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Banda Neira - One Last Paradise
The small archipelago in the far east of Indonesia
is located in the most species-rich coral reef in the world.
More and more plastic is washing ashore,
polluting the water, the sea floor and the beaches.
This is a threat for nature as well as for humans.
Worldwide more and more common products are made of plastic
and there is more and more diposable packaging.
Piles of garbage are growing.
To date there is no sustainable and worldwide solution for waste disposal.
In Germany we can place our garbage in the hands
of a sophisticated waste disposal system with a pure conscience.
In many countries trash is still burned in the front yard or thrown into the ocean.
Due to a lack of environmental education and awareness
the negative impact of trash on the enviroment is often unknown.
Even when all trash in Germany is neatly separated
all the trash from the rest of the world, which lacks proper waste disposal systems
ends up in the vast blue ocean in the end.
Therefore, since 2012, the non-profit association Marine Conservation Southeast Asia, MC-SEA
campaigns for enviromental protection on-site in the Banda Islands.
Different projects promote environmental awareness in children and adults
and support local communities in the development of waste disposal systems and environmental education.
For example, in schools we read books to children
about trash disposal and what happens when fish eat garbage.
On Clean Up Days children as well as adults witness firsthand the mass amount
of garbage that is washed ashore or accumulates on the sea floor.
We would like to bring Nina from the Greenna Foundation in Bogor to Banda
in order to raise the enviromental awareness of the community elders and housewives.
A share of the donations to MC-SEA will be used to let Greenna give
environmental training to housewives, children and teachers in the Bandas.
With housewives, for example, we will make small wallets like this one
from used plastic packages from instant noodles or sweets.
Besides the work in environmental education and promoting environmental awareness
MC-SEA is working on a solution for the accumulating waste.
In the end there's still the question: What do we do with the trash?
So far we are supporting the village of Merdeka by collecting the garbage daily from households.
The locals pay a small amount of money for the service
and MC-SEA covers the remaining balance at the end of each month.
We were especially glad when the neighbour village came to us and said
"We'd like your help too." They want us to help them transport their waste to the dump and support them when they cannot cover the costs of the operation.
And this is exactly what we want to achieve, that the locals develop their own initiative
and that we only provide support when help is needed and when a village cannot support the initiative on its own.
I hope that we are already seeing a motivation for environmental protection here.
MC-SEA still wants to go further.
One of the most important goals for the future is the purchase of a modern waste incinerator
which will also produce electric energy.
With such an incinerator the ever-growing piles of rubbish can be eliminated
while simultaneously reducing the amount of diesel used for electricity generation.
Still, the state of the nature and underwater world of the Bandas is in an extraordinarily intact condition.
Thus it is very important to preserve and protect this ecosystem.
A donation of only one euro can cover one household's garbage collection costs for one month.
Each donation counts.