ECOTOURISM CAN HELP SAVE INDONESIA S CORAL REEFS

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Sybil Stevenson
5 years ago
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1 ECOTOURISM CAN HELP SAVE INDONESIA S CORAL REEFS Tom Goreau Scientific Advisor, Biorock Indonesia President, Global Coral Reef Alliance 2018 GLOBAL ECO ASIA-PACIFIC TOURISM CONFERENCE Townsville November

2 INDONESIA Largest area of coral reefs in the world. World centre of marine biodiversity. 17,000 islands, 270 million people. Around 95% of reefs destroyed, damaged, or degraded. Causes: blast fishing, global warming, sewage runoff, soil erosion, agricultural chemicals, new marine diseases, unsustainable tourism.

3 BIOROCK INDONESIA & GLOBAL CORAL REEF ALLIANCE Have built around 400 Biorock reefs in Indonesia and around 100 across the Caribbean, Pacific, Indian Ocean and South East Asia. Held around 20 Biorock Training Workshops. Restored reefs where there was no natural recovery. Kept whole reefs alive during severe high temperature bleaching events that killed more than 95% of corals on nearby reefs. Restored coastal fisheries. Grown back severely eroded beaches naturally at record rates.

4 BIOROCK TECHNOLOGY The only method of reef restoration that greatly increases settlement, growth rates, survival, and resistance to extreme high temperature, sediment, and pollution stress. Works for corals and all marine animals and plants. Biorock allows us to keep entire ecosystems alive when they would die from severe stress, and restore them where there is no natural recovery. All other methods are doomed to fail as global warming and pollution increase.

5 PEMUTERAN, BALI 2000 ~1% live coral 2010 ~99% live coral

6 4 YEAR OLD BIOROCK REEF, PEMUTERAN, BALI

7 4 YEAR OLD BIOROCK REEF, PEMUTERAN, BALI

8 RAPID RESTORATION OF SEVERELY ERODED BEACH, SULAWESI, INDONESIA Before Before

9 After. Same building and tree. 80% of beach growth took place In just three months, and has continued ever since.

Yayasan Karang Lestari (Indonesian Protected Coral Foundation) specially honored at UN Oceans Conference for turning environmental disaster into economic opportunity by restoring their coral reefs,

10 Yayasan Karang Lestari (Indonesian Protected Coral Foundation) specially honored at UN Oceans Conference for turning environmental disaster into economic opportunity by restoring their coral reefs, fisheries, and tourism resources through communitymanaged Biorock reef restoration projects. Awarded UNDP Equator Award for Community Based Development and Special Award for Oceans and Coastal Management In celebrat ion of World Oceans Day at t he UN Ocean Conference, you are cordially invit ed t o a high-level event and recept ion on Local Act ion, Global Impact Please RSVP t o ht t ps:/ / localact ionglobalimpact.event brit e.com 8 June :30pm 8:30pm UN Delegates Dining Room UN Conference Building 4 th Floor Empowered lives. Resilient nations.

11 UNDP SPONSORED COMMUNITY RESTORATION TRAINING IN VANUATU FOR A FISHING VILLAGE WHOSE REEF WAS DREDGED FOR AN AIPORT IN 1943 AND NEVER RECOVERED

12 TRAINING THE NEXT GENERATION TO REGENERATE THEIR REEF FISHERIES, VANUATU, 2016

13 BIOROCK INDONESIA RESULTS DUE TO AN EXCEPTIONAL TEAM EFFORT

14 Agung Prana Balinese ecotourism pioneer

15 Oka Dwi Prihatmoko, Putu Catra, Bagus Mantra, Made Gunaksa, Rani Morrow-Wuigk, Komang Astika, Kadek Astawan

16 Paulus Prong, Ricky Soerapoetra, Komang Astika, Arif Havas Oegroseno, Prawita Tasya Karissa, & Ramadian Bachtiar

17 BIOROCK TEAM SAVING THE LAST REEFS IN AMBON BAY

18 Tom Goreau, Narayana Dodge, & Wolf Hilbertz

19 UNSUSTAINABLE TOURISM Every tropical coastal area is counting on tourism for their economic future. Most hotels have to take their guests hours by boat to see a reef because their own reef is dead. Almost all are lying about the condition of the reefs because their own dive shops never saw the reefs when they were in their prime. All are killing the goose that laid the golden egg!

20 UNSUSTAINABLE TOURISM Every tropical shore tourist area in the world is killing their reefs through short sighted mismanagement. The effects of global warming and global sea level rise have barely begun and will get much worse unless the world takes immediate action to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere and recycle their sewage nutrients on land.

21 For each reef we save, we are losing ten thousand! Pemuteran in Bali, Gili Trawangan in Lombok, and Pulau Gangga Dive Resort in Sulawesi are the only hotels in the world restoring their reefs with modern and effective methods, because of the exceptionally responsible values of their owners. Coral fragmentation and gardening methods used elsewhere are doomed to long term failure. Until hotels everywhere are legally mandated to restore their dead reefs, that they killed themselves, there will be no real progress.

22 The very first reef in the world to be studied by a diving scientist, Prof. Tom Goreau, my father, were killed right afterwards. The reefs were dredged for landfill to create land for hotels in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. Photographs of me diving on Ocho Rios reefs in January 1957 taken by my father, shortly before they were killed:

28 Fritz Goreau, my grandfather, took the first underwater and aerial photographs of the Great Barrier Reef in 1950

29 THEY CAN T SAY WE DIDN T WARN THEM: 20 YEARS AGO TODAY IN TOWNSVILLE

30 I m an old man who has spent all my life telling people why their reefs are dying. I m sick of wasting time, because no one is listening. All I want to do is grow corals. Almost no place will let us!

31 We ve shown large scale regeneration of coral reefs, biodiversity, fisheries, and beaches can be done! Almost nobody has the will to do so on a large scale until we have intelligent, informed political leadership and funding.

32 For more information:

Coral reef management for sustainable development

Coral reef management for sustainable development 2015 Australian Fellowship Program Building capacity to protect coral reefs as a foundation for sustainable development and ecosystem based adaptation