December 4, 2014 — “I had the concept of improving fishing management in 2009. Fishermen here have survived over the years by taking side jobs cutting down mangroves to burn in the process of forming cement and making salt.”
With engines roaring, a passenger jet comes in to land at Bali’s airport as a steady stream of traffic crosses the Bali-Mandara toll road across Benoa harbor.
This is the fast-paced view of the world from an oasis hidden among mangrove trees, just half a kilometer from Ngurah Rai International airport and less than 100 meters from the toll road.
These mangroves and seas abutting one of Bali’s busiest tourist transit zones are home to 96 fishing families who can trace their roots here over generations.
It is also home to the Wanasari Fishing cooperative, which was founded in 2009 with the goal of restoring the mangrove environment and raising the living standards of the local fishermen through crab farming.
Wanasari is the brain child of Made Sumasa, who says he looked around his home a half-dozen years ago and saw the continuing destruction wrought on the environment by the fishing and wood harvesting methods developed by his ancestors.
Read the full story from The Jakarta Post