The Level of Local Community Participation in the Management of Ngurah Rai Mangrove Forest Park, Denpasar, Bali

Abstract

Ngurah Rai Mangrove Forest Park is the only Forest Park in Bali. This mangrove area is located in a brackish forest-type area that is always flooded with brackish water and influenced by sea tides. In total, Ngurah Rai Forest Park has an area of 1,373.5 hectares. This area lies in two second-level areas, namely Denpasar City and Badung Regency. The process of developing Ngurah Rai Mangrove Forest Park into a natural and cultural tourist attraction led to a contestation of interests between three primary stakeholders (triple-helix), namely the government that builds tourism facilities with local communities who also have the right to use the Forest Park as a tourist attraction and also part of the customary village area (pakraman), and local investors who want to invest to benefit from renting tourist facilities. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of community participation in the management of Ngurah Rai Forest Park as a conservation forest. The study used the theory of the Ladder of Citizen Participation from Arnstein (1969) to determine the level of community participation in Ngurah Rai Forest Park to what extent. This research method uses a qualitative paradigm, and then for data collection techniques using interviews with several stakeholders in the Ngurah Rai Forest Park. The results of this study show that community participation develops from the stages, ranging from the stage of non-participation, degree of tokenism, and degree of citizen power.