Desapreneur and Firefly Conservationist

Sustainability for me is preserving our local values and geniuses, and continuing to live with mindful awareness towards our actions.
Tell us your story – how did you get here?
My name is Wayan Wardika, I was born in 1978. My life is a blessing. My parents had been waiting for over 12 years to have a kid after their marriage when they were teens. I can imagine how blessed they felt to have me, their first born, and my four other siblings.
Our family live in the small village of Taro, 20km north of Ubud. I consider myself lucky to have been born and raised in a poor family full of struggles to survive, which then forced us to create a better future. I still remember where I experienced life without electricity, and beaten pathways as the main road with very few vehicles. The hardship of our family living in the village gave me an extraordinary experience, where life is full of abundance once we aligned ourselves with nature. Of course, I only understood this at a very later stage. If I may describe my life pattern into several stages.
My family got our first family bathroom in 1999. Before that, the river was our natural bathroom, where I would spend every afternoon bathing, swimming, splashing in crystal clear water, washing our clothes, and bringing fresh water back home – a compulsory chore of mine. The only time we didn’t go to the river was when it rained and the water level raised. Only then would we have water in the house from the pouring rain.
Since we had no electricity, there was very little light at night. Most of us had our kerosene lamps when we could afford it. If not, we lit our used coconut oil that was leftover from cooking dinner. Otherwise, we had complete darkness. This was when I used to play a lot with fireflies around our house. I frequently used them as my lantern by keeping them in a jar or coffee glass. I was so amazed and fascinated by their flashing light. I remember I only ended this habit because my grandparents told me that fireflies are actually the sign of our ancestors’ spirits. During my childhood, every night was full of dancing lights, even though there was no electricity in my village. To me, this experience was a blessing.
After finishing elementary school in my village, I had to live away from my family because I chose to continue on to high school education. At that time, there was no high school in my village, and the nearest school was 25km away – the only wau to get there was by walking. So, I stayed with a royal family in Ubud to work, so I could pay for my education. At 12 years-old, being away from my family and having to survive by myself was not easy. But later I realised, this episode changed the course of my life. Apart from my personal struggle to continue my (not-so-normal) life as teenager, juggling work and study, the circumstances forced me to become independent, disciplined and hard-working. And I did this for 12 years.
Challenges in life create opportunities. I didn’t quite realise why I had to go through difficulty just to have an education (because I knew our parents couldn’t afford it, as they didn’t have a chance to go to school) but later I understood that nothing is free in life, everything has price, and some is paid with hard work. The course of my life changed when I had to become a butler to my boss’ only son after graduating high school. I had a very rare opportunity to I eventually go to college as my boss’ companion.
Being eligible to attend college, I took the opportunity seriously. I studied tourism at Udayana University, while at the same time I had to work for two families. One was for the house where the prince stayed in Denpasar during school days, and the other was at the original house in Ubud during the weekend. At university, I performed very well, earning several achievements which built my confidence in expressing myself. Some of those highlights include winning contests in English contest, story telling, and writing, winning the National Innovative Paper Competition in 2000, where I chose my research on fireflies as alternate eco-tourism in Ubud, and being selected as the Australia-Indonesia Youth Exchange Program representing Bali Province in 2000-2001. I also came in 3rd position of the brightest students selection in 1999, and I also met my wife, who later became the greatest support in my next life stages.
Having the opportunity to attend college at that time was rare. I remember only a few people from the village could afford it. I considered my self blessed again, not because I gained education from college, but because I was able to meet those who became the gurus of my life.
I applied my tourism knowledge, skills and background into the professional field for over 20 years. I began as a house boy at the royal family bungalows in Ubud, then worked in several hotels in Bali, Singapore and the Maldives. A series of tourism turbulence like 9/11, the Bali bombing and the tsunami in 2004 finally made me choose my dream job at that time: working on a cruise ship, which I did for 12 years. This not only helped improve our family’s financial challenges, it also gave me the opportunity to explore the world, see different places and meet thousands of people from all over the world with their different backgrounds, cultures and life values. I interacted with people from over 50 different nationalities during my international career, and many became friends and family. This diverse working environment shaped my perspective about people, the world, and most importantly, my perspective about my village. Ironically, I viewed my village of Taro very differently when I was away, compared to when I was still in Bali. I read a book by Gde Perama stating that “Life begins at 40”, so on my 40th birthday, I ended my cruise ship career, and the new chapter of my life started.
