On the eve of Bali province's 50th anniversary celebration, a senior official and local activists acknowledge that the province had accomplished many positive things.

Yet, they also said there were still many things the province needed to address; environmental issues and problems associated with development, which had placed several regions in unfavorable positions.

Bali Governor Dewa Beratha praised Bali's current condition, saying it had became a safer place, thus, providing the tourism industry -- the island's economic backbone -- with a more conducive environment.

"As you can see right now, the security situation on the island has greatly improved and continues to improve. This is something that we have achieved through hard work," Beratha said on the sidelines of an event organized by the Bali Sport Association in Denpasar on Monday.

Beratha was optimistic that the stable security condition would enable Bali to reach its 2008 tourism target of two million tourists. Last year, the as many as 1.7 million tourists visited the island.

Security has became a critical issue for the island's tourism industry ever since the infamous terrorist attacks of 2002 and 2005. The brutal attacks, which targeted the island's popular tourism destinations, killed hundreds of people -- mostly foreign tourists -- and had sent the local tourism industry to an all-time historic low.

Tourism expert and former chairman of the Bali Tourism Board, Bagus Sudibya, said that even though the island's tourism industry had recovered from the attacks and had enjoyed an increasing number of tourists in recent years, there was one critical problem that should be solved immediately. A failure to do so would affect the future of the tourism industry, he warned.

The problem, Sudibya said, was the disparity of the pace of development. He pointed out how most of the development activities, including in the tourism sector, had taken place in the southern part of Bali, particularly in the municipality of Denpasar, and in Badung and Gianyar regencies.

These three regions host the island's most popular tourism destinations, such as Sanur, Nusa Dua, Kuta and Ubud, as well as the bulk of Bali's more than 1,000 hotels.

On the contrary, the western, northern and eastern parts of Bali had enjoyed only a fraction of what the southern part had. Regions like Jembrana, Buleleng, Karangasem and Bangli, were economically and developmentally behind compared to their counterparts in the south.

"The local government should pay more attention to this problem," Sudibya told The Jakarta Post.

If the disparity continued, he added, the poor regions would follow the southern regions' example; aggressively developing mass tourism in their regions to boost revenue. Eventually, such policies would destroy the island's agriculture sector as well as cause an environmental catastrophe.

Among other things, he added, the local administration could issue a regulation that would oblige businesspeople to donate 10 percent of their profits to farmers in poor regencies.

"The 10-percent donations could be used to improve the quality of the crops or assist the farmers to make better irrigation systems. These businesspeople could also become 'foster parents' for these farmers and help monitor the farmers' progress."

He said the bottom line was that the development of the tourism industry should be based on the culture of agriculture, which was the root of Bali's traditional culture.

"All tourism development projects, including hotel and villa construction projects, should take into consideration the importance of sustaining Bali's agriculture tradition ... to empower Balinese farmers," he said.

Environmental activist I Made Suarnatha of the Wisnu Foundation stressed it was about time the Bali administration discarded its mass tourism-oriented policy and substituted it with a community-based, eco-friendly tourism development.

The foundation for years has developed the Village Eco-tourism Network to educate and assist several villages in Bali in developing community-based tourism. Through the network, several villages, including Plaga in Badung, Sibetan and Tenganan in Karangasem and Lembongan in Klungkung, have managed to design, build and operate community-based tourism that doesn't compromise their unique local customs, the integrity of their agriculture sector and the authenticity of their natural environment.

"Bali could use these villages as role models in designing its community-based, eco-friendly tourism industry," he said.

Moreover, he pointed out, the community-based, eco-friendly tourism model would address the issue of disparity in development more effectively than the mass tourism model.

"The mass tourism model has always been characterized by the need to attract as many tourists as possible, to attract as many investors as possible and to build as many tourism facilities -- hotels and restaurants -- as possible," he said.

For a small island like Bali, he added, such a model would quickly deplete its natural resources and, more importantly, would marginalize local residents because investors and major corporations would have the last say.

"The community-based model is based on the local community's ability and local environment's capacity to sustain tourism. The decisions are made by the locals. Naturally, they will take into consideration their interests -- their culture, customs, social norms -- before making any decisions," he said.

Suarnatha said the community-based, eco-friendly tourism model would provide an opportunity for villages in poor, agricultural regions in Bali to gain benefits from the lucrative tourism industry without having to surrender their fertile rice fields and lush forests for construction of concrete villas and towering apartments.

"More importantly, with this model the local community -- not the investors or major corporations -- will have the last say on the development of their own region."

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