Another year of progress on the Banda Islands

Waste Management Project

In 2024, the waste project on the Banda Islands experienced both successes and challenges. A positive highlight is the upward trend observed towards the end of the year. A key success factor has been our plastic bank, which is increasingly gaining capacity. So far, 400 households have registered to separate and drop off their plastic waste with us. These households receive credit in a plastic savings account, which can be paid out monthly, or saved. Particularly on Pulau Pisang, the proportion of participating families remains high; there, we are already receiving shredded and sorted plastic. On Pulau Rhun, women independently organize the separation and shredding of plastic, which we then purchase from them and occasionally support with cost subsidies, for example, for transport to Banda Naira. More families are also participating on Banda Besar, especially through our education efforts in the new single-use-plastic-free schools. Overall, in 2024, we were able to send 2.5 to 3 tons of plastic for recycling every two months.

Thanks to direct donations, we now continuously support four plastic-free schools, including three schools on Banda Besar since July. The transition there is so successful that we no longer need a whole year to transform individual schools but can move on to the next school after just six months. In this program, we are restructuring school life so that no single-use drinking cups and plastic packaging are used in participating schools, and no plastic-wrapped snacks are sold. Our volunteers also offer English lessons and raise students' awareness of environmental issues.

The challenges of the year mainly arose from the fact that despite our efforts and the large amount of processed plastic, plastic continues to end up in the sea and unsorted waste lands at the dump. Unfortunately, this is due to the inertia of the (former) local government. Despite repeated discussions and proposals for new policies, nothing moved forward. This led to the dump, which was supposed to only take non-recyclable waste, growing larger and eventually overflowing onto the street. When this happened, the former local government prohibited waste disposal tot he dump without creating an alternative. As a result, people began burning plastic again or throwing it into the sea.

In response to this mismanagement, we teamed up in November with like-minded individuals, mainly young people from Banda who work in tourism or are involved in arts, to raise awareness through large-scale beach and sea clean-ups. Recent developments give reason for hope: Banda has a new local government under a female mayor. She quickly became aware of our actions and convened the first waste crisis meeting just a week ago. While there was unfortunately no agreement at the UN Plastic Conference in South Korea, something historic finally happened in Banda: we and many engaged citizens were heard and taken seriously by the local government. Just five days after the meeting, we received a written statement from the mayor regarding planned changes. To implement these together, another meeting will take place tomorrow. We are optimistic that sustainable change will occur.

The list of planned changes includes:

- Establishment of a new landfill for non-recyclable waste

- Recycling all recyclable types of plastic by enforcing sorting requirements at households

- Introduction of a waste curriculum in all schools

- Bi-weekly joint clean-ups in all villages

- Funding for plastic management through mandatory fees for dive safari ships

We welcome these developments and now feel that we are no longer standing alone; the long-awaited support from the local government is finally here.

Coral Restoration with Larvae

Last year we reported on the success of coral larvae settlement as a future aspect of reef restoration. The larvae released in November 2023 into a damaged reef were further documented in 2024 with great satisfaction regarding their good growth. The thriving corals consist as hoped of various species. In October and November 2024, we were able to release more larvae into the same reef. Students from Banda Naira University (UBN) and Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) documented how settlement processes occur and what factors play a role through small research projects. Joshua Berg (RUB) was even able to present collaborative work with Rifaldy Kadir (UBN) at the European Coral Reef Symposium in Naples, where he encountered much interest and scientific exchange. Joshua's and Rifaldy's project was made possible thanks to support from the German Marine Protection Foundation (DSM).

An essential requirement for larvae-mediated restoration is knowledge about coral spawning times. Through intensive monitoring, we significantly expanded our knowledge in this area in 2024. Thanks to funding from the Coral Research and Accelerator Platform (CORDAP), RUB, Luminocean, and partners UNSEEN and Ryukyu University are now starting a three-year program to disseminate findings at six different universities in Indonesia and establish a network for monitoring coral spawning in Indonesia. Our initial initiatives are beginning to bear fruit; we hope this project will greatly enhance awareness of sustainable coral restoration in Indonesia.

Sponsorship Program for Students

Thanks to your support and that of 'Daughters of the Deep' (Australia), we were able to enroll 8 students in our sponsorship program in 2024: Indah, Fifi, Arin, Asma, Aulia, Riki, Ara, and Maryo initially learned diving and are now participating to varying degrees in our activities. Arin, Asma, Ara, and Maryo have already completed the Ecodiver course and now participate in our weekly surveys. Indah, Fifi, Aulia, and Riki have completed about 10 practice dives and will participate in the Ecodiver course at the beginning of 2025. We will begin selecting candidates for the next group later this month; sponsors are still being sought! From last year's group, Farista, Fitra, and Abbas completed their bachelor's thesis under our supervision and will receive their bachelor's degrees on Tuesday. Congratulations to them three! From this year's group (2024), we will supervise Asma, Arin, Ara, and Maryo during their bachelor's thesis work. We will introduce individual projects in upcoming newsletters.