Build The Reef

          Each May/June, Java Sea Charters and the World Wildlife Fund organise the traditional Build your own Reef weekend in the Sunda Straits.

Pulau Badul, located in the bay of Ujung Kulon National Park, is the site for this project, which has by now been acknowledged as the largest man-made reef. The tiny island had its surrounding reef almost completely destroyed by fish bombing in the early 2000s. It has been protected since, but the comeback of the reef by itself has been slow, due to the total devastation at the time.

The location

Sustainability of this WWF project depended not only on us building a reef, but on the local community taking ownership. With a purely correctional method not a viable option, WWF has tirelessly been working on involving the locals as much as possible, and having the villagers profit from their projects economically.

With the Build The Reef weekend adding coral farming and tourism as alternative sources of income, the fishermen tend to encroach not only marine area but also terrestrial parts of the Park. The ecological benefits thus reach much further than the sea life alone.

An astonishing 80% of the colonies are shown to be alive and healthy a year after planting, and will thus survive, proving that these kind of activities can make a valuable impact on the ecosystem.

The divers

When we launched the initiative to contribute to WWF’s efforts in Ujung Kulon National Park in 2007, the trip was overbooked within one day of promoting. Scuba divers clearly not only want to ‘consume’ marine life as passive viewers, but many will jump at the chance to play an active role in maintaining marine biodiversity.

With the raving feedback from all participants after the weekend, the overbookings, the involvement of the locals, and the high survival rate of the reefs to date, Java Sea Charters has decided to now organise such events at least annually. Logically, these repeat trips will include monitoring the development of the recently built reefs as well. So those who missed the earlier opportunities, join us for the upcoming Build The Reef weekend on June 6-7, 2009 or next year’s trip.

WWF Indonesia has set up a website for this and more reef-building weekends to come: http://www.wwf.or.id/BuildReef as a page of their general website. This very complete site will give you plenty of interesting information on other WWF projects, but also on what you can do yourself for the oceans, such as their very useful Sea Food Guide of which species to eat and not to eat.

Leave a legacy as a diver by building your reef during this exciting, fun and unique weekend! Sign up by sending an email today to booking@javaseacharters.com