This project was made possible by the effort and wisdom of many individuals. Maria Osbeck and Sukaina Bharwani originally conceived it, after an invitation from Steve Lansing, from the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Dewi Reny Anggraeni, a freelance consultant, provided organizational support to the pekasehs when the Forum Pekaseh was formed. Eka Septiawan, and sometimes Gustu Wira Sanjaya, students at UNUD, provided logistical support.

Nonette Royo and Sandhika Ariansyah of the Samdhana Institute advised us on a number of issues in the field. Their active support ensured that the project was grounded in the everyday realities of the subaks. Nonette’s knowledge...

In 2012, the cultural landscape of Indonesia’s Bali province was inscribed as a World Heritage Site – a place of “outstanding universal value”, to be protected and preserved for all humankind.¹ The inscription recognizes the value of Bali’s subaks: farmers’ organizations that collectively manage irrigation systems on rice terraces, as well as water temples. Dating back to at least the 12th century, the subak system is still in practice, making it the only living cultural landscape among World Heritage Sites in Southeast Asia.² The subaks embody the Balinese philosophical principle Tri Hita Karana (three causes of goodness), which seeks to...

The core subak areas in the World Heritage Site are found in Catur Angga Batukaru (CAB) in the Regency of Tabanan and in the Pakerisan Watershed, although the latter includes only a handful of subaks. The CAB has the largest number of subaks and villages, and is thus the key landscape in the World Heritage Site.

CAB includes four main temples supporting the highest temple of Pura Luhur Batukaru, one of the six important temples (sad kahyangan) in Bali. These five temples are considered a unit that cannot be separated. Four guardian temples are spread along the east-west axis of...

As noted in the introduction, the Partnership in Governance Transition project was developed to contribute to the design of an effective and participatory management of the cultural landscape in Bali. The project was implemented in phases (see Figure 3 for an illustration of the process), adapting to evolving conditions. First there was a preparatory phase, with site visits and preparatory and introductory meetings. The second phase was the series of 11 focus group discussions in February and March 2014, each including about 20 participants. We also conducted 14 key informant interviews with farmers, women in the subaks, pekasehs and heads...

Like all projects based on non-local concepts, the implementation of the World Heritage Site in Bali has encountered challenges. First, MoEC and UNUD said, the existing regulations and institutional setup that enabled the nomination did not support the implementation after inscription. A Governing Assembly was set out by regulation No. 32,⁷ and after the property was inscribed, the Governor issued decrees in 2011 and 2012 to appoint the assembly’s members. Soon it was realized that this did not work, because the members, though drawn from different government departments, were not empowered to represent their offices. Under Indonesia’s law on regional...

The establishment of the World Heritage Site has come as subak members face several challenges that are making farming less viable as a livelihood. The profitability of farming is linked to the variety of rice grown and the cost of associated rituals. For environmental reasons, there is strong support for using a local variety (padi lokal), but it has a long growing period (five to six months) and hence requires more rituals. In comparison, the new variety (padi baru) has a shorter growing season (three months) and requires fewer rituals. Given the escalating costs of rituals and the increasing use...

In general, the farmers we talked to are optimistic about the World Heritage Site and see it as an opportunity to address the problems they mentioned above. But based on the focus group discussions, interviews and other discussions with various actors, we have identified several key challenges that need to be overcome so that the World Heritage Site truly benefits the farmers, their subaks and the province. We discuss each in turn below.

Many people in these communities have little information about the World Heritage Site and its implications for the villages and their inhabitants - a concern we first...

Reiterating the advice of the high priest (Jero Mangku Gede) of Pura Batukaru, to protect the outstanding universal value, integrity and authenticity of the subak landscape as a World Heritage Site, it is crucial to address land conversion. This requires ensuring a continuous supply of water for the subaks, maintaining land for farming, ensuring that labour is available in the sawah, and ensuring that there are enough funds for rituals. The importance of the last point was also raised by the King of Tabanan and the village chief of Wongaya Gede.

Put simply, the sustainability of the World Heritage Site...

The future of the World Heritage Site and the cultural landscape it is meant to protect will be driven by actors with sometimes diverging interests and responsibilities. The farmers in the area have tilled the land and cultivated wet rice for generations, guided by the Hindu-Balinese cosmology of Tri Hita Karana. The subak is a manifestation of those intricate relationships, where water is a giver of life and sustains the farmers’ lives and environment. In return, they respect one another, their environment and their gods. Yet their world needs to be understood in the context of a larger landscape of...