“Build The Reef a recurring event”

Last May, Java Sea Charters and the World Wildlife Fund organised the very first Build your own Reef weekend in the Sunda Straits.

Pulau Badul, located in the bay of Ujung Kulon National Park, was chosen as the site for this project. The tiny island had its surrounding reef almost completely destroyed by fish bombing five years ago. 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 terrrestrial parts of the Park. The ecological benefits thus reach much further than the sea life alone.

Now, over half a year has passed since construction and an astonishing 80% of the colonies are alive and healthy, 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, 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 organise such events on a more regular basis. Logically, these repeat trips will include monitoring the development of the recently build reef as well. So those who missed last year’s opportunity, join us for the upcoming Build The Reef weekend on May 24-25, 2008

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.

Next Build The Reef May 24-25, 2008

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

www.javaseacharters.com