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December 2011 Newsletter |
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BF & Yayasan Dwi Asih Sejahtera planting a Pilang tree in honor of "Friends of Menjangan:" a community-based conservation program to protect Menjangan Island & its reef |
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Update on Sailing Vessel Mir 
Over the past year, our sailing vessel Mir ferried the Biosphere Foundation team, along with NGO representatives and scientists with whom we
are collaborating, back and forth between our homeport of Singapore and our Indonesian land-based conservation projects that are located in
Bali and the remote Anambas Islands. Mir is now back in Singapore where a dedicated team of volunteers from around the world are working hard
to replace the more than hundred year old deck to make the boat shipshape for the future. (Photo left: Mir being secured on dry-dock at ASL
Shipyard, October 24)
The project began early October and will take six months before Mir heads back to sea again. This daunting task would not have been possible without
the support of our Raffles Marina Homeport friends, numerous
generous sponsors and the extraordinary help from Deepblue PTE LTD,
Seagull Marine and ASL Shipyard. In the coming months, please continue to follow our progress at
mir-makeitreal.blogspot.com. (Photo right: Captain Mark Van Thillo with
Joe Mallia removing the teak deck)
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The State of Indonesia’s Coral Reefs – Expanding Conservation Models There 
In Reefs at Risk Revisited, published earlier this year, the World Resources Institute (WRI), names Indonesia second only to Australia
in its expanse of coral reefs, with approximately 75,000 km of reefs lying within its waters. A recent survey by Indonesia’s Ministry of
Marine Affairs and Fisheries found only 6% of the country’s reefs still in excellent condition and an estimated 2/3 of the reefs already
damaged. With a population of 240 million people, Indonesia is regarded as one of the nine countries most vulnerable to the effects of
coral reef degradation. With this in mind, over the past year, Biosphere Foundation has worked with local stakeholders to develop
community-based demonstration conservation programs, which can be replicated throughout Indonesia. (Above: Vibrant feather star at night
on Menjangan reef)
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Preserving the Biodiversity of Menjangan Reef
Located off Bali’s northwest coast, a fringing reef surrounds Menjangan Island in Bali Barat National Park. It is remarkably biodiverse
in comparison with the vast majority of Indonesia’s reefs and thus preserving its health is of critical importance to the region as well as to
this beautiful reef. To assess the overall condition of Menjangan Reef, this year, in collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Society,
we conducted intensive reef surveys both inside and outside of this Marine Protected Area to evaluate the reef’s comparative health and biodiversity over time.
(Photo left: Carol Milner collecting data for the reef study) 
Our findings revealed damage from a variety of threats including: dynamite and cyanide fishing, overfishing, trash, plastics pollution, disease,
poorly managed tourism, and bleaching caused by global warming. We have shared our data with many stakeholders, including National Park authorities
to improve enforcement of No-Take Areas and to provide baseline information to guide decisions that will ensure the reef’s long-term preservation.
(Photo right: Checkered snapper inspects floating plastic)
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BF Launches "Friends of Menjangan" in Cooperation with Indonesian NGO
Given the strong interest expressed by the local community in protecting Menjangan Reef, Biosphere Foundation initiated Friends of Menjangan
in cooperation with Yayasan Dwi Asih Sejahtera, our local NGO partner. The overall objective of Friends of Menjangan is to inspire and
coordinate a community-based conservation program involving everyone who cares about Menjangan Island and its reef. Many stakeholders attended
the Friends of Menjangan inaugural education/outreach event, which took place over the weekend of May 6th - 7th, including: fishermen, local
and national government officials, Menjangan Island temple priests, local and international NGOs, resort owners, dive operators, tour-guides,
tourists, educators and over a hundred schoolchildren, who participated in a massive clean-up of Menjangan Island. All welcomed
Friends of Menjangan’s goal to develop a sustainable management program for Menjangan Island and its reef.
(Please join us at friendsofmenjangan.blogspot.com.)
Here are some of the first steps we have taken this year towards achieving this goal:
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BF Secures Durai Island as a Marine Protected Area
Durai Island, located in the South China Sea, is the nesting site for thousands of green and hawksbill turtles, and is considered the most
populated sea turtle beach in the region. Over the past few years, BF, joined by our board member and sea turtle scientist Wallace J. Nichols,
and the island owners initiated a conservation program with Premier Oil to stop Durai’s turtles from being harvested and sent to market.
As a result, hundreds of thousands of sea turtle hatchlings are born and safely now return to the sea every year! (Photo right: Female green
turtle returns to the sea) A luxuriant, biodiverse reef surrounds Durai, but like all reefs in the region, it is threatened by over-fishing, dynamite and cyanide fishing, anchor damage, as well as oil and mercury contamination from oil drilling and bleaching caused by climate change. In an effort to protect Durai’s reef and give the fish population a chance to replenish itself, the BF team met with local government officials and won the approval for a 2 km circumference Marine Protected Area around Durai and its neighboring island Pahat. BF also initiated education/outreach about the MPA (see kingdomofdurai.blogspot.com) and planted the seeds for a community-based effort to implement a No-Take area within the MPA to give the reef and its dwindling fish population a chance to recover and thrive. |
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 Aerial photograph of Durai Island taken by Kitty Currier - the black on the edges is the kite! |
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BF Works With Sri Lankan Government to Reinstate Marine Mammal Sanctuary
All of the great whales were brought to near extinction by commercial whaling over the past century and are now included on the International
Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of threatened or endangered species. In 1979 the International Whaling Commission declared
the Indian Ocean (north of 55° S latitude) a Marine Mammal Sanctuary and encouraged international cooperation to protect the population of
great whales in the area. Sri Lanka lies within the sanctuary and is a feeding area for blue, sperm, humpback and Brydes whales as well as
other smaller whales and dolphins. At the invitation of the Center for Research on the Indian Ocean Marine Mammals, (CRIOMM) the BF team has
made a series of visits to Sri Lanka to formulate a plan for reinstating the Marine Mammal Sanctuary there. BF will implement the first step
of this plan in 2012 by starting a baseline study about the Abundance and Distribution of Cetaceans off the Coast of Sri Lanka. Mir will be
used to follow whales acoustically and catalogue individual whale flukes (tails) to provide an estimate of cetacean populations along the Sri
Lankan coast. Additionally, BF will work with CRIOMM to train partners, develop education-outreach programs and community-based conservation
initiatives, and inspire people to take action through film and photographic media. Our overall aim is to collaborate with stakeholders
worldwide to protect the great whales and to implement new laws banning the use of synthetic nets to eliminate the take of smaller cetaceans
such as dolphins as by-catch.
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 A blue whale diving off the coast of Sri Lanka (Photo by Duncan Murrell) |
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Make a Difference – Support Biosphere Foundation! You can make a difference in the future of our biosphere by making a tax-deductible
contribution to Biosphere Foundation today. Please donate online at www.biosfirindonesia.org.
Your gift will make it possible for us to preserve and protect coral reefs, marine mammals, sea turtles and other marine life in Southeast Asia as well
as expand our efforts to inspire stewardship of our ocean planet.
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Thank you again for your generous support! To donate or for more information, please visit www.biosfirindonesia.org, www.biospherefoundation.org and www.pcrf.org |
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Care for our blue planet, it’s ours to love Biosphere Foundation is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization P.O. Box 201 Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 |
