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| Living long: The Pemuteran Coral Protection Foundation, started by I Gusti Agung Prana and Pemuteran locals, recently received a prestigious environmental award — the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Equator Prize. |
More than
20 years ago, I Gusti Agung Prana was spiritually amazed when visiting the
sacred temples and beautiful coastal areas in faraway Pemuteran village in
Buleleng regency, North Bali.
Located on
the northwest coast of Bali, around 55 kilometers west of Singaraja and 30
kilometers from Gilimanuk in Jembrana, Pemuteran lies between a cluster of
hills and the sea.
A number of
old temples like Pura Pulaki, Pura Kerta Kawat and Pura Melanting are the
island’s important worship places in the North.
“This place
is called Nyegara-Gunung in Balinese language meaning the combination of sea
and mountain areas,” Prana explained.
The
Balinese believe that such places have extraordinary spiritual energy that
brings harmony to the earth, the sea and to the people living there.
Prana said
a decisive moment in his life was when he started to open a small-scale hotel
for tourists, who, at that time, preferred to spend their holidays in the
southern part of Bali like Kuta, Sanur or Ubud.
“Nobody
wanted to come to this remote place, quite faraway from the glittering tourist
hubs of Kuta,” he remembered.
But Prana
was convinced that he received a kind of “spiritual call” to continue his
venture.
A
businessman by nature, Prana decided to do business in Pemutaran. “I was
wondering if I could do more to help local people and to preserve this pristine
environment by doing something useful,” he said.
Starting
from the community, Prana encouraged local fishermen to alter their destructive
fishing methods with more sustainable fishing techniques.
His
fatherly approaches worked really well. “I always convince these fishermen to
jointly preserve our precious marine habitat by practicing sustainable fishing.
Many of them used hazardous cyanide bombs to catch fish while at the same time
damaging the coral reefs and underwater life.”
Coral reefs
in Bali have been severely damaged in recent years due to the irresponsible use
of bombs and cyanide by fishermen. Increasing seawater temperatures linked to
climate change and global warming are also blamed for the damage.
The
Pemuteran area has the largest shallow reefs accessible to divers and
snorkelers because of its lack of extremely strong currents and waves, seen in
other coastal areas in Bali.
Together
with locals, Prana launched the Pemuteran Coral Protection Foundation, which
has been fully supported by marine scientists Thomas Goreau and Wolf Hilbertz.
“I asked
for their assistance in restoring the shore, the coral reefs and also educating
fishermen and the local community how to protect and to preserve our marine
assets.”
Starting
with the local community, the Pemuteran Coral Protection Foundation started to
embrace all stakeholders in marine businesses such as dive shops, divers,
hotels, marine scientists, environmentalists and fishery agencies to do the
preservation of marine habitats and coastal areas in Pemuteran and its
surroundings.
“It is a
bottom-up community-based restoration and preservation effort,” he said.
For more
than two decades, Prana and fellow members of the project have been active in
educating and developing awareness of the importance of preserving their own
natural resources and their main livelihoods. Over a period of 20 years, the
nearly barren and damaged coral areas have been returned into a thriving reef
full of coral, fish and other marine species.
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