At the heart of every collaboration that WOW Bali undertakes lies the key elements which define the success of the project. WOW Bali calls it “sustainable dynamics”. These elements set the activities in motion and they naturally sustain momentum for further progress of the partnership. Collaborators determine the overall goal and objectives of the project together by leveraging the forces and properties that make their partnership sustainable. The Jero Gede Project illustrates how a community can preserve its cultural identity, conserve its ecological heritage and uplift the socio-economic wellbeing of its people through sustainable culture-based tourism. Inherently, the Balinese already have it in their culture—the Tri Hita Karana, the philosophy of attaining happiness through the harmonious relationship between people, nature and God.

Ridge-to-Reef Alliance was initiated by WOW Bali in 2015 to organize a collective of individuals and communities working together to sustain Bali’s sources of wellbeing— the people, nature, and God. Mount Batur, the island’s most geo-diverse site, serves as the pinnacle of this initiative. The powerful elements of fire and water converge through Gunung Batur and Danau Batur, sustaining over a dozen villages for centuries. Until

JERO GEDE PROJECT A regenerative model for community-based cultural tourism initiative in Mount Batur, Bangli Regency, Bali, Indonesia.

today, Batur supplies most of the island’s water, which is the lifeblood of the Balinese culture. This collaboration project pays tribute to the significant contribution of Batur and the local communities living in this sacred land, headed by their high priest, Bapak Jero Gede.

Following the principles of human-centered design, WOW Bali carries out knowledge exchanges with community leaders in Batur. Through a series of dialogues with local representatives, WOW Bali is able to understand existing dynamics in the community and put the people at the center of development solutions it offers by focusing on their needs and desires. Working directly with the people gives WOW Bali access to vital knowledge about the local people’s lifestyles, relationships, and values. It also provides the opportunity to actively learn about the people’s creative processes, celebrations and ceremonies, as well as the living skills they employ in their daily undertakings. This experience all contribute towards creating a meaningful design for the collaboration project.

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FINDING THE SUSTAINABLE DYNAMICS IN THE JER O GED E PROJECT

Batur Volcano and Lake, by Jessy Eykendorp

[with modifications] CC BY-SA 2.0

Jero Gede Batur, the highest priest in Batur, inspired this collaboration between Batur Village and WOW Bali. He is a revered spiritual leader in the traditional Balinese villages within Mount Batur area. Jero Gede is considered to be the owner of the Ulun Danu Batur Water Temple in Batur, which is associated with the Dewi Danu (Goddess of the Lake) and Ratu Meduwe Gumi (The Ruler who Owns the World). He oversees the rituals that control the flow of water to a large portion of Bali, thus his role in maintaining the prosperity of the island is a force to be reckoned with. Jero Gede gave his blessing to this collaboration initiative by offering 76-are of land for sustainable development .

THE COLL ABOR ATOR S

The management team of Batur has an important role to play in the collaboration. They are community leaders working to ensure that the local people benefit from development projects within their land for them to continue practicing their customs and traditions. In this collaboration, WOW Bali Co-founder and Creative Director Hai Dai, and Yayasan Global Banjar Internasional Co-founder Ketut Subagia.

BATUR GLOB AL B ANJAR In 2015, Jero Gede and Batur Management Team visited Sekar Bumi Tropical Flower Farm owned by Pak Ketut Subagia. WOW Bali’s Global Banjar Smart Centre is located inside the 18-hectare flower farm, which serves as a creative space for diverse collaborators to co-create in the spirit of togetherness. After a series of active learning sessions, WOW Bali and Batur Management Team have finally set the goals of their collaboration. The Jero Gede Project regenerates the Global Banjar Smart Center for the people in the villages of Batur as well

as the domestic and foreign tourists. The Smart Center aims to provide livelihood opportunity to the local community through eco-cultural tourism that promotes the local people’s values and beliefs. It also serves as a creative learning space for tourists to learn about the significance of Mount Batur in the sustainability of the whole island of Bali and its worldwide contribution as a Global Geopark. Most importantly, this sustainable development project in Batur is all about the people and how they can attain and/or sustain their wellbeing through harmonious relationship with other people, the environment and the divine. For WOW Bali, Mount Batur is the “gateway to paradise”.

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Developments to be undertaken on a sacred space like Mount Batur require conscious thoughts and actions. All concerned stakeholders need to actively participate to achieve a holistic design for the project. WOW Bali holds a series of action learning workshops, playshops and sharing sessions to allow everyone to engage in collaborative activities. Aside from sharing ideas, these action learning sessions are designed for collaborators to inspire each other to work in the spirit of togetherness. These build not only the creative capacities of the partners, but also strengthens human relationship that is essential in sustaining the wellbeing of individuals and communities.

LESSONS FROM HAWAI’I : RAPID PR OTOT YPING THE B ATUR GLOBAL B ANJAR PROJECT

In a meeting with the Management Team of Batur Village last 23 January 2016 at Sekar Bumi Farm, Hai Dai shared his latest activities to introduce WOW Dynamics in Hawaii, USA. He presented his case studies in Bali to the locals of Anahola in Kaua’i. In return, he showed to the Balinese his case studies in Anahola, which is one of the places with the highest concentration of Native Hawaiians living together. Although they comprise the majority of people in the area, they reside in low-cost housing settlements. Locals who live in these

neighbor-hoods

tend to be

discriminated from other groups such as the haoles (whites) who own most of the best lands and tourism establishments in the area. The Hawaiians, especially the youth, are affected by the debilitating social inequality in the area forcing them to resort to drug abuse and alcoholism. Compared to the haoles, the Native Hawaiian youths have very limited opportunities. Today, Anahola has one of the highest rates of teen suicide in the US. This challenging social problem is happening against the backdrop of Anahola’s pristine landscape. Hai Dai showed several photos of Anahola’s rivers, forests, beaches and oceans, and how they remain untouched as they are protected by government, which controls all passive services in the area, including tourism activities. He said that only the rich ones are allowed to develop tourism within the protected landscape.

