ACTIVIDAD LIPOLÍTICA

During interviews, stakeholders involved in tourism development in Perkebunan Bukit Lawang were asked to discuss what “community empowerment” meant to them. In general, they defined

community empowerment as a community’s capacity to: 1) improve their wellbeing, particularly income and welfare; 2) enhance their ability to manage their resources; and 3) improve the service performance provided to tourists. These responses are discussed in the following section.

GLNP representatives defined community empowerment as an effort to improve community capacity (e.g., knowledge) so the community could enhance its welfare (economic dimension). As one male interviewee from the central government said:

Community empowerment, in my opinion, is an activity that we carry out, which then can increase the capacity of the community, in terms of economy, knowledge, that make people more empowered in all things. (PBL/NS_CG2).

This interviewee was aware that empowerment is more than economic, but explained that it is the easiest form to measure. As he said:

Although empowerment is not only about the economy, what has been done to assess the results is only from the economic aspect. This is because community capacity is difficult to assess and the economic aspect is easier to assess. Moreover, to date, government policy still focuses more on the economic aspect. (PBL/NS_CG2).

Like the GLNP official quoted above, a tourism district representative defined community

empowerment as an increase in community knowledge, but only considered this in terms of tourism- related knowledge. The male interviewee stated:

I think community empowerment is an improvement of knowledge and understanding of tourism for the tourism actors so they can perform activities well. Community empowerment activities that have been implemented include the implementation of tourism awareness by inviting tourism practitioners to provide socialisation about tourism activities to tourism actors (e.g., tour guide, tour operators, hotel, and restaurant owners) so that they can perform their service well. (PBL_LG1).

Given the focus on tourism knowledge, this informant emphasised only tourism industry members as targets for activities, with the main purpose of serving tourists and focusing on their needs. This perspective is reflected in their community activities, which are targeted only at tourism actors (see Section 5.4), with implications for community empowerment more generally (see Chapter Seven). This informant, who is male, mentioned that implementing even this limited community

empowerment programme was challenging because of funding issues:

We conduct the (community empowerment) activity if funding is available. The tourism office never conducted the monitoring activity for the

community empowerment activity. We (the tourism office) only produce a report after an activity was completed. (It is because) we do not have a budget for such (monitoring) activity. (PBL-LG1).

A PPLH Bahorok representative’s understanding of community empowerment also focused on increasing community knowledge, but this was broader than the emphasis of the tourism official:

Some empowerment activities that can be implemented include providing training required by a guide, such as first aid techniques, search and rescue techniques in the forest, English-language training, and attitude/ethics awareness. Moreover, there is also a need to empower other elements such as restaurant or hotel entrepreneurs, who are also an essential element of tourism, such as teaching them to be more environmental-friendly in terms of reducing chemicals in their food services, so they have more value. Then it also provides knowledge related to waste management, so the environment becomes cleaner, and they are also gain additional income from waste processing. (PBL-NGO6)

Again, however, the audience for these empowering exercises were limited to the tourism actors (tourism businesses) rather than the wider community. The interviewee’s purpose was to improve community capacity as a tourism destination and so increase economic empowerment and people’s awareness of the environment. The activities target tourism actors (i.e., guides and tourism industry employees) with information relating to environmental needs.

Supporting the literature on this topic, this NGO representative acknowledged that community culture was a factor in the success or failure of programmes that aim to empower:

Challenges in conducting community development programmes in this village include local community characteristics such as a high level of suspicion, a strong focus on making money, and lack of environmental awareness. (PBL- NGO6, male).

However, this response is made by a respondent who is not based in the community and visits only occasionally and briefly, therefore increasing the potential for cultural misunderstandings between the respondent and the community.

The definition offered by the representative of the wildlife conservation NGO was broader than that of previous informants and focused on the importance of incorporating the community in the process of tourism development (empowerment as a process) rather than only as an outcome. He explained:

Community empowerment is the community involvement in all processes, from planning, implementation to supervision, in which there are efforts to provide changes for natural resources management and their livelihoods. If the purpose of the community involvement is only for managing natural resources without any benefit to their (community) livelihood, it is not a fair empowerment. Therefore, in order that people can benefit from their empowerment process in protected area management, they must be

involved at all stages. Yeah, I know that in reality, it is difficult to involve the community from the planning stage. (PBL/NS_NGO5, male).

