Time to go back to Indonesia. A short report on the field trip and workshop:
In the first 2 weeks, we joined international collaborators 🇮🇩🇳🇱🇳🇿 to the beautiful islands of the #Derawan Archipelago, #Indonesia to see the change in #seagrass and green #turtles in the last decade.
Some observations
☑️ many green turtles and shortly grazed seagrass
☑️ turtles are digging for roots at multiple locations throughout the archipelago.
☑️ an impressive change in the development of the coast following the boom in local tourists that are now visiting the island.
☑️ A~15-fold increase the area of houses built on stilts above the water (above the now degrading/ squeezed meadow)
☑️baby sharks
☑️a transformation of the Bajau village of Payung Payung: The quiet fishing town transformed into an airport town that serves the many new resorts now being built by nonlocal investors. Meanwhile, turtles keep doing their thing 100 meters away from the airport…
The last day of our trip we had an inspiring #seagrass workshop in @BRIN in Jakarta. Here 25 researchers (🇮🇩🇳🇱🇬🇧🇳🇿 ) policymakers, and NGO’s from across Indonesia met. We discussed ways forward to map seagrass (-resilience). This is especially timely as Indonesia is aiming to have it first seagrass map ready before the end of the president’s term in 2024-driven by the nationally determined contribution to reduce carbon emissions.
The workshop was organized by the Faculty of Geography, Gadjah Mada University (UGM), the Oceanographic Research Center-National Research and Innovation Agency (PRO BRIN), and Wageningen University and is part of the project” Coastal ecosystem resilience under fluctuating tourism: mapping seagrass patterns and sea turtles with citizen science and machine learning” funded by the @NWO-WOTRO ‘Impact and Innovation Grant’.
Thanks to all the participants, presenters and organizers for making this a success.
Pramaditya WicaksonoBayu Prayudhasofia yuniar saniRebecca JamesBenjamin JonesNurul DhewaniSusi RahmawatiMuhammad HafiztKevin Muhamad LukmanMuhamad RoemPeter VodegelJordon GijsbersWawan Kiswara KiswaraAmanda MaishellaHanggar PrasetioHaryo Farras Raditya HutamaMuhamad Faqih HidayatullahAdriani Sunuddin and many more