SOS Warming seas, pollution, and destructive fishing practices are threatening the very existence of Asia’s . We follow the work of just some of the people responding to the emergency across our reefs Various Contributors

102 FEATURE CORAL SOS

The Blade dive site at Wakatobi, , offers one of the world’s most unique coral covered geological formations IMAGE: WALT STEARNS

103 FEATURE CORAL SOS

Wakatobi’s Coral Kingdom

By: Walt Stearns, Wakatobi Dive Resort

A Swiss national named Lorenz Mäder ensure the future health of the reefs spent years searching the Indo-Pacific he’d come to love. At the time, areas for just the right place to build his of the Indian Ocean were falling victim dream resort. When he came across to destructive fishing practices such a small island in the Tukang Besi as netting and dynamiting. In a bid to archipelago of Indonesia’s , protect the reefs, Lorenz negotiated an he knew he’d found the place. The agreement designating a six-kilometre surrounding reefs were among the section of the reefs as a no-fishing zone most dramatic and fecund he’d ever in exchange for lease payments made seen, and just inshore, there was a directly to 17 local villages. This was white-sand beach fronting a coconut the beginning of the Collaborative Reef palm grove. It was here in 1995 that Conservation Program, which has Lorenz built his dive lodge in the style since expanded to cover 20 kilometres of a local Indonesian longhouse. He of reef, won numerous awards, and named his dive outpost “Wakatobi”, become a model for proactive private a word created by taking the first two sector conservation. letters of the four largest islands in the As word of the Wakatobi Dive archipelago: Wangi-Wangi, Kaledupa, Resort spread through the diving and Tomia, and Binongko. underwater photography communities, And even as construction began, a growing number of adventurous he was working on a plan that would travellers began making their way to

ABOVE: Potato corals provide refuge for colourful anthias IMAGE: Marco Fierli

OPPOSITE PAGE: The shallows on either side of the jetty are loaded with small coral heads and marine life IMAGE: Walt Stearns

112 this remote location. Originally, the trip A fleet of custom dive boats Lorenz’s vision for Wakatobi not took more than 36 hours from Bali, and makes daily departures to more than only set a precedent for private sector involved a combination of local flights, 40 premier sites within the resort’s conservation initiatives, it set broader land transfers and boat rides. Over time, private marine preserve. Here, plans in motion, and even changed faster connections were created, and underwater landscapes range from the map. In 2002, the Indonesian in 2001, a private airstrip, the Wakatobi shallow reef tops to dramatic walls government expanded the area Maranggo Runway, was constructed, and pinnacles covered in luxuriant created by the resort’s conservation and direct charter flights were sponge growth, and hard and programme to create the Wakatobi established to bring guests comfortably soft corals. These sites are home National Park. The park encompasses from Bali to Wakatobi in just two and to thousands of species of fish and an expansive 1,390,000 hectares of the half hours. Garuda Indonesia airline invertebrates. In fact, this region is Tukang Besi island group. Less than now serves the resort with twice-weekly known as the most biodiverse a year later, these islands became flights aboard a 70-seat aircraft that marine environment on the planet. an autonomous region, and in the provides generous baggage allowances Divers and snorkellers can also process decided to adopt a new name: for gear and photo equipment. experience this rich diversity right Wakatobi. In 2005, UNESCO listed the The resort has undergone a litany off the resort’s beach. Wakatobi’s Wakatobi National Park as a tentative of other enhancements and expansions house reef has been named the World Heritage Site, which was over the years. From the original world’s best shore dive, and it can eventually added to the World Network longhouse, the property has grown be accessed day and night. This reef of Biosphere Reserves in 2012. to include a collection of 24 private line transitions from grass beds to Many see Lorenz as a visionary bungalows set in a beachfront coconut a coral wall just 80 metres from and forward thinker who initiated grove, along with four luxury villas shore, and stretches for more than one of the world’s largest that sit right on the shoreline, with a kilometre east and west. Many privately-funded and managed decks that provide magnificent sunset guests have spent entire days marine protected areas. But he often views. Guests now enjoy five-star exploring the house reef, making attributes his motives to a more service and gourmet-level dining, treasured finds such as ghost pragmatic goal. As he tells it, along with amenities such as personal pipefish, leaf scorpionfish, broadclub “You can’t pack up and move your dive guides, private boat charters, spa cuttlefish, six species of clownfish resort when the diving is no longer services, private beachfront dinners and a plethora of other unique marine good. So it’s better to do what you and a range of water sports and creatures mere metres from the can to protect it to enjoy it now and land-based activities. resort jetty. in the future.”

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