At first glance, Les, a coastal village in Tejakula district, Buleleng regency in the north of Bali, doesn't look very special compared with the other nearby fishing villages. But when you approach its beaches, you find fishponds and aquariums full of ornamental tropical fish.
Gathering ornamental fish has been a livelihood for the fishermen here for over 30 years. At first, Les's fishermen caught ornamental fish using nets. Later demand for tropical fish rose, and pressure from fish "traders" forced them to switch to using potassium cyanide, which they call potas ("potash") or bius ("dope").
The use of "potash" significantly increased their ability to capture fish. With just a small can of potash mixed with water in a plastic bottle, fishermen from Les could bring home a big pail full of ornamental fish; they weren't too bothered by the high mortality rate caused by the potash. But that was thirty years ago, when the underwater environment was still pristine and fish populations were high.
Gradually, the use of potash polluted the seas near the village of Les. Each application of potash is enough to kill one to two square meters of coral reef in two to three months; imagine the impact of an average of 30 people spraying potash every day, over many years. It's no wonder that by the early part of this decade, the coral reefs near Les were in terrible condition; nearly 70% of the reefs were dead and destroyed.
In early 2000, several people from Yayasan Bahtera Nusantara (Archipelago Maritime Foundation) and the NGO Perkumpulan Telapak visited Les village. Armed with previous experience in tackling destructive fishing in the Philippines, they offered an environmentally-friendly alternative method for capturing fish. The use of barrier nets and small scoop nets aided by a pail was the green solution to replace the use of potash. At first, only two local fishermen, Nyoman Triada and Nengah Arsana, were willing to try this new method.
Nyoman Triada had been a committed potash user; he'd even spent some time behind bars after being caught using potash. By persevering, they mastered the technique of capturing ornamental fish using barrier nets and scoop nets. Their fears that their catches would be smaller using nets turned out to be misplaced; in fact, the fish they caught were of far higher quality, with a much lower mortality rate. And they were able to sell their fish more easily, because the traders also benefited from the higher survival rates.
Seeing the example of their success, other fishermen in Les gradually started switching to using nets. By 2002, all the fishermen in Les had deliberately quit using potash and switched to using nets. In that same year, an ornamental fish catchers group was established in Les village – the Mina Bhakti Soansari fishermen's collective. And a ban on the use of potash was implemented through a village ordinance, with strict penalties for violators.
In their efforts to preserve the environment, the fishermen of Les did not simply switch to a "greener" method; they also restricted the size of the catches. When potash was used, mortality rates were sometimes as high as 80%; with the net method, fewer than 5% of the captured fish die.
The fishermen of Les have now learned to monitor and record the fish population, so they can limit the catch in line with the size of the catch area. They have also learned how to market and export the ornamental fish they catch; eventually, with funding assistance from the UNDP's Global Environment Facility – Small Grant Program (GEF – SGP), the Les village fishermen's group was able to start its own ornamental fish export business.
After so many years of damage to the coral reefs, efforts began in 2003 to rehabilitate them; the method chosen was coral reef transplantation. The Mina Bhakti Soansari fishermen's group has been the spearhead of this rehabilitation movement. With around 90 active members, the group replants and maintains the coral reefs around the village.
More than five years ago, the fishermen of Les succeeded in rehabilitating the coral reefs in their area. Now they are offering the rehabilitated coral reef area as a diving tourism attraction; they call it the "coral farm dive site". No fish catching is allowed in the rehabilitation area. Tourists who visit get an extraordinary coral reef diving experience, as well as the chance to adopt a reef as a form of their concern and to support the continuing rehabilitation effort.
The fishermen of Les village have proven that utilization of natural resources need not conflict with conservation. Environmentally-friendly fish capturing coexists with use of the sea as a tourist attraction, and both bring prosperity to the local fishermen.
Les village is around 100 km north of Denpasar; on the way there, you pass through the Ubud area, with splendid views of terraced rice fields.
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