Case study of WOW Batur Regenerative Development via WOW Sustainable Dynamics Framework

1. 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 JERO GEDE
PROJECT
Batur Volcano and Lake, by Jessy Eykendorp
[with modifications] CC BY-SA 2.0

2. 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 COLLABORATORS
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 GLOBAL BANJAR
In 2015, Jero Gede and Batur
Management Team visitedSekarBumi
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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3. 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 PROTOTYPING THE BATUR GLOBAL BANJAR PROJECT
In a meeting with the Management Teamof
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 fromthe
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.
“
”
WOWBali’shuman-centereddesignis
alignedwithBaturVillage's uniquecollective
ownershipofland.JeroGede'slandoffering
onlakesidewillinitiateWOW development as
thepilotprogramfortheregenerativedevelop-
ment—a"cutandpaste"regenerativeprocess
to400hectaresavailablehereinBaturVillage.
-HaiDai,WOWBaliCreativeDirector
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4. 4
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 tourismin 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
fromdifferent 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.

5. 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 ofWOW 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 howactual 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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6. 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.