Based out of our headquarters in Ubud, Bali, the throughline for WAVES has fallen into place. An exploration of the human face on celluloid, the stories behind the wrinkles or the lack thereof, this first publishing of portraits is long-awaited and has been thoroughly explored. Working to narrow down the selections to weave a tight narrative, I’ve become enamored by the cultural schism that has been developing in Bunaken National Marine Park, in Bali, and in the entire developing world. We are at a point in time where these emerging economies have seen rapid changes in an astoundingly short period of time. Rapid industrialization and the emergence of technology has redefined what life is like on these islands. I recently photographed a teenager at a festival in Ubud – her eyes fixated on the small screen of a cell phone, texting furiously. Her grandmother sat behind her, calm, serene, yet surely puzzled by this haste to communicate. Where tradition once reigned dominant of life and industry, it is fascinating (and also quite worrisome) to see this evolution.

As an outsider in this pristine, spiritual tropic, it is if we are looking back in time. There was a part of me that wanted to put down the camera, and beg this girl to throw away her phone and look at the beautiful world around her. It is a blessing to be here, where life still seems to be simple, and more people smile than frown. But, alas, it is my job to document, not direct.

It is the same technology that drives our subject matter in WAVES that allows it to be shared with you.

WAVES will be hitting shelves later in the fall. Expect to find it at your local bookstore, order online at raciproject.org, or check out our paper-free e-published iBook.

We just got back to Ubud from a five day stint at the ROLE foundation in Nusa Dua. ROLE is one of RACI’s partner organizations here in Bali, and is running some programs similar to our own. If this is the first you’ve heard of ROLE you should check out their website at www.rolefoundation.org.

ROLE was nice enough to set us up with a place to stay in their eco-learning center and give us three square meals a day in exchange for our services. The learning center is on the top of large hill, and from the spa training facility/our bedroom we could see all of Nusa Dua beach. Waking up on our massage table beds to the sun coming up over Penida Island and Badung Strait wasn’t a bad way to start the day.

ROLE offers programs and training for local underprivileged Indonesians in sustainable livelihood practices, vocational skills, english and green business practices. The eco-learning center is a happening place and we had the chance to see the local vocational and english students doing their thing everyday. There were people growing organic vegetables, training in the spa (Jakob got a massage), working on the reforestation project, making organic dyes, farming snails and weaving prayer belts.

As ROLE interns for the week we helped out around the park were we could and spent a good amount of clerical work at the main office. Basically we did what your average interns do all over America, except we were in one of the most beautiful places in the world and working for an organization thats actually making a positive change in its community.

One of the striking things we noticed during our time in Nusa Dua was how many similarities there are between RACI and ROLE. Although they are based in two very different parts of Indonesia, RACI and ROLE share similar values and goals, and target like constituencies. We were really lucky to have the chance to visit ROLE and to be able to collaborate, but there must be hundreds of related organizations working in isolation across Southeast Asia and around the world. It would be a huge step forward if we could create a forum where programs like ours and ROLE’s could share information and resources.

Mike and Jakob

Jakob’s Feelings:

Hello my name is Jakob Schenker and I have recently graduated from Skidmore College with a background in environmental studies and biology. Fresh! Throughout school I was deeply involved with environmental movements on campus and started to feel a need to make our world a more sustainable place. During my final two years, I began to have a passion for pursuing solutions which help both the environment and people live a healthier and happier life – thus creating my senior project on plant use for ecological restoration. Upon graduation I found an opportunity to work with The Reef Artisans Collaborative of Indonesia (RACI) which focused its efforts on creating sustainable livelihoods in the Bunaken Marine Park in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. They addressed livelihood issues of the people by providing education, small business opportunities in the arts, and a hydroponics program for a supplemental food source. This type of mission felt like a perfect one to get involved with because it gave opportunities to locals, so they could have better lives, but also to give protection to the coral reef systems nearby – giving peace to both worlds.

Upon making the trek to Bali to start my internship with BALI I was immediately greeted by Brad and driven up to my new home in Ubud, directly north of Denpasar. Almost immediately I started to meet locals from our village seemingly very excited to meet me. As I soon find out, almost everyone in Ubud, and Bali for that matter are incredibly friendly and willing to let me into their life. This feeling was exciting and calming, as I felt that I could belong even in a place far from the US.

