Bali’s Bird Sanctuary on Nusa Penida … a unique island sanctuary where local people protect endangered birds from poachers
By mobilising local community protection of birds from all 41 villages, FNPF has uniquely transformed the island of Nusa Penida (14km SE of Bali) into a sanctuary for endangered endemic birds.
From FNPF’s Conservation and Community Development Centre near the village of Ped, endangered birds are rehabilited and released to live and breed freely on the island, under the protection of the local communities. Driven by the desire to save one of the world’s most endangered species and Bali’s emblem bird from extinction in the wild, FNPF has used its unique bird sanctuary on Nusa Penida as the location for its Bali Starling Conservation project.
An understanding of Balinese culture, customs and Hindu traditions combined with 2 years of conservation education programmes enabled FNPF to persuade every village on Nusa Penida island to introduce a traditional Balinese village regulation (awig awig) to protect birds. As a result, the threat from poaching and bird traders was eliminated and the whole island was effectively transformed into a unique, unofficial bird sanctuary. Elsewhere in Indonesia, poachers and