UC San Diego

This dissertation is an ethnographic study of how environmental conservation and ecotourism are contexts for how people sort out what is at stake in living among the Raja Ampat islands of Indonesia’s West Papua Province. Through examining ways that people seek to protect areas and things inhabiting the surrounding land and seascape, I evaluate situations where people identify what is valuable to them, how those values influence ethical actions, as well as consequences of acting unethically toward the environment or other people. The study highlights efforts of Beteo and Ma’ya people to figure out how to balance the protection of coral reefs and forest zones while also seeking improved livelihoods. It presents accounts of environmental conservation practices and ecotourism around Waigeo Island – the largest and northernmost island of the Raja Ampat area – because it is the center of tourism activity and migration of Indonesians to the region. Waigeo has also become a zone of conflicts between locals and outsiders over access to and control of natural resources in coastal West Papua. Conservation and tourism have become a context for how Beteo and Ma’ya residents have identified options, developed strategies and negotiated conflicts within and across boundaries of social difference as they seek to chart a better life.The study focuses on instances where environmental values overlap and diverge to probe the possibility that different forms of care may be analogous, congruent, or at least recognizable by people with different reasons for protecting nature. I document situations when people were forced to reconcile apparently incommensurable practices. I evaluate to what extent marine protected areas are symmetrical with ritual harvest prohibitions known as sasi. I assess to what extent closed fishing grounds reflect Indonesian Evangelical Protestant Church ideals of a moral community, or whether they can be considered alongside non-Christian understanding of forest spirit realms where one is at risk of being eaten by witches or destroyed by amoral nature entities. By focusing on marine conservation and tourism interactions in coastal West Papua, I document the capacity of people to adapt, transpose or otherwise incorporate different environmental norms into their lives.