Finally, I gained the courage to step out of my comfort zone, and chose what I wanted to do: to be around my family and contribute to my home village. I started a private waste management system and facility (Rumah Kompos Taro) to stop people from throwing their waste into the river, and instead separate their waste. In the beginning, we started with 44 families. After two years, it transformed as TPS3R Taro, recognised as the most effective in Bali, and went from a small private sector service to becoming an official, government management programme serving 2,500 families, now in collaboration with MPH.
I led our community as Ketua Kelompok Sadar Wisata (Pokdarwis) Desa Wisata Taro to explore local tourism opportunities using a community-based tourism approach (AKA Desa Wisata). We came 4th on a national level in 2019, and in 2021, we became the winner amongst 14,000 villages in Indonesia. And now, we’re nominated by UNWTO for sustainable rural tourism, promoting and campaigning Organic Farming Practices aligned with our local agriculture system “subak”, through which we reduce the use of synthetic fertilisers and chemicals.
This proves to help with the increase of the firefly population, while in most area, they are already extinct. So I created a firefly laboratory facility and several conservation projects. The whole project is called #bringbackthelight dedicated to the fireflies to thrive as an indicator of environmental quality.
We support many communities and villages across Indonesia by developing rural tourism based on community involvement through talks, seminars and discussions. We partner with hotels and resorts in Bali to offer more sustainable solutions to their business operations, such as waste management, organic farming, eco-friendly organic pest control and bridging Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) where we provide data, assessment, mapping and programme-designing for a better impact to the recipient community.
But the biggest blessing of my life is that us Balinese are equipped with life principles called the Tri Hita Karana (literally meaning harmony with God, people and nature) from the day we were born until the very end of our life as guiding principles. It is the perfect concept of life, but we all know, not easy to implement. I am dedicating the remainder of my life to my village of Taro and the island of Bali by putting the Tri Hita Karana into action, looking for opportunities that can bring the regenerative values of spirituality, community and nature. This work will be marked successful by having many fireflies around our villages.
What accomplishment are you most proud of?
We helped our village become the best in rural tourism in Bali, which then led to national level and eventually to the world by branding our village as an “Eco-Spiritual Destination”, with Tri Hita Karana as our guiding principles. This was achieved by bringing awareness to sustainability and community support as the foundation.
What impact have you made in Bali?
We built Rumah Kompos Taro, a community based waste management initiative to raise awareness in our village. Rumah Kompos Taro started from 44 households at the beginning of the year, and now TPS3R Taro is serving 2,500 households in 14 different banjar.
We brought Desa Wisata Taro to a national level as a community-based tourism destination, and we continue to inspire younger generations.
We started the #bringbackthelight project to conserve the firefly population through regenerative farming practices at Taro Village and Buahan, Banyan Tree Escape.
What does the future look like for you?
Well, to be honest, I see that the world right now is in the middle of a junction, with each junction leading towards different directions.
The first one is where we continue with destructive actions towards nature, where we focus on exploiting its resources. This road may lead us to a destination where the human race faces a difficult situation, where food becomes super expensive and where we must depend on synthetic substances to survive.
But, I also see brighter roads ahead, where the sky is fill with stars and the earth is full of fireflies, like a silent symphony at night. I see this because we are taking regenerative action in our fulfilment for food, and we are raising awareness to take care of Mother Nature, and preserve all natural resources.
What do you love most about Bali?
Spirituality (AKA Taksu), the people and nature.
What does being sustainable mean to you?
Sustainability for me is preserving our local values and geniuses, and continuing to live with mindful awareness towards our actions. Where we always ask ourselves: will this create harmony with God, people and nature? And to achieve that, I also believe in three strategies: cultural preservation, community empowerment and natural resource conservation.
Who is your Local Legend and why?
Guruji Gede Perama. I adore his life journey in healing people and nature through spirituality, leaving his comfortable position as a CEO at a national-level company, to now impact thousands of Balinese and international people through his love-peace teaching.