Ecotourism Among Dilemma Voluntarism and Ecological Commitment (A Review of the Challenges of Community-Based Environmental Tourism Development in Bangka Island)

Bangka is well known as a region which is rich of natural resources, mainly in tin commodity. Tin mining has been done for hundreds of years and has left massive environmental damage in this region. As the growth of community’s collective awareness towards the threat in the future, the desire to improve the environment while taking economic benefit from the process which appears at several points. Ecotourism has developed in several regions on this island. Interestingly, some of the ecotourism’s are community based. However, there are still various challenges arise along with the emergence of new obstacles. The study used in this paper was qualitative study which used three data collection techniques, namely observation, interview, and documentation. This study was chosen with the consideration that it could explore in more detail and depth about the ecotourism management. The chosen locations are new and popular tourist areas with environmental nuances which are connected with the mining area and around the mining area as the main object. The dilemma between voluntarism which was based on volunteering and economic interest oriented on the income became a big challenge. Second, the ecological rescue commitment is in fact more dominant as the consideration than the economic impact. This study proved that community-based environmental could still develop well. Third, the government always comes later to accompany the initiation of the community.