Sixteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

Many indigenous peoples suffer from underdevelopment because of the inferior geographical conditions and their low value-add economy. A cure-all solution, eco-ethno-agro-tourism, emerges to be a synergic prescription. Tourism is expected not only to improve the economic wellbeing of the indigenous peoples but also to encourage them to conserve natural resources and cultural heritage by practicing traditional agriculture. Nevertheless, the introduction of tourism leads to a transition from an agricultural economy to a commercial one, and such transition involves drastic adjustment of different governing systems and changing dynamics among systems. Take rice terraces in many East and Southeastern Asian countries for example. The irrigation system was the core system that determined the distribution of wealth and the stability of these societies. To govern this core resource, the society would build up a set of socio-cultural (such as religion, family and clan, property right, etc.) systems and kept them coordinated. The introduction of new technologies, capitalism, and democratic power structures would tilt the original balance to impair the governing functions. How could public policies be designed to effectively facilitate such transitions? This research takes the Rice Terraces in Hunghe (China) and Bali (Indonesia) as the cases to demonstrate the resilience of indigenous irrigation system in evolution and how social institutions built up for water governance could be transformed to help govern the tourist and cultural common goods.