Developing and maintaining ecologically-sustainable islands.
Gili Eco Trust, based on the island of Gili Trawangan, was founded in 2002 as an NGO. Its original mission was to save the coral reefs around the Gili islands from damagingly destructive fishing practices. In the last century, fishing on the coral reefs was carried out using cyanide and dynamite, killing off large swathes of coral and exterminating the fish and other animals that inhabited the reefs.
With increasing environmental awareness the locals got together to stop this, sending out patrols and setting up projects to educate the fishermen. An agreement was drawn up between the locals and the fishermen, setting out clearly defined authorised fishing zones and establishing legal fishing techniques.
As part of this drive, the Gili Eco Trust was established by the diving companies and shops on Gili T. Initially, each diver would be asked to make a donation of €4 / US$5, which would go towards reef restoration, employee wages, buoys to prevent fishing boats anchoring in forbidden zones, and the development of environmental projects to protect the natural beauty of the islands and their ecosystems, while also promoting sustainable tourism.
Since then, the Trust’s scope has widened to include animal welfare, waste management and recycling, and marine conservation. The Biorock project was established in 2004, which involves the creation of artificial reefs, developing new habitats for fish and other marine animals in areas previously damaged or destroyed.
The Trust supports many smaller environmental projects, such as working-horse healthcare and educational workshops.
Gili Eco Trust’s mission statement:
“Our mission is to create and maintain ecologically and environmentally sustainable islands. To achieve this we will work towards the full restoration of the Gili Islands’ damaged or destroyed coral reefs, and the replenishment of fish populations to original levels; we will make sure that all waste products are reduced to as few as possible, then taken off the islands for recycling; we will protect and care for the working horses of the Gilis; and we will promote sustainable ecotourism in a way that supports both the environment and the livelihoods of the local working people.”
Gili Eco Trust’s goals:
- Promoting young coral growth in new areas by creating a series of coral nurseries.
- Eliminating the use of anchors on coral reefs with new moorings and more parking space for boats.
- Effective separation of waste in all resorts and households, with a 5-bin strategy to maximise recycling.
- Increased employment in the waste and sustainability sector and the creation of an integrated waste management hub.
- Holding weekly beach clean-ups to raise awareness, and encouraging tourists and the local community to work together to keep the beaches clean.
- Ending single-use plastic by tourists with schemes such as RefillMyBottle.
- Making sure that all working horses on the islands are treated well, with proper care and handling.
- Providing free veterinary care and checkups for all working horses on the islands.
- Using repurposing, recycling, composting and waste-to-energy initiatives to ensure net-zero-waste-to-landfill islands.
- Creating a green police force called the Eco Rangers who will patrol the islands and reefs, and work to educate the local community on how to look after their environment sustainably.
WHAT WE DO
Biorock technology
Biorock is the name of a wholly new technology that creates artificial coral reefs, by establishing steel structures on the seabed then running a low voltage current through them. This encourages accelerated coral growth, with greater resistance to coral bleaching and storms.
Corals dislodged from reefs by anchor damage, bad tourist behavior or storms are recovered by reef gardeners, and carefully transplanted onto the steel structures.
The electrolytic reaction caused by the current builds a stable substrate of calcium carbonate, which causes the structure to grow and anchor itself. New layers of calcium carbonate are deposited continuously onto the structures, and these provide an excellent surface for new corals to cement to. The current also helps the coral to grow faster and stronger than it would do on a natural reef.
More than 150 of these structures are now established in the waters around the Gili Islands. This has encouraged the development not only of many new corals but also of a huge amount of attendant marine life, thereby restoring some of the beautiful reefs that had previously been damaged or destroyed. The Biorock structures were found to be more resilient than natural reefs during the serious bleaching events of 2009, 2010 and 2016.
Waste management
Gili Eco Trust has successfully established Gili Trawangan’s’s first recycling hub, where all recyclable materials are now taken, including glass bottles, plastic bottles, Tetrapak cartons and cans. These are processed, crushed into large blocks and taken to the recycling station on Lombok. Each fortnight 10 to 15 tonnes of waste are taken from Gili Trawangan to the recycling station.
The long term goal is to be able to collect and process the entirety of the recyclable waste of the Gili islands, thereby maximising waste recycling and eliminating the dumping of recyclable materials, creating zero-waste-to-landfill islands.
Ecotourism
The Gili Eco Trust runs programmes to show visitors to the Gili islands how to be responsible tourists, encouraging them to refill their water bottles instead of throwing away single-use plastic, and teaching which are the sustainable fishes to eat.
Waste-Free Friday
Organised by the Trust, tourists and members of the local community take to the beaches every Friday afternoon, to pick up plastic and other environment-polluting debris. These one hour Friday sessions result in 7,000 kg of waste and debris removed from the beaches of the Gili Islands each year.
Eco-Snorkelling
To promote the Biorock coral reef restoration programme, The Gili Eco Trust organises eco-snorkel tours, showing off the successful Biorock structures, and allowing tourists to see turtles and colourful schools of fish among the beautiful corals.
Stand-Up-Paddleboard clean and clear
Combining a beautiful experience with environment management, the Gili Eco Trust takes groups of tourists from the main beaches out over crystal clear waters and beds of seagrass where sea turtles swim, cleaning and clearing away any floating debris, then stopping off at remote beaches to clean and clear them of rubbish and plastic waste.
Coral Rehabilitation Course
The Gili Eco Trust Ocean Quest Coral Rehabilitation Course teaches budding marine biologists and enthusiastic eco-warriors a scientific understanding of corals and reefs, including coral rehabilitation, nursery site selection, building and monitoring, and broodstock collection.
Animal welfare
Most Indonesians live on a low wage, including on Bali and the Gili islands. Caring for animals such as horses is costly, and veterinary treatment can be prohibitively expensive. The Gili Eco Trust provides free veterinary clinics, staffed by volunteers from around the world who come to the Gilis expressly to help.
Most of the local horse owners care about their animals but don’t always know the best way to look after them. They usually don’t have access to a farrier and sometimes make their own handmade horseshoes. Gili Eco Trust helps to educate horse owners about how to care for their horses.
INITIATIVES
Race-for-Waste
Every year a Race-for-Waste triathlon fundraiser competition is held, when tourists and locals, including serious athletes as well as amateurs, come together to compete in a swimming, cycling and running race around Gili T.
Refill your water bottle
In order to end the practice of single-use plastic water bottles, Gili Eco Trust has set up a network of more than a hundred safe water bottle refilling stations. There’s an app that tourists can download to find the nearest places to refill their bottles safely, either for free or for a small sum.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
If you’d like to donate to any of Gili Eco Trust’s projects, you can do so here:
