The
coastal area of North Sulawesi in Indonesia is famous for its
world-class diving among the coral reefs off Bunaken National Park.
Less famous but equally important are the area’s world-class mangrove
forests. The mangrove forests of Indonesia, among the largest in the
world, account for 67.7 percent of total mangrove acreage in the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region. Overdevelopment
of the shores has led to an alarming rate of destruction of the
mangrove cover, as huge tracts of land are cleared for community
development, resort hotels, golf courses, or extensive prawn farms.
But one new development promises to help reduce human impact on the
last remaining intact mangrove forests in Indonesia. The Mangrove
Action Project (MAP) has recently broken ground on its newest Coastal
Community Center in Tiwoho, located a few kilometers northeast of
Manado in North Sulawesi. Project Coordinator and MAP’s Indonesian
Office Director Ben Brown is overseeing the construction of this unique
building to ensure the project is in tune with MAP’s ideal of
minimizing environmental impact and promoting sustainable development.
The two-story bamboo structure features an open-air amphitheater for
hosting meetings and presentations, a library and resource center, and
small- scale dining facilities. Located on a 1.2-acre tract of land,
the center presents a broad spectrum of coastal conservation concepts
and ideas to Tiwoho’s villagers and visitors. The new center, which
will be operated jointly with local NGO Yayasan Kelola, is being built
with funding by the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Foundation, Seacology,
Coral Reef Alliance and the Netherlands World Conservation Union
(NC-IUCN).
Brown reports the center is an excellent model of the sustainable
development MAP promotes. When construction began, MAP’s Executive
Director Alfredo Quarto expressed concern that the plans did not
specifically address the handling of wastewater. After reviewing
various alternatives, including pressurized septic tanks, composting
and other water treatment processes, MAP and Kelola selected a method
called Wastewater Gardens, developed by the Biosphere Foundation for
use in Biosphere2, and adapted for Indonesia by the Planetary Coral
Reef Foundation. These wastewater gardens are small-scale mock-ups of
wetlands, using microbes and plants to clean the water. Wastewater
Gardens are an ecological, low cost, low maintenance solution to the
problem of human waste. With no mechanical or moving parts and no
chemicals, all wastewater is recycled via a gravity system into
elegant, biodiverse gardens that produce lovely flowers, produce that
can be eaten by people, and fodder for animals. The systems are
carefully sealed so that no wastewater contaminates the soil, ground
water or coastal waters.
Wastewater Gardens have been successfully installed in Mexico, Bali,
the Bahamas, Belize, France, Poland, the Philippines, the US, and
Australia. To date, the largest Wastewater Garden installed is located
in the Xpu-Ha EcoPark near Akumal, Mexico, which recycles all the human
waste produced by up to 1,500 visitors a day. (For more information on
Wastewater Gardens, see www.pcrf.org.)
Creative construction
Foundation footings for the center are nearly completed, and the bamboo
for construction is being soaked in a solution of boric acid and borax
under carefully monitored conditions to make it insect- and
rot-resistant. This environmentally benign process may serve as a
source of income for the CCRC and the surrounding community, as the
demand for treated bamboo is high. A significant order for Tiwoho’s
treated bamboo has already been placed from Bali. The Environmental
Bamboo Foundation has assisted MAP/Kelola in developing a treatment
facility near the CCRC to begin processing bamboo. With help from the
Bamboo Foundation, MAP and Kelola will have a working demonstration
project on harvesting and treating bamboo for use in low cost,
environmental construction projects.
This emphasis on sustainable building materials has caught the
attention of experts on bamboo construction for community development.
The Bamboo Foundation has invited Dr. Jörg Stamm to Bali and Timor for
two bamboo construction workshops in 2003. The construction team from
the CCRC has been invited to the Timor workshop to study Dr. Stamm’s
methods and develop a partnership to create future centers in other
locations.
Spreading the idea
The highest quality construction bamboo and mangroves share common
habitats and the sustainable harvest of bamboo is more easily adopted
by locals than selective logging of hardwoods has been. This would
indicate an acceptance of the practice that will prevent
over-harvesting of bamboo. “Clump” harvested bamboo can yield 200
harvests before replanting. Environmental uses of bamboo in sustainable
projects such as this may lead to further preservation of coastal
ecosystems by decreasing erosion, reducing the sedimentation of coral
reefs, and reducing the demand for mangrove wood used in construction.
MAP is proud to be part of this movement towards a sustainable future.
The center in Tiwoho is one of several MAP hopes to build in the coming
years. MAP is working with with Seacology Prize winner Anuradha
Wickramasinghe of the Small Fishers Federation in maintaining two
centers in Sri Lanka. In addition, MAP is planning new centers in
critical regions such as India, Honduras and Nigeria, where local NGOs
have already begun the process of establishing centers of their own.
Each center will serve as a regional node, housing information related
to each area’s coastal ecology. In addition, each center will promote
the sustainable use of mangrove forests, coral reefs, and their related
flora and fauna by hosting workshops and creating demonstration
projects related to coastal wetlands conservation. MAP looks forward to
developing this network of information and working models available to
interested groups, as well as promoting the rights of local people.
Sam Nugent, the administrative director for the Mangrove Action
Project, lives in Port Angeles, Washington. He will lead a tour of 12
students to visit the Mangrove Center in Pambala, Sri Lanka in January
2003, to replant mangroves, and to study the effects of shrimp farming
on mangrove forests in the region.
Take Action: contact the Mangrove Action Project at PO Box 1854, Port Angeles, WA 98362, (360) 452-5866, email at mangroveap@olympus.net or visit www.earthisland.org/map/map.html
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