This same problem is what his collaborator, Kahu Rennie Mau, is trying to solve. He has several projects for his community, which include retreat programs for children to teach them about creative writing and multimedia. Hai Dai also introduced Ms. Taylor Angelos who sponsors the projects of WOW Bali. Together they have met with community leaders and groups to introduce WOW Dynamics. WOW Bali’s Hawaii experience further raises the need for human-centered design solutions. As Hai Dai said, “The unique thing about this project is that it’s always about the people.” Challenges like this can only be solved when people come and work together. These communities in Bali and Hawaii share a common need to be sustainable, and they can learn a lot from each other.

To determine what specific project to develop in Mount Batur, WOW Bali initiated rapid prototyping activity with Batur Management Team. Each member of the team shared their dreams for Batur and their communities. What came out from the session was a rich discussion of ideas: the need to preserve the local people’s land and culture and secure their socio-economic wellbeing. Through rapid prototyping, they were able to identify a number of solutions to address their needs.

“

”

WOW Bali’s human-centered design is aligned with Batur Village's unique collective ownership of land. Jero Gede's land offering on lake side will initiate WOW development as the pilot program for the regenerative develop-ment—a "cut and paste" regenerative process

to 400 hectares available here in Batur Village.

-Hai Dai, WOW Bali Creative Director

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CULTURAL TOURISM and ACTIVE SERVICES as

HUMAN-CENTERED SOLUTIONS In sustainable dynamics, collaborators find a balance between opposing forces— values and ethics, equity and ecology— to be sustainable. WOW Bali and Batur Management Team looked into these elements in their collaboration project. Both teams agreed that the collaboration would serve to empower the people, land, and God— the Tri Hita Karana. These were identified as the guiding principles for the every step they needed to take to move forward. If a proposed action would not come close to helping sustain the land, their community, or their spiritual wellbeing, it’s reason enough not to go on with it. To generate the needed income for the communities to preserve their cultural traditions nd ecological heritage, Batur Management Team proposes to develop cultural tourism in the area.

WOW Bali believes that tourism should be based on the culture of the place and the community living in it. However, if it is too much centered on local culture, it may not be able to attract tourists. If it is too much influenced by the tourism industry, it may not benefit the local community. The tourism attraction and activity should be developed with active services incorporated in the design. As opposed to passive services, whose primary goal is to generate monetary income, active services are generally aimed at enhancing individual and

community wellbeing. Active services promote camaraderie and creative collaboration. Older generations of Balinese have built Bali by means of active services, that is why it has attracted people from different parts of the world. Other tiers of services can be created out of active services. In Batur, hotels are not the most appropriate infrastructures to build, so they have to find an eco-affective substitute. Active services in tourism require high level facility and services. More importantly, tourism activities should bring the tourists closer to the local people,

thus, high interaction with the community should be promoted. It should give the tourists opportunity to experience the daily lives of local, such as cooking, ceremonies, farming and other local livelihoods, as well as their celebrations. Entertainment and education should be the main feature of this type of cultural tourism. Towards the end of the raoid prototyping activity, WOW Bali and Batur Management Team came up with a plan to establish WOW Global Banjar in Batur that features a multifunction facility to accommodate visitors, hold social activities for creative learning, edutainment and celebrations. The WOW Global Banjar in Batur will be designed as a cultural fusion space where locals and visitors can collaborate to promote wellness and to create innovative solutions and will regenerate with appropriate technology for optimum affects for environmental, social, and economic sustainability.

WOW BATUR: PASRAMAN PURI PELISAN

During the new moon in early June 2016, Bapak Jero Gede revealed the date of groundbreaking ceremony or the WOW Batur project: 8th of June, as well as a name for the sustainability and wellness centre: Pesraman Puri Pelisan. The choice of name reflects his vision for the regenerative development project— a place for learning, right at the heart of the house of holy water. True enough, both the locals and visitors in the island have a lot to learn about Batur, with its highland watershed lake responsible for 80 percent of Bali’s water supply.

Aligned with the aspiration to keep their cultural traditions alive amid globalization, the Batur Management Team and Bapak Jero Gede see the project as an alternative learning space. Its multifunctional character allows WOW Bali to promote it as a cross-cultural fusion learning centre. Either way, the project is a platform for sharing cultural creative practices to connect people together, with nature and the Divine. The groundbreaking ceremony signaled the beginning of physical developments within the 76-are lakeside communal property. Bapak Jero Gede led the ceremonial rites while everyone participated in laying the first foundation of WOW Batur.

Mutualism is one of the key components of sustainable dynamics that is manifested in the WOW Batur Project. As WOW Bali and Batur Management Team set a shared vision for the sustainable development of the area., it is also worth noting how actual development and collaboration process are carried out. Bapak Jero Gede shared his process of “karma” as a guiding principle in the Memorandum of Understanding between the collaborators. This exemplifies how trust can be embodied within a collaborative undertaking.

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WOW BALI INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVE YAYASAN GLOBAL BANJAR INTERNASIONAL

Project Documentation Reports serve to document proceedings and draw learning and insights from collaborative interactions and meetings on programs and projects being co-developed through the WOW Bali International Initiative. Projects are documented by WOW Bali and published for online regeneration within the Sustainable Dynamics Collective and may be distributed to seek collaborative support from interested entities. This work is covered by a Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) International License and available at www.wowbali.com.