Changing: Tourism growth is affecting seaweed farming on the island. A marina is needed to serve the many boa.

Flat-bottomed boats dot the surface of a quiet sea, shadowed darkly with seaweed being farmed just below the surface. Farming these ocean gardens has been a major industry for Lembongan Island, just off the south coast of Bali, for many decades.

In Klungkung regency, the economic benefits of seaweed are high. However, with the rapid growth in tourism over the past five years, the industry has fallen into decline except in protected areas around Mangrove Beach and Ceningan Island. Here, speedboats with their destructive outboard motors are banned, allowing the seaweed to grow undisturbed.

It is this dilemma between different industries that faces Lembongan'€™s population, says master diver and local guide Wayan Sila.

Despite earning his living from the tourist industry, he is concerned that the island, which is still a relatively undisturbed paradise, could too easily go the way of neighboring Bali, which is drowning under the weight of its own success as a tourist destination.

'€œSeaweed farms in this area of Lembongan Beach are protected. Only flat-bottomed boats without engines can enter this area, and these boats are owned by the seaweed farmers,'€ explains Sila.

The island: The superb Dream Beach now has a building on the sand, compromising its natural beauty.
'€œIt is not like Jungubatu Beach, where speedboats come in and travel over the seaweed. The farming there has almost been destroyed by water-based activities, but I believe that seaweed farming is still the most important industry for Lembongan because so many local people are dependent on this,'€ said the 43-year-old.

Today on the island'€™s central low-mountain range, which is formed of limestone, bulldozers are stripping out the vegetation and carving out 300-square-meter plots for new villas.

On Dream Beach, development stretches all the way to the white sandy beach, claiming this idyllic bay for its new owners.

Guesthouse owner and small businessman Nyoman Sudibia laments the arrival of the developers, and is hopeful that the local Klungkung government will enforce building codes and establish green belts before it is too late.

Sitting in the office of his guesthouse, Sudibia points to a green swath of farmland fronting the ocean.

'€œI see some development that upsets my heart. A big hotel is going on that beachfront '€” Jakarta developers, I understand. I would like to see small businesses and seaweed farming. Locally owned businesses, not big business,'€ said the 59-year-old.

He continues. '€œWe need to establish green belts where no building can take place, like the protection that has been placed on the mangrove forests. There are no laws like that yet, but I would like to see that before it is too late. We don'€™t want Lembongan to become another Kuta.'€

Isolated: The sun sets over Lembongan Island, a paradise just 30 minutes off Bali by fast boat.
The natural beauty of the island is extraordinary. Small shops and warung (food stalls) line the few narrow streets of its villages, lending the island a quaint aspect that is long lost on Bali.

In many ways, Lembongan offers what Bali once promised.

Thatch-roofed warung run by locals offer food and shade along the Mangrove Beach. The silence on this is stunning. Its protected status allows visitors to hear birds and the sound of children splashing in the shallow waters rather than the whining roar of speedboats or the music blaring from discos.

There is not even the sound of cell phones: There is no reception here '€” a rare and lovely thing in this age of constant telecommunications.

Lembongan also offers a delightful sense of adventure. Forget air-conditioned people movers that separate through tinted windows visitors from the villages they traverse.

Day trips around Lembongan Island over its pot-holed roads, often formed of limestone and sand, are by small pickup trucks converted to passenger vehicles with seats bolted to the truck-bed. It is rough and ready, open to the elements and all the more fun for that.

For Sudibia, however, the state of the roads and basic infrastructure are evidence of a lack of support from both the Klungkung regency administration and the provincial Bali government, and Sudibia points up his wish list for the island.

'€œPeople here do not yet understand about rubbish and plastic and how that can damage the environment. I want to see this island clean, but teaching the people about this takes time,'€ he said, referring to the need for modern trash collection and recycling systems.

'€œAlso the government must take care of the roads. Revenue from Lembongan is large and the local administrations need to invest this in the island. We need good doctors. If we are going to have tourists, we need to have doctors available,'€ he adds.

'€œI want people to come here and do business, but they must follow our laws to protect the fabric of this society, its environment and culture. There needs to be a balance,'€ Sudibia said, adding that building a marina to house all the boats would be a major step forward in protecting the crystal-clear waters that surround this island just 30 minutes off the coast of Bali.

'€” Photos by J.B. Djwan