Thursday, June 24th, 2010 | Posted by renelva

News from Gili Eco Trust

We are working closely with SATGAS (local security on Gili Islands), KSDA (Sea and Forest protection in Lombok) and Mataram University (pak Arifin and his students in water supply and marine Biology) on different projects:

1. Biorock projects: study the recovery of the bleaching coral on natural conditions and on Biorock reefs.
2. We would like to set up juvenile grouper floating structure to put in Gili Air to give to the fishermen so we could work in the future on another fishermen agreement with less money and more fish!
3. we just bought a horse kart to clean gili trawangan of all the plastic and rubbish, we want to clean the island where the rubbish is not collected. We are also doing with some education programs about plastic, rubbish, burning plastic. Pak Acok from Sama-sama will be responsnible of the cleaning action. and there is so much work to do!
4. we are maintening the existing mooring buoys and also putting some more to stop anchoring which is damaging so much of our shallow reefs.
5. we are collecting more and more corals which are falling off because of the waves., currents, or divers fins. we are collecting corals atht would die without our help as they are not attached to anything. we call it “reef Gardening”.
6. The flyer for the eco-behavior is printed and i will get it to Gili next week!

OUR MAIN GOAL IS NOW THE RUBBISH:
We have come up with a new system of accounting to charge everybody to get their rubbish collected. We have tried to make the new system as fair as possible for everyone. We think that we currently don’t have everyone’s name and location. We need you to take responsibility by registering your house or business at info@giliecotrust.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , so we can apply the new accounting system to everyone. We need to know the following, number of bungalows/rooms for rent, if it is a/c and the name of the business. Please include houses or villas that are rented out or occupied by your staff. The donation system is based on everyone contributing per room as this is equivalent to the amount of rubbish generated.

With this new system, there will be enough money to provide salaries to existing and new employees, to buy new horse carts, to buy new horses, to feed the horses and to make new projects.
One of the new projects is to build a pathway to reach the rubbish dump in any weather condition. It will be a 350m long, 3,5m wide concrete road which will be 60 cm above normal ground level. As we want to be as eco as possible, and not spending to much money in concrete and cement, we came up with a solution:
1. Every month the extra money, after feeding the horses and paying the salaries will be used to build a part of the road: bricks, cement, workers.

2. We have decided to collect plastic from all over the island, shred it, mix it with rubble and sand to raise this pathway before concreting the surface.

3. Every month, the island will get cleaner and the pathway will get longer to reach the rubbish dump location before the next rainy season.
So we need your contribution by accepting the increase on your rubbish collection fee, and by giving us your rubble, sand or rubbish that you are not using.

To have this new system working as soon as possible, please:
1. Register your house or business at info@giliecotrust.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or head of your zone RT, or help us to register every house or business on the island with a list of your neighbors and new businesses you know we haven’t got on the existing list.

2. Let us (FMPL, Pak Acok or Pak Malek) know if you have some rubble or sand that we can use to build the pathway. We will organize a pick up.
In the future the extra money FMPL will have every month will be used:
· To organize a clean up day
· To buy more bins
· To fix the horse carts and look after the horses
· To ban the plastic bags from the island
· To produce recycled Gili T bags
· To put in place a good compost system
· To repair the wall of the rubbish dump…..etc….

These issues are not only an FMPL problem; we are all concerned by the plastic and the rubbish on this little island. If we want to keep our customers happy, we need to be ready to take collective responsibility and help each other to succeed in having a clean Gili Trawangan.
Because the new payment system has not yet been established, the Gili Eco Trust and SATGAS will provide the initial monthly payment to enable this project to begin immediately.
Thank you for your help and cooperation.

If you have any questions, contact Pak Acok at Sama-Sama, Pak Malik at Blue Marlin Dive, FMPL at Creative bungalows, or Delphine at Big Bubble Dive.

Source: www.giliecotrust.com