E-Journal of Tourism Vol.2. No.2. (2015): 62-67 http://ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/eot 62 e-ISSN: 2407-392X. p-ISSN: 2541-0857 Tourism and Forestry Collaboration in Bali-Indonesia I Gusti Bagus Rai Utama Management Study Program, Economics and Humanities Department Dhyana Pura University, Bali, Indonesia Corresponding author: raiutama@undhirabali.ac.id ARTICLE INFO Received 20 February 2015 Accepted 05 August 2015 Available online 07 September 2015 ABSTRACT The declining interest of the younger generation in forestry education has become a global issue while forestry continues to play an immense role for human lives throughout the world. This decline should be anticipated by higher education institutions by forming a collaboration between forestry education and another, more appealing, and education program. For Bali, which has relied on the tourism sector as the main driver of its local economy, collaboration between the tourism sector and forestry sector seems natural. Based on case studies in Bali,the idea of utilizing forest areas for tourism have entered a new phase that is as one of the drivers for foreign domestic tourists to travel to Bali. Several forest areas that have been for tourism include the mangrove forests of Badung regency, Tabanan‟s botanical gardens, and West Bali National Park in Jembrana and Buleleng regencies. Collaboration between forestry and tourism is aimed at attracting tourists, absorbing more labor force, and preserving natural resources. Keywords: participation, ecological tourism, “manuk jegeg” Introduction The numbers of student are interested in the pursuing forestry education has declined dramatically and the decrease of required skills for professional foresters have caused uncertainty among forestry educators. Over the past 10 years, forestry education in Indonesia has continued to decline on an annual basis and significant changes have occurred (Sasmita, 2015). The downward trend of interest in forestry education is not an isolated experience in Indonesia alone. The trend is also seen in several European and American countries, which is the declining number of individuals who want to pursue post-secondary study for a degree in forestry. The decrease is estimated up to 30% overall (Temu, Mwanje and Mogotsi, 2003). This problem is recognized as a global crisis facing professional forestry education (Miller, 2004).The similar trend happened in the UK, in which a dramatic decrease occurred in the sheer number of higher education institutions offering forestry programs, from about 325 in 1996 to only 156 programs in 2003 (Burley et al., 2005). Likewise in Canada, the trend has shown similar decrease, where the number of students enrolled in forestry programs decreased from 1,881 in 1996 to 1,463 in 2004 (Innes and Ward, 2010). Table 1. Higher Education Institutions in Indonesia Type of Institution Number Academy 1,095 Polytechnic 226 College 2,323 Institute 118 University 508 Total 4,270 Institutions offering Forestry 47 Proportion 1.1% Source: DIKTI (2015)