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Biorock® Coral Reef Restoration Workshop Report
Taman Sari Resort The Global Coral Reef Alliance's and Sun & Sea e.V.'s International Training Workshop on Biorock® Coral Reef Restoration was held at Taman Sari Resort, Pemuteran, Bali, Indonesia from January 12-24, 2004. The opening including many speakers, including Dr. I Gede Ardika, Minister of Tourism of Indonesia, Dr.I Putu Bagiada, Mayor of Buleleng, Agung Prana, owner of Taman Sari Resort and the President of the Association of Indonesian Travel Agents, Dr.I Gede Sumiarsa of the Gondol Fisheries Mariculture Researhc Laboratory of the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Affairs, Dr.Putra Sastrawan of Udayana University, Yos Amerta, the President of the Indonesian Dive and Watersports Association, Tom Goreau, the President of the Global Coral Reef Alliance, and Wolf Hilbertz, President of Sun & Sea e.V. (Hamburg), among others. Articles about the importance of the workshop for restoring Indonesia's Coral reefs were published in leading newspapers including the Jakarta Post and the Bali Post. Several documentary movies were shown featuring the projects. The workshop was funded by local in-kind donations of services from hotels and dive shops, and by a grant for materials from the Lighthouse Foundation, based in Hamburg, Germany. The majority of the 19 participants were Indonesian students from Java, Bali, Sumatra, Sulawesi, and Timor, attending Bogor University, Gajah Mada University, Palu University, or working with local environmental conservation groups. In addition, there were participants from Germany, Hungary, Italy, Britain, and the United States. Their backgrounds included students in biology, marine biology, chemistry, oceanography, aquaculture, fisheries, forestry, literature, landscape architecture, architecture, electrical engineering, visual arts, veterinary science, civil law, marine conservation with non-profit community groups, fisheries (a professor at two Indonesian universities). Students obtained lecture and hands-on training, and learned to design, build, deploy, maintain, and repair Biorock® coral reef and fisheries restoration projects. Students built three new coral nurseries and transplanted corals onto them, while performing maintenance, repair, and improvement projects on previous projects at the site. Students were able to observe Biorock® Coral and Fish Nursery structures ranging in age from 3.5 years old to brand new, and see the tremendous acceleration of coral growth and exceptionally high densities of fish with increasingly complex diversity that rapidly developed on them. The buildup of grouper populations in the structures as the result of a release of hatchlings by the Indonesian Government Mariculture Research Laboratory at Gondol, as well as increasing populations of Emperors, fusiliers, snappers, and cuttlefish, among many others types of fish of all kinds and trophic levels, was evident. The results of two recent student research theses on the project were presented. Ramadian Bachtiar of Bogor University compared Biorock® reefs to conventional artificial reefs, and found that the Biorock® produced much better results of more direct application to restoring Indonesian marine resources. Putra Nyoman Dwija of Udayana University compared growth rates of staghorn Acropora corals on Biorock® structures and on adjacent controls, finding four times higher growth rate on Biorock. All coral/fish nursery structures were documented using digital film and still photography. Small samples were taken for biological and chemical analysis. Results are being prepared for publication. Field trips held during the workshop included a visit to the Mariculture Research Laboratory of the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Affairs, hosted by the Director, Dr. Adi Hanafi, and dives in local reefs and at the Bali Barat National Park at Menjangan Island. Immediately following the workshop participants started many new projects. There are now nearly 60 Biorock®projects in Indonesia, with a total of close to a kilometer of reef. Two new projects were started and a third planned near Palu, central Sulawesi, by local universities and NGOs. Two new projects were started with dive shops near Tulamben, Northeast Bali. The Gajah Mada University Diving Club is planning new projects in east Java, and research projects on corals, fishes, gastropods, and nudibranchs on them. The Bogor Univeristy Dive club has raised funds for new projects in the Thousand Islands, north of Jakarta, comparing Biorock® reefs with conventional artificial reefs, and measuring coral growth rates and fish populations. A very successful one-year-old project at Sambi Renteng, Bali was repaired and expanded. Three projects in Flores were checked and found to have promising results despite lack of maintenance. The government of Buleleng, North Bali has allocated funds for a new ecotourism/fisheries project in Lovina. Additional requests came in for projects from dive shops, community groups, tourism facilities, hotels, and beach erosion projects that there was no time to deal with. Regrets were received from many people in Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, India, the Maldives, and other countries who were unable to find the travel money or the time to attend. Many of them requested help starting projects anyway. PARTICIPANTS: Samliok Ndobe Dolorosa Bria Hawis Madduppa Beginer Subhan Ramadian Bachtiar Prawita Tasya Karissa Fajar Arif Wicaksono Priyo Noor Hasnanto Tesa Devina Farah Kana Rasyid Abigail Mary Moore Sergio Rizzo Eszter Farkas Julia Joergensen Ari Spenhoff Frank Gutzeit Jens Gutzeit Colleen Flanigan Richard Ruschman All of these participants received a Workshop Diploma. In addition, many other visitors from Balinese universities, dive shops, non-profit environmental organizations, and local communities attended parts of the workshop. Special thanks go to the entire staff of Taman Sari Resort and of Naga Sari Travel Agency, especially Pak Beratha, Narayana of Taman Sari Resort, Komang Astika of Archipelago Dive Center, Chris Brown of Reef Seen Divers, and the Lighthouse Foundation. APPENDICES:
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