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A fisherman from Bali’s capital city of Denpasar has won the national Kalpataru Award, cited him as a “savior of the environment.” The award has been given to Wayan Patut from the island of Serangan, locared within Denpasar’s city limits, who is well known for his untiring dedication to reef preservation and restoration along the shore of his island community.

The Kalpataru Award is an annual recognition bestowed by the Indonesian government to individuals or groups who have pioneered conservation and environmental preservation efforts. Wayan Patut received his award at a special ceremony held at the National Palace in Jakarta on June 7, 2001, held only two days after World Environment Day on June 5th.

Beritabali.com cited Patut’s hard work dating from 2003 to re-grow coral reefs near the reclaimed beaches of Serangan that began after he saw the massive destruction coral reefs caused by reckless development of his island home.

“Before 2003, the fishermen and coral miners at Serangan, including myself, actively destroyed the surrounding reef. We cut and picked away at the coral to sell as building materials at a pretty high price,” explained Patut.

A transformed man and now a devout conservationist, Wayan Patut now dedicates himself to rebuilding the coral he once destroyed and exploited with his fellow villagers. Over the past seven years, Wayan Patut’s days have been filled with acquiring the know-how and skills to plant and encourage new coral growth off the shores of Serangan island.

At a shore-based workshop, Wayan Patut and fellow villagers build the frames with nicknames such as “reef ball” and “pyramid” on which new coral reef will be planted, take hold and grow. The group, calling itself “Karya Segara,” also make the “base rock” that is attached to the frames, acting as the catalyst for the reef that will eventually cover the frames.

The man who once destroyed coral reef is now a tireless campaigner, reminding everyone he can of the key roles played by coral in the ocean’s food chain. In this way, he warns the coming generation that the destruction of the natural environment can’t be tolerated for any reason.

Wayan Patut warns: “The coral reef is very important for the life of the sea. In addition to be the place where a variety of fish live, the coral reef also absorbs carbon, helping to clean pollution from the atmosphere.”

From The Jakarta Post

Despite recent criticism about severe land and water pollution, Bali has the best environment of all of the provinces, a government study shows.

The report on Indonesia’s environmental quality index in 2010 conducted by the Environment Ministry showed that Bali had a score of 99.65, the highest of all the 33 provinces.

The score takes into account the level of total suspended solids (TSS), dissolved oxygen (DO) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) — common parameters to measure water quality.

The province ranked third in the ministry’s previous review.

“Changes in the index for every region is determined by the amount of polluting substances and water volumes of its rivers,” said the report, officially launched last week.

The parameters also explain whether the water in the area could be utilized for drinking water or for other purposes such as irrigation, aquaculture, farming or water recreation.

International media have reported that Bali is no longer the “Island of Gods”, citing heavy polution.

Time magazine reported that Bali was a dirty and unsafe tourism destination.

“Rivers swell and flush their trash and frothing human waste into the sea off Kuta Beach, the island’s most famous tourist attraction, where bacteria bloom and the water turns muddy with dead plankton,” the report said.

It listed tap water shortages, blackouts, uncollected trash, overflowing sewage, traffic congestion and crime as major problems on the island.

The Culture and Tourism Ministry, however, has denied the accusations of poor management and tourist overload in the province.

The Bali administration has set a target of creating 130,686 hectares of green space on the island, which is 5,780 square kilometers in area.

The environment report, which was released for the second time this year, showed that Jakarta was the worst performer.

The nation’s capital, which is also the most densely populated region in the country with an average of 14,460 inhabitants per square kilometer, maintained its spot at the bottom of the list with a score of 41.81.

Of its total area of 664 square kilometers, Jakarta has only 571 hectares of green space, compared to Bali’s 176,547 hectares.

A recent survey conducted by the Clean Air Initiative (CAI) concluded that Jakarta was one of the cleanest cities in terms of air pollution, along with Bangkok, Hanoi, Jinan and Manila.

Deputy minister for environmental communications and people empowerment affairs Henry Bastaman said that 19 provinces scored higher than the national average on the environmental quality index.

The report showed that Sulawesi was the cleanest island, and that Java was the least clean.

“This proves that the environmental quality of Java is still the worst compared to other islands,” the report said.

The ministry has said it wants the environmental quality index report to be used as the basis for the argument that development programs should be focused outside of Java, as Java is too densely populated and burdened by manufacturing.

Infrastructure development in the country is also largely focused on Java.