The governance of sustainable tourism development on small islands in Indonesia: A socio-ecological approach

Many alternative approaches can be used to achieve sustainable development in tourism planning. Viewed from an environmental perspective, tourism development can lead to a degradation of ecosystems. However, tourism development can also provide financial support for the protection of the marine environment and endangered species as well as for the livelihoods of local communities. As such, in using the sustainable tourism concept, many factors must be considered, including the involvement of stakeholders, as they all have their own interests in developing (or not developing) tourism. Framed by a hybrid approach, including socio-ecological systems, social innovation, and political ecology, this study intends to unveil the governance of environmental conflicts among actants in sustainable tourism on small islands. It aims to explore how multiple stakeholders are building sustainable tourism, overcoming conflicts and extractive tendencies as well as creating productive synergies. This research explores community participation in transforming the island from agriculture- and fisheries-based to tourism-based; and from being isolated from visitors to be a publicly open island. It also examines institutional arrangements in tourism governance and how they affect the sustainability of tourism. It also seeks to uncover the existence, influence, and movement of an anti-mainstream community on a small island that fights for the idealism of sustainable tourism development amid the pro-growth tourism hegemony carried out by local authorities, as well as the extent to which local communities or community groups preserve their environment amidst an increasing number of tourists who come to the island. Further, this research questions the sustainability of hybrid governance in planning tourism on the small island in the long term; the extent of the conflict that occurred between each actor involved; and how to resolve this conflict. Finally, this research seeks to produce a governance model that can express the concept of synergy between the multi-stakeholders involved. It is hoped that this study will help enable all parties concerned to develop a more responsible and integrated 'sustainably driven' tourism program. This research uses a case study research strategy that focuses on Pahawang Island, Lampung Province, and Gili Air, West Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia. Going beyond Western approaches, this study will provide a locally grounded Global South context, learning from the cases of Indonesia’s small islands.