Ripples beyond the reef: The Pemuteran Biorock initiative from a risk governance perspective : A document-based study of governance dependencies and vulnerability implications

Sammanfattning

Abstract Coral reef degradation is often treated as an ecological problem, but in reef-dependent coastal communities it is also a societal risk issue. This thesis analyses the Pemuteran Biorock initiative in north-west Bali, Indonesia, as a restoration process shaped by governance, technology and local organisation. It asks how the initiative operates from a risk governance perspective and what vulnerability implications can be identified in a reef-dependent coastal community. Using a qualitative, document-centred case study design, the study analyses academic studies, programme, policy and legal documents, organisational material and other case-specific sources. Risk governance provides the main analytical framework; vulnerability complements it by focusing attention on exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. The analysis examines how reef decline and restoration are described, how actors and responsibilities are organised, and how continuity conditions such as funding, electricity supply, monitoring and enforcement are specified or left unclear. The findings show that Biorock is presented not only as coral restoration, but as part of a local response to reef degradation and its social causes and consequences: destructive fishing, livelihood insecurity and tourism development. The initiative is supported by customary institutions, community organisations, tourism actors and technical networks, and is shaped by coastal and marine policy. This layered arrangement gives the initiative legitimacy and practical support, but also makes tourism-linked finance, electricity supply, maintenance labour, monitoring capacity and enforcement resources conditions for continuity. The thesis concludes that arrangements that strengthen local capacity can also create dependency-related sensitivity. By linking reef protection to income, knowledge, participation and local authority, the governance process may improve adaptive capacity. Yet these benefits depend on tourism flows, private-sector support, technical maintenance, monitoring and responsibilities that are not always clearly specified. Biorock’s wider significance therefore lies in the “ripples beyond the reef”: the ways restored and protected reefs can influence livelihoods, community capacity and vulnerability.