Thirty years ago the small coastal village of Kalanganyar in North Bali, had beautiful Coral Reef, situated in just a few meters of water, less than 100 meters from the shoreline Fishing from the beach was easy, and plentiful. Nobody in the village ever went hungry for fish.
During the 1990s migrant fisherman frequented many North Bali coastal villages including Kalanganyar to fish. To justify their longer journeys and to maximize their profits they used Dynamite, cyanide, and other destructive methods to catch fish, exhausting fish stocks, and destroying Reefs in the process.
The fishermen were perhaps unaware of the long lasting damage they were causing.
As the 21st century dawned, the fish were all gone, the migrant
fishermen had moved on, and many Reefs along the North Bali coast, including at Kalanganyar were no more, destroyed by dynamite, and cyanide, the coral scattered across the sea floor in a million pieces.
Global Village Foundation Bali became aware of the badly damaged Reef in Kalanganyar because our Office is based in Kalanganyar, and several of our team members come from the area.
Hearing stories from the local people of how the Fishing used to be, and how it was now, we decided to restore the reef as one of our primary long term Environmental projects. So, with the support of the Kalanganyar Village Council, & the local community we commenced the task in early 2015.
An example of Dynamite bombing.
The destruction after the bombing.
For nearly three years now our small team of local newly trained volunteer divers from Kalanganyar Village have been working to restore the Reef. They have collected up thousands of coral fragments, moved many tons of rock, and installed more than 100 Concrete Reef Pots. All the Coral so far replanted is looking healthy, and growing rapidly.
On the 1st January we received our first batch of 50 pots using the grant money awarded to us by AusAid.
In December 2017 Global village Foundation was awarded a grant from the Australian Government AusAid program to install a further 500 Reef Pots over the next 12 months. This will expand the area of restored reef, and also strengthen the existing reef reconstruction against possible damage from storm surges during the rainy season.
Already the fastest growing corals such as the plate corals and the Stag Horn have seen phenomenal growth. The abundant sea life that once inhabited Kalanganyar waters can already be seen returning
Our primary focus by restoring the Coral Reef is to see fish numbers and sizes increase within the reef sanctuary area again to pre-1990 levels. The ‘spillover’ of fish will, as a result extend a distance of several hundred meters beyond the Reef conservation area itself, inevitably leading to higher fish yields for local fishing families over time.
By including statues & other attractive structures within the reconstructed reef will make the small Marine reserve attractive to Dive tourism. It is then probable a small sustainable Eco-friendly tourism industry will develop in the Kalanganyar Village area. The diversity of fish and other marine life drawn to the regenerating reef (plus the uniqueness of the project itself) will we believe draw reef based tourism, allowing some households within the village to create small ‘Homestays’ providing accommodation to both International & domestic tourists who wish to dive/snorkel the project, or assist the project’s further development. Other tourist related jobs such as guiding, catering, creating/selling souvenirs may also develop.
The Village itself will in the longer term be able to collect snorkeling/diving fees from visitors, which in turn can be used to finance basic infrastructure projects within the village, such as garbage collection, improvements in water supply, or books for the school library.
