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Menjangan Island Coral Reef Conservation

Underwater Group Shot
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Menjangan Island lies off Bali’s northwest shore and is sacred with four Hindu temples and a statue of Ganesha, the god of new beginnings.  People come from all over Bali on holy days to make offerings and prayers at the temples. Its fringing coral reef is unusual, almost a diversity anomaly for the region, with a wealth of hard corals, sea fans and soft corals.

On paper, the reefs are protected since they are located within Bali Barat National Park (BBNP), but in actuality, they are suffering from an array of negative impacts, such as anchor damage, over-fishing, trash, and climate change. To address these challenges, Biosphere Foundation (BF), aligned with a local NGO and BBNP to form Friends of Menjangan (a community movement) to protect and preserve the Menjangan Island reefs. In support of this long-term program, BF engaged Pak Nono Suparono and Pak Ketut Sutama who are both Nature Guides for BBNP. Pak Nono now Heads the program. 

In 2011, BF conducted its first baseline study about the overall health of the reef. [Please see our two papers about these studies published in Atoll Research Bulletin and PLOS one. A poster about the change in the reef was presented at ALSO 2017 Ocean Sciences Meeting – it illustrates the change over the course of one year due to the 2016 El Nino and climate change event. The data pointed to an “ecological tipping point” that can be seen by studying the interfependence between fish and coral communities accross a continum of reef degradation. This data was presented at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Honolulu, 2014.

The second study was carried out in May-July, 2016 during a worldwide bleaching event, and published in Atoll Research Bulletin. Of great interest was the fact that recorded living coral biodiversity (56 genera) was the same before and after the rise in seawater temperature (32.2 °c), which resulted in 2/3rd of hard coral observed bleaching or recently dead due to bleaching. A documentary was made about our findings in 2017 by Earth Focus called Vanishing Coral.

Our studies indicate that one of the greatest threats is anchor damage by both local visitors coming to the islands temples and tourists/divers. In response to the concern of increasing visitors, and thus anchor damage, Biosphere Foundation initiated a Mooring Buoy Program in 2012 with Friends of Menjangan, Nono and Sutama. Working with local divers they visit Menjangan year-round to install and repair 33 mooring buoys, collect trash, and remove Crown of Thorns star fish and Drupella coral predators. Please follow their progress at Friends of Menjangan’s Facebook.   

Both Nono and Sutama are inspiring hundreds of other local people to join their conservation efforts and new movements are springing up in the region to protect coastlines adjacent to the Park. Biosphere Foundation additionally works at Putri Menjangan and Alam Lestari, two nature groups that engage in mangrove and/or reef restoration in the area. As well, yacht Mir has voyaged to Raja Ampat and Moyo Island (off Sumbawa) to initiate and train leaders for two new nature groups: Friends of Moyo and Friends of Mansuar

Working with Ketut Sutama (Head of our Community-Based Marine Stewardship Programs), we have pioneered a simple, low-cost and effective way to replant coral and thereby accelerate the restoration of damaged reefs. This technique re-attaches broken living coral fragments (from anchor and human damage) back onto the reef substrate using local cement. Join us to follow our progress! 

Biosphere Foundation is now initiating a Coral Steward Training Program to teach nature groups, national park officials, and anyone with a backyard coral reef how to restore and garden your reef. For more information about this program, please contact us! The program is a 2-day program located at our center in NW Bali. You need to be an advanced diver with excellent buoyancy skills before you can attend.

There is a movement in NW Bali to restore our seas and lands; and it is growing. Together, we are pioneering new educational programs  and hosting Earth Day events, which include trash clean-ups, mangrove planting, coral awareness, and song & dance for nature. As an example, please see Menjangan ~ A Music Video, which was performed on Earth Day in 2016 by local musicians and high school dancers in NW Bali. The song is about not throwing trash in the ocean and it is sung in Bahasa Indonesia. As well, on Earth Day 2017, we held an event at BBNP with local schools, orphanage, NGO’s, nature groups and hundreds of students. There local students joined our musicians to perform Everyday’s An Earth Day!  –  song composed by Christopher Dolphin (Mir’s onboard musician), to inspire everyone to love and care for our biosphere.

Please see Friends of Menjangan Facebook and Blog for more news.  

 Watch our 2017 Earth Day Film: Earth Focus ~ Vanishing Coral

And enjoy our slideshow of Friends of Menjangan below!

 

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed individuals can change the world. 
Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has”

– Margaret Mead