After spending a few days at Ubud, our satellite office of operations, we began to set into a natural rhythm. We start each day early, with a wake up call of rice workers in the nearby paddies and birds chirping on our veranda. After a typical Indonesian breakfast of either rice, vegetables or fruit we all begin our Bahasa Indonesia lessons with a local teacher. After this mind-absorbing education, the RACI team and I get together and decide when we would like to do our four hour work block. Depending on the weather and energy within us, we either work straight away, in the afternoon or even at night. This flexibility is a breath of fresh air when compared to a many of my friends jobs back in the states.

In our free time we explore the local Ubud area, a cultural hot spot in Bali, very exciting for its art work and holistic spa techniques (enjoyed by me). Other times we explore the local beaches, a bar in Kuta, or a cliffside view in Ulawatu. During our work block we have devoted our time thus far to outreach with friends, partners and foreseeable networks. Recently we have volunteered with the R.O.L.E. Foundation which provides a similar sustainable livelihoods mission to the island of Bali. Because of this similar initiative we have decided to help each other out by providing marketing and brainstorming to each others program areas. We have talked to a few other organizations and I have begun to notice that many upstart non-profits are becoming centralized in this country and are focusing their attention on environmental issues as well. As we begin to reach out to them we all feel an appreciation towards each others work and also to each others success. This has led to some new collaborations which look promising for the future.

Mike’s Two Weeks as an Intern
Hi, I’m mike, a recently graduated biology major from Skidmore College and one of the new RACI interns. I’ve been in Bali for almost two weeks, and I’m really settling into life here. Our home and office in Ubud is only forty-five minutes from the coast, but we’re a world away from the tourist packed bars and beaches of Kuta and the southern coast. I’m sure that at this point calling Ubud “the real Bali” is cliche but I’m going to anyway because its true. Ubud is the real Bali, and its a great place to live and work. At first I thought it was a little strange that RACI, an organization grounded in marine conservation, had its base miles from the coast, but any apprehension I had has evaporated in the past two weeks.

Let me tell you about my typical day here. I usually wakeup when the roosters start crowing and the work begins in the rice paddies and houses that surrounding our villa. But I almost never get out of bed right away, and that okay. Breakfast and our 
Bahasa Indonesian lessons aren’t until eight. On the days our cook and language teacher Putu doesn’t come to make us a delicious Indonesian breakfast we go into town to get something to eat at cafe. We’ve eased into our internally duties and it wasn’t too overwhelming to begin with. Now that we’ve eased into a routine, we break up our days work time into two blocks. One in the morning, and one just before dinner. We never do the same thing two work blocks in a row, and that keeps things from getting tedious. So far we’ve worked on the web page, collaborated with our partner, the ROLE foundation, created promotional material and began our keynote presentation. We’ve gotten a lot done so far, but not so much that I haven’t had time to get a feel for Ubud and Bali.

Ubud is known as the cultural center of Bali and in-between work blocks I’ve had the the chance to check out the city and its local artisans. The different neighborhoods that make up the greater Ubud area are recognizable what they make. Take one of the winding roads away from the center of town, you’ll pass though neighborhoods filled with entirely with painters, stone sculptures, wood carvers or basket weavers. On our days off we either hangout in Ubud or take our scooters down to the beach to do some surfing.

This wednesday we’re headed down to the coast to work with the ROLE foundation for week. They’re doing some really cool things in their eco-learning center, and there’s a lot of over lap between their program and ours. I’ve got six more weeks with RACI and I’m excited to continue on the projects we’ve started and to head out to see Bunaken Island where all the work we’ve been doing is going.

