User Perceptions of Cultural Landscapes in Indonesia: Understanding Cultural Heritage Management Strategies toward Community Development

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Community development is inseparable from culture as it is a means to get at a satisfactory intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual existence. Cultural heritage management is a tool to protect and manage the cultural heritage resources of a community while also promoting such resources for the purpose of economic development. A community’s cultural heritage can drive development by utilizing creative industries—such as tourism. Understanding responsible tourism as an effective use of land and a tenet of community development can grant access to culturally-significant places while also distributing the economic benefits throughout the community. Participatory involvement at the local level determines effective strategies for managing and protecting a community’s cultural resources that are so inextricably tied to the land, while also utilizing tourism to add value to the land. Indonesia is particularly relevant to this study as a developing island nation boasting some of the world’s oldest relationships between people and their land—and a tourism industry that thrives on these relationships. The study first aims to understand user perceptions (host v. visitor) of a cultural landscape inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List with a site of local significance within Indonesia by utilizes a photographic inventory and questionnaire. An interview process for each host community also articulates landscape perceptions. The research methods employed create an evaluative tool for local communities to understand the significance of their existing cultural resources; identify discrepancies in host versus visitor perceptions of cultural landscapes; and situate protection, management and promotion efforts at the local level where the knowledge base is most germane. Juxtaposing user perceptions of cultural landscapes reveals what level of protection is most conducive for local communities to manage and promote their cultural landscapes by first identifying cultural heritage significance and then sustaining community values toward a better quality of life.

Stream: Cultural Sustainability

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Jocelyn Widmer is a doctoral student in the College of Design, Construction and Planning at the University of Florida. The interdisciplinary nature of the program is of particular importance to her research interests and background, having already earned a Master’s in Landscape Architecture. Her research ascertains the social and economic impacts of cultural landscapes both spatially and temporally, while still maintaining the fundamentals of design. Focusing on cultural landscapes as nodes within a community network, she takes a comprehensive approach to place-making. Thus, cultural landscapes become economic catalysts, uphold and challenge cultural heritage management practices, yet also sustain community identification.
Most recently, Jocelyn contributed design guidelines and illustrations to a rehabilitative master plan for the Pohnpei Botanical Garden (Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia). The project was organized and funded in part by the National Park Service.