Given the focus of the organisation on wildlife conservation, it is not surprising that his emphasis is on environmental conservation, but like the previous informants, the interviewee generally saw empowerment outcomes in primarily economic terms. This informant also acknowledged that involving the community is difficult, but stressed that this is one reason to involve the community at the beginning of the development process so that the planned activities engage the right people and fulfil what the community needs:

An ideal activity would be one that suits community needs. Therefore, before design a programme, we should identify the community needs so that the empowerment activities would not be misdirected, achieve the wrong target and wrong participant. If the activity is aligned with their needs, it is

expected that the results can overcome their problems, for the social, economic, and cultural reasons. Then also, the empowerment process that involves the community in all stages, not just in the end, will make them feel empowered. Currently, what happens is because they do not see how the process takes place, so there is no learning process. The more important thing is how to create learning opportunities for the community so that the impacts can be sustainable and become a culture. (PBL/NS-NGO5).

Challenges were also discussed by this interviewee, including regulations and policies, which inhibit community empowerment:

The main challenge in the community empowerment process is lack of financial support and lack of government support (financial, policy,

concern). For empowerment activity, there was no particular programme to monitor it. (PBL/NS-NGO5).

The NGO representative also noted that community attitudes were a limiting factor to community involvement in empowerment activities:

The challenge from community participation is their mindset regarding economic motive. They will do anything, even illegal activity such as encroachment, to get money. They always think about money when they want to involve in certain activities. (PBL/NS-NGO5).

While the central and local government representatives and the NGO informants had some conception of community empowerment, particularly around knowledge transfer and economic empowerment outcomes, the representative of the HPI was only able to provide an example of how tourism could empower a community, particularly economically:

Community empowerment, huh? Yes, actually there are many (results). Because the communities could sell their product in Bukit Lawang area, for example, watermelon, bananas, pineapple. (PBL-TO9, male).

Many of the tourism industry stakeholders who were interviewed provided a similar limited reponse – they had heard about community empowerment, but they could not fully explain what it means. Some who attempted to define it stated it as community involvement or participation in the community or stakeholders’ activities and is, therefore, able to benefit. For example, one accommodation owner, who is male, said:

Community empowerment means that the community has a share (or) involve in certain activities, and they also get the benefit from the activities. (PBL_Accom8).

To conclude, most of the tourism stakeholders in Perkebunan Bukit Lawang have an understanding of what community empowerment means. Some of them also could identify the factors that hinder them in achieving community empowerment outcome. However, most identifiable empowerment outcome by the stakeholder is an economic dimension.

5.6

Conclusion

Perkebunan Bukit Lawang, as a tourist destination, has a peripheral characteristic; it is located some distance away from those who make key decisions. Tourism development in this place generally represents a top-down approach, where the government decides what should happen. This situation (one of peripherality) influences community empowerment in the area as the government may not fully recognise community needs and interests. In addition, as there is no master plan for tourism development in the area, the stakeholders do not have the guidance needed within the community to develop tourism in the area.

Stakeholders involved in tourism development in Perkebunan Bukit Lawang include central government (i.e., national park manager as Ministry of Forestry representative) and local government (i.e., District Tourism Office), wildlife conservation NGOs, tourism organisations, and the tourism industry. However, their involvement is generally limited to one-off and short-term programmes. The NGO conducts programmes only occasionally and they rarely follow up with monitoring or evaluation; though the literature suggests that community empowerment needs continuous effort (Li & Hunter, 2015).

In general, the tourism stakeholders’ motivations to get involved in tourism development in this village are similar: to increase revenue and improve the local economy. For the GLNP authority and NGOs, they expect economic improvements and see this as crucial for them to carry out their responsibilities and develop and impliment high-quality programmes and activities they in the village.

The interview results suggest that a lack of coordination was hindering community empowerment (see Chapter 10, Section 10.4.3). It can be seen from similar programmes conducted by stakeholders (e.g., GLNP authority, NGOs) and focused on the same target groups (i.e., HPI/ITGA members,

tourism industry members). In addition, the programmes conducted by stakeholders are planned mostly based on tourists’ needs instead of the community’s needs. The community is expected to provide better services to visitors and not to increase their ability to make a decision.

With respect to community empowerment, it seems that tourism stakeholders do not fully understand the concept of community empowerment. Most stakeholders define community empowerment as community capacity development and community participation, with the main goal of local economic improvement. The focus of community empowerment is therefore more about satisfying tourists’ needs, and the needs of the environment, rather than those of the community.