sure that our tourism is sustainable, which not many other tourist attractions have,’ he said.

In the future, Gede hopes to maintain sustainable tourism practices in his village, Les Village. ‘Tourism is often destructive, the coral reefs are good when you come here, suddenly they are damaged because you step on them, there are too many tourists, a simple village turns into a tourist attraction with all investors. I believe I can maintain this because of the mandate from Kaoem Telapak to maintain this,’ said Gede, closing the conversation.