The Jakarta Post Serangan fishermen expand coral rehabilitation program
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Serangan fishermen expand coral rehabilitation program
Rabu, 01 Februari 2012 00:00
Serangan fishermen expand coral rehabilitation program
Desy Nurhayati, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar | Wed, 02/01/2012 8:51 AM
Sailing silently: A fisherman paddles his wooden boat alongside Serangan Island. Local fishermen have launched an initiative to rehabilitate the local coral reefs, which have been damaged due to land reclamation. JP/Agung Parameswara
Fishermen in Serangan Island have developed a community-based coral rehabilitation program by launching new coral structures and sea horse breeding facilities.
The expansion of the program has been made possible by donations from some companies’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs for the Karya Segara Serangan group.
The fund was dedicated to the rehabilitation of coral reefs in the island’s waters, which were degraded due to reclamation around 1997.
Since 2003, the fishermen have started to rehabilitate the coral reefs by making artificial structures as the platform for the transplanted coral.
These structures, where baby coral is expected to grow, are placed around 5 to 10 meters underwater, especially in the area where coral reefs are degraded.
They launched 12 new structures in various shapes last week, which marked the expansion of their program. These new structures have added to the old ones placed around the area previously.
“Since 2003, we have managed to rehabilitate 1.8 hectares. This donation is a huge contribution to our efforts in rehabilitating a total of five hectares,” said I Wayan Patut, chairman of the group, who initiated the rehabilitation program.
“We hope that this program will be sustainable so that it will give more economic and ecological benefits to Serangan people,” said Tri Utami, one of the companies’ representatives.
Besides coral reef rehabilitation, the fishermen also breed sea horses in an effort to restore the animal’s decreasing population due to extensive hunting of the species, which are then sold as ornaments.
Working together with a travel agent, the group has succeeded in releasing at least 1,500 sea horses back to their habitat, resulting from the breeding program. The travel agent invited tourists to participate in the sea-horse release to raise their environmental awareness.
This success encouraged fishermen to start breeding other species, including clown fish, shrimp and cardinal banggai fish.
This successful environmental initiative has seen Serangan be declared as the Center for Community-based Training for Marine and Fishery Program by the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry.
The fisherman group headquarters will hold training related to a coastal development program, as well as to coral and ornamental fish breeding.
“The program will start mid next month [March], involving trainers from officials from East Java. Twenty local people in Serangan will participate in the training,” Patut said.
In June last year, the fisherman group also won the Kalpataru award from the government for saving the environment.
The destruction of coral reefs in Serangan around 1997 also negatively affected the livelihood of local people. Besides reclamation, coral mining was also rampant at that time.
Therefore, the fishermen there initiated a rehabilitation program, with the help of some non-governmental organizations, related government institutions and some private companies.
As the area is recovering, it is starting to turn into an underwater tourism destination.
Patut said that there was an average of 400 tourists per month visiting the area to enjoy water activities. Local residents, especially the fishermen, are ready to guide the tourists.
“We expect that the new structures we have just launched will be good places for new coral to grow, so that the underwater zone will become more interesting for tourists,” he said.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/02/01/serangan-fishermen-expand-coral-rehabilitation-program.html
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