ECOCLUB Monitoring™

In a joint statement led by Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, the UN experts highlighted expulsions of local communities and destruction of houses, fields, water sources, cultural and religious sites, as the Indonesian Government and the country’s Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) pursued a USD 3 bn project on Lombok island which includes a Grand Prix motorcycle circuit, parks, resorts and hotels. The project is being managed by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Rapporteur De Schutter argues that “the time has passed for racing circuits and massive transnational tourism infrastructure projects that benefit a handful of economic actors rather than the population as a whole” and that building back better after the pandemic "should focus on empowering local communities".