This year we celebrate World Oceans Day with our community partners in North Bali and Banggai Island. Like many millions of other people around the world, the North Bali aquarium fishers, have been severely impacted by the pandemic. Because there have been no orders from the buyers to catch the fish, and almost no international flights coming out of Bali, the fishers are forced to be idle and have no other source of income.
Fortunately, we have received a number of donations from divers and friends of LINI, which the fishers have chosen to use for buying materials so that they can add more artificial structures to their reef restoration sites. This week we built 25 structures, and these will all be deployed at the reef restoration site near Les village in North Bali. In two or three years’ time, the additional new coral coverage will provide the villagers with healthy fish populations to harvest, and an additional source of income from dive tourism.
Our community partners in Bone Baru, Banggai Island, are celebrating with a story-telling session for children, telling them traditional stories about the sea. This is also important because it also helps to keep the local culture alive!
LINI founder Gayatri has also been asked to participate as a speaker on the panel of Innovation Through Community Engagement for a Sustainable Ocean, at the United Nations World Oceans Day 2020 virtual event on Monday, June 8th United Nations World Oceans Day 2020. This is a great opportunity for us to share our community-oriented and driven solutions for conserving Indonesia’s coral reefs with a potentially huge global audience!
Let us hope for the better world, as our understanding and care for the oceans continue to grow!
By Eveline Kurniati and Gayatri Reksodihardjo-Lilley