Rare’s first marine cohort launched in Bogor, Indonesia
The Bogor 4 cohort.
Rare’s Vice President, Asia, Nigel Sizer blogs about the official launch of Rare’s 10-site campaign in the Coral Triangle to improve fisheries management through the use of No-Take Zones that provide fish an area in which to grow and repopulate.
After nearly two years of sustained effort by a great team, Rare launched on Monday its fourth Bahasa Indonesia cohort of Pride campaigns in Bogor. Ten partners, nine from Indonesia and one from Timor Leste, arrived in Bogor a couple of days ago, and I was thrilled to see them all in the classroom bright and early this morning.
The cohort was officially declared open by Dr. Hendrayanto, Dean of the Forestry Faculty, Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), Rare’s training partner for Southeast Asia. He was joined by Professor Harini Muntasib who helped establish Rare’s partnership with IPB five years ago, and two loyal IPB faculty who have been teaching in the program since its inception: Dr. Arzyana Surkar and Dr. Yeni Mulyani.
I thanked those present, as well as top government officials who could not join us (Mr. Hariyadi Himawan and Mr. Soewartono of the Ministry of Forestry), and our donors, including the Walton Family Foundation, USAID, WWF Indonesia, and the Conservation, Food and Health Foundation.
Rare’s seasoned team will be teaching the new recruits alongside two new Pride Program Managers, Yayat and Rully, both of whom have leapt to the challenge after just a few weeks on the job. I sat through the first sessions and was deeply impressed, as I always am, by the level of professionalism, the quality of the teaching plans, and the sincere attentiveness of our partners.
The partners were selected from over 50 applications, representing four of Indonesia’s seven marine national parks, five district-level marine protected areas (three of these campaigns will be led by Conservation International local staff), and Timor Leste’s only national park. These are some of the globe’s most important marine protected areas. One of the sites has the highest recorded number of fish species in the world, and another has one of the largest continuous stretches of coral reef.
Dr. Mark Erdman of Conservation International talks about the need for Rare’s approach to strengthen local fisheries management in the Coral Triangle. Click here if the above embed video doesn’t show up for you.
This cohort also represents the thin end of a wedge of forthcoming marine cohorts from Rare. In July we’ll launch 12 campaigns in the Philippines with the same theme, and in early 2011 a suite of campaigns in the Sea of Cortez will begin. We hope a second Bogor marine cohort will then follow in 2011, bringing us to a total of more than 30 campaigns in support of the Coral Triangle alone.
The partners who started work today will spend nine weeks in Bogor, housed at the university, before heading home to plan their campaigns. Out team will support them every step of the way as they always do.
I can’t wait to get back to Bogor in three weeks to rejoin the team and offer my support!
The Bogor 4 cohort already hard at work.
For more information about Rare’s Program for Sustainable Fishing in the Coral Triangle, please contact Nigel Sizer.
