Supported by NGO, villagers in Buleleng build a 7-hectares marine park

One of the coral statue at Buleleng marine - IST

BULELENG – Residents of 6 villages in Buleleng, Bali have succeeded in building 13,767 artificial reef structures, in various forms for the creation of a marine park. This activity is part of the Indonesia Coral Reef Garden (ICRG) program during this COVID-19 pandemic.

“Starting from December, this program involves about 1700 residents in a period of about 35 days. Starting early December,” Yunaldi Yahya, Program Coordinator of the LINI Foundation, the ICRG organizer in Buleleng Regency, Thursday (31/12/2020).

About 250 divers from six villages and divers from Tulamben, Karangasem and Pemuteran assisted in the process of descending, arranging and planting about 16,000 coral fragments in three weeks.

In the process of drafting on the seabed, divers from Les Village have completed their underwater work first. “Because the number of structures is not as many as other villages, divers from Les already assisted the underwater drafting process in Pacung and Bondalem villages,” explained Yunaldi.

In Kaliasem Village, the location of coral reef rehabilitation has been completed with 1866 units of artificial reef. Now, the village already get visited by tourists who do snorkeling.

At the beginning of the descent process, there were concerns that the structure could not be fully lowered due to bad weather. After the weather slowly get better, finally all the structures built by around 1700 Buleleng people in the National Economic Recovery (PEN) program for coral reef restoration had been successfully lowered before 30 December 2020.

The structure could be arranged under the sea in a short time due to the cooperation and support from the community, village government, and local governments, as well as program management by LINI. Massive activities in a short time can finally be realized according to the target time, even get exceeds for the area of marine park.

Fragments were dropped at several points in 6 villages at a depth of 7-15 meters. This area will be managed by residents as a marine park that will produce more ornamental fish and become a new underwater tourism object.

Kadek Ada Maja from the Prawara Marine Conservation Community in Bondalem Village hopes that this marine park will benefit fishermen and villagers. For him, underwater tourism has great potential to be managed, especially in his village that he has started to organize marine spatial planning for protection.

Bondalem Villagers create various statue structures that have been lowered under the sea to resemble gardens on land with Balinese gates, village historical statues, gamelan statues wearing masks, and other unique designs.

The ICRG program in Buleleng involved residents of Les, Bondalem, Pacung, Bakti Seraga, Tukad Mungga, and Kaliasem villages. “These six villages have started to carry out rehabilitation, and the desire of community groups to realize rehabilitation activities as an alternative to tourism in their area,” said Gayatri, Director of the LINI Foundation.

Overall, the ICRG in Bali Province was built with the KKP APBN budget of Rp. 111.2 billion. The target is the establishment of coral gardens covering an area of 50 ha in Nusa Dua, Sanur, Serangan, Pandawa Beach, and Buleleng. This project also involving the absorption of a workforce of more than 11,000 people.

Coral transplant structures are placed according to the habitat and theme of each site. Various methods such as fishdome, crocodile bread, iron pegs, hexagonal and combined with sculptures made with a typical story and from each village. (kanalbali/RLS)

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