16 September 1997 Asia 2000 Fellow urges environmental links with Indonesia

Immense scope exists for New Zealand to work with Indonesia on the environmental impact of tourism and economic development, says Lincoln University's Lesley Williams who has just completed a six-month Asia 2000 Foundation Business Fellowship based at Udayana University in the city of Denpasar.

It's a worldwide fact, and Indonesia and New Zealand are no exceptions, that many established tourist centres are now struggling to combine the economic benefits of tourism with the need to preserve the natural environment and indigenous cultures which are the very basis of tourist attraction in the first place, she says.

"Caring for the environment in the face of the tourist's trampling foot and the visitor's expectation of modern accommodation, airports, highways and the whole infrastructure which goes with tourism is an imperative facing us both.

"Now with universities like Lincoln, which is committed to natural resources teaching and research and offers not just one but two degrees in 'tourism', the scope is there for New Zealand to work with its most populous neighbour."

Prior to her Fellowship Lesley had visited Indonesia a number of times and over the years she has built up an understanding of many of the local cultures and developed a fluency in the national language Bahasa Indonesian.

"I am amazed at how little both sides know about each other," she says.

"The reality is there is a lot of common ground between the two countries. We are similar in both being multicultural societies ... we are similar in having tourism as a major sector of the economy ... we are also alike in having a strong rural base to our economies ... and overarching everything, we both have a strong a commitment to education."

A highlight of Lesley's time as an Asia 2000 Foundation Business Fellow was attending the ‘Linking Latitudes Conference’. This was a joint Indonesian-Australian educational conference which looked at putting studies of Asia into the Australian school curriculum.

Lesley saw lessons for New Zealand in this conference, which unfortunately was attended by less than a handful of Kiwis.

"At the moment, compared with Australia, there appears to be little curriculum material in New Zealand schools about Asia. And this is against a background of 5 percent of all students in the compulsory school years in New Zealand being Asian.

"In the case of our nearest Asian neighbour, Indonesia, and particularly in the area of environmental education, our two countries could share knowledge and work together profitably.

"Tourism is not simply a social phenomenon ... its impact touches on engineering, ecology, the physical sciences, issues of health and sanitation, politics and many other areas.

"Tourism developers and tourist industry operators need to seriously consider and encourage the education of their employees and customers because without care and thought for the environment, and industry self-regulation, tourist paradises can quickly be degraded to desolation, ending the benefits they provide for all."           

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand