It’s only been a month since I received the news that I got the job as the Marine Conservation Program Assistant at the foundation, thus beginning a new chapter in my career at a new place that is thousands of kilometers away from my hometown in Bogor.
Anambas Islands Regency is known as a tropical paradise due to its remarkable marine biodiversity. One primary biodiversity type in this region is the ecological diversity consisting of three tropical marine ecosystems: coral reefs, mangrove and seagrass.
What are corals? You see them in tropical ocean waters, they come in may shapes and forms, they are colorful and home to about 25 percent of all marine creatures.
By definition microplastics are plastic fragments that are less than 5mm in size and hard to detect with the naked eye.
Zairul has been working as a traditional farmer in Telaga Village for 16 years. He is one of the few people in the village who choose this profession where the rest of community opt to become fishermen instead.
A small group of Bawah Reserve guests, including myself, were offered the opportunity to go and see the work of the Bawah Anambas Foundation (BAF) on nearby Telaga.
Sea urchins are classified as Phylum echinodermata and they are close relatives of starfish and sea cucumber.
In 2018 BAF volunteer Alanna Berman was visiting Bawah Reserve when she saw a presentation about the foundation, which at that time was newly established.
Mangroves are important for the sustainability of tropical marine ecosystems as they offer plenty of benefits for the environment and humans.
Reef Health Monitoring (RHM) activity is part of our marine conservation program and has been regularly held once a year since 2019 in Bawah Island and surrounding areas.