NORTH SULAWESI, INDONESIA, FEBRUARY 20, 2009—At the center of the expansive Coral Triangle of Southeast Asia, this province of over 2 million on the northeastern tip of the island of Sulawesi is a compelling choice for the site of the 2009 World Ocean Conference (WOC)( www.woc2009.org/home.php). The region includes a marine ecosystem with some of the highest biodiversity on earth—Bunaken National Marine Park (BNMP) boasts ten times the genera of coral as the Hawaiian archipelago. Nearly three quarters of all fish species of the Indo-West Pacific can be found within BNMP. The 2009 WOC will culminate in the naming of BNMP as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Organized by the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of the Republic of Indonesia (DKP) the 2009 World Ocean Conference will include among the upwards of 5,000 attendees top-level government officials, representatives from the scientific community, and exhibitors from relevant international organizations. The 2009 WOC includes over thirty symposia on the themes of ocean science, policy, and technology. Issues to be addressed include individual threatened or endangered species, specific imperiled marine habitats, and particular conservation challenges.

In addition to symposia and exhibitions, a summit meeting of the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI)(www.cti-secretariat.net) will be held. Launched in 2007, the CTI is a multilateral partnership tasked with the preservation of the marine and coastal resources of the Coral Triangle. The Coral Triangle spans Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, the Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste and covers 2,500,000 square miles. Problems plaguing this vast marine and coastal habitat include unsustainable fishing practices and coral bleaching due to industrial runoff and warming ocean temperatures. CTI is sustained through partnerships with The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, the World Wildlife Fund, and the DKP.

A major port city of Eastern Indonesia, Manado serves as an agricultural, economic, and cultural hub in the region. Manado’s Bitung seaport is a gateway for trade between eastern regions of Indonesia and the greater Asia-Pacific rim. The WOC will be held at the Wenang Conference Center, located halfway between the Sam Ratulangi International Airport and Manado. The 2009 WOC is sponsored by Telkom Indonesia and supported by UNEP and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

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Nonprofit Begins Work On Tree House For Livelihoods Initiative In Indonesia

Reef Artisan Collaborative International (RACI): Indonesia, in partnership with Tokyo-based Tree House Creations, LLC, breaks ground on inaugural alternative livelihood project in Bunaken National Park.

BUNAKEN ISLAND, INDONESIA, FEBRUARY 13, 2009—Together with Reef Artisan Collaborative Inc. (RACI) Founder and Executive Director Brad Wilcox, a team of four Tree House Creations representatives from Tokyo today trekked through the palm-studded muddy grasslands on the island of Bunaken to survey the more than 3 acres acquired by RACI: Indonesia in December 2009. The team searched intently for the two sturdiest mango trees in which to construct a tree house for the new Bunaken Cultural Arts Center. Incorporated as a nonprofit in Indonesia, RACI: Indonesia is an offshoot of RACI, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C..

RACI’s work in Bunaken National Marine Park (BNMP)—an approximately 340 square mile Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the heart of the Coral Triangle off the coast of North Sulawesi, Indonesia—began in January of 2008 with an exploratory trip that consisted of Wilcox, Creative Director Michael Lawrence, Technical Director Erik Osterholm, and Communications Director Jeff Weintraub. Now on his third trip to BNMP, Wilcox and his team have shaped RACI into a forward thinking NGO poised to implement an alternative livelihoods project as a conservation management tool.

The Center will have a training facility for the local community will have an opportunity to learn how to produce and sell artisan goods at Fair Trade value. In addition, visitors to the island—many of them divers drawn to the pristine coral reefs within BNMP—will have an opportunity to participate in local cooking, art, and dancing classes at the Center. Together with the potential for economic advancement, this cultural exchange empowers the local community through a development model that balances the effects of ecotourism. As the local economy shifts from a reliance on natural resources to alternative livelihoods, the activities of the cultural arts center will help to ensure the continued health of the BNMP ecosystem. Wilcox met the Tree House Creations group by chance while visiting Tokyo in November 2008. He immediately recognized the potential for a mutually beneficial partnership after learning more about the core values of the company and viewing some of its beautiful and wildly imaginative projects. Taka’s book, Treedom: The Road to Freedom has inspired many.

