T

he sun was about to set on Saturday when Denpasar Mayor I. B. Rai Dharmawijaya Mantra released hundreds of sea turtle hatchlings on Serangan beach to mark the opening of the island's two-day Green Festival.

Later on, Mantra and scores of the city's officials boarded the awaiting fleet of jukung (traditional outriggers) and sailed into the island's offshore to sink a ball-shaped man-made construction.

It will serve as a medium for transplanting coral. Similar structures, whose construction was funded by the Bali office of Bank Indonesia, were also submerged during that brief sea trip.

The offshore area is the primary site of the ongoing coral reef transplantation and conservation program. The program, which has succeeded in rehabilitating up to 3 hectares of underwater coral, was initiated by local youth leader I Wayan Patut.

Located 15 kilometers south of Denpasar, Serangan used to be a tiny island populated by local Balinese fishermen who lived alongside their fellow Bugis fishermen.

A major tourism resort development project in mid-1990s carried out by Bali Turtle Island Development (BTID) has significantly changed the island's landscape.

The project conducted massive land reclamation, which enlarged the size of the island, and built a concrete causeway and asphalt road that connected the island to the mainland. The project had inflicted irreversible ecological damage to the island, including the loss of precious coastal habitat and the change in the sea current.

"Now, we still have around 3 hectares of coral area that are in bad shape and need rehabilitation," Patut said as he balanced himself on the jukung.

The local community needed all the help they could get to make the conservation program work, he said.

"Assistance and support from the government and other concerned parties will be very critical for the future of this program."

The mayor said the city administration would continue its support of the program.

"We have been providing the program with regular cash assistance, although the amount is still quite small."

He pledged to rally the support from dozens of local and national companies in the city to assist the program. The companies would be asked to allocate a portion of their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) fund to support the program.

"I believe that Rp. 3.5 million, the amount needed to build one coral transplantation structure, will not pose a heavy burden for the company," he said, adding each company would be asked to contribute at least one structure per year.

"So in the next three years, we will be able to rehabilitate all the damaged area."

BI's Bali office representative B. Rusdiharsono warmly embraced the mayor's idea, stating that the office would inform all private banks and financial institutions operating in the resort island of the initative.

"There are 43 local and national banks operating in Bali and we will urge them to support this coral conservation program."

The program was started in 2002 and the conservation works were mostly carried out by members of Pesisir Karya Segara, a local fishermen's association.