“We couldn’t be more pleased by the partnership RACI: Indonesia now has with Tree House Creations—its core values are very much in line with our own,” reported Wilcox. “After a long flight and strait crossing to Bunaken, the Tree House crew jumped off the ready to get to work in the harsh equatorial heat and humidity—Taka wanted to check out the site immediately.” With sponsors ranging from surf magazines, camera and clothing equipment manufacturers, an Indonesian airline, and even a wind energy firm, Tree House Creations has excelled at developing and promoting the credibility indicators that make possible such sponsorships.

Chartered and documented in Indonesia, RACI (Reef Artisan Collaborative International): Indonesia is an offshoot of RACI, a Washington, D.C. based non-profit 501(c)(3) founded in 2007. The organization customizes development strategies to create alternative livelihood opportunities within Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) throughout the world.

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RACI Sponsors Silamakama Documentary Exploring The Front Lines of Conflict Between Livelihoods and Conservation

WASHINGTON, DC – Nov 30, 2009 – For those who haven’t yet experienced Indonesia’s breathtaking Bunaken National Marine Park (BNMP), Simalakama brings to you the stories and images from within a marine protected area (MPA) world famous for its’ traditional culture and biodiversity.

Seen through the eyes of five members of the community living within the marine park, this compelling film objectively explores the charged tension between conservation and economy in the lives of local residents. The film will be available in a variety of lengths, including:

Traditional feature length (90 minutes)
TV/broadcast length (48 minutes)
Web-accessible short film (18 minutes)
Free preview vignettes (3 minutes)

As RACI enjoys close ties with community leaders within BNMP through programs developed in concert with RACI:Indonesia, our endorsement of the documentary will make operations smoother while shooting. On the strength of clear channels of communication and community cooperation, the production team is set to hit the ground running when it begins shooting in May 2010. In terms of both production value and distribution strategy, Silamakama will be cutting edge while it remains a model of efficiency– the production team will optimize marketability with minimize cost.

Established in 1991, BNMP is today an internationally recognized, co-management model for MPA management. The management structure of this park is unique in that the responsibility falls on the shoulders of the local, provincial, and national government in conjunction with tour operators and community representatives.

The park encompasses five islands – each with its own vibrant culture – and boasts extraordinary marine bio-diversity. More than 20,000 people live in the terrestrial component of the park, which actually accounts for a scant 3% of the total park area.

Entrance fees – the collection of which Indonesia requires in all of its parks – represent the single most significant supplement of park operational costs. Visitors drawn to BNMP each year to dive and snorkel in its gin clear waters pay the entrance fee from the dive operation or resort directly to a member of the community. While not perfect – and certainly not without its bumps in the road – this system has thus far proven more successful than most in underpinning conservation management efforts in other MPAs.

RACI’s interest in the people of BNMP stems from its commitment to the empowerment of local residents in the marine park to provide new ecotourism markets to expand livelihood opportunities. As BNMP has shown, community buy in is critical to the continued preservation of fragile ecosystems.

Through Silamakama, RACI will introduce to a global audience the untold stories of five local stakeholders who unwittingly find themselves on the front lines of the conflict between conservation and economic development in a remote corner of Indonesia.

For more information please visit www.simalakama.com.

About RACI:

Reef Artisan Collaborative International (RACI), a Washington, D.C. based non-profit, was founded in 2008. The organization customizes development strategies to empower alternative livelihood opportunities through cultural exchange within Marine Protected Areas throughout the world. Working alongside Reef Artisan Collaborative of Indonesia as development practitioners within the community of Bunaken National Marine Park, we have co-developed a series of initiatives to launch in May 2010.

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Pulutan is a village on a volcanic ridge much closer to the clouds than Manado; it’s located in the district od Remboken in Minahasa, North Sulawesi. The training facility was developed with the support of CIDA-Private Enterprise Participation (PEP) project. Hosted by the Canadian government, an exchange training program was created to foster advancement in new technologies for almost 300 independent pottery business owners in Pulutan, which accounts for 30% of the residents.

The center has been hugely successful and is now expanding into the wholesale market; visitors to the facility are also growing in numbers, a trip well worth it for a tour of the facility and true Minahasa experience. RACI is looking forward to partnering with Pulutan Pottery Training Center to promote their traditional, local handicraft at our Cultural Arts Center in Bunaken Marine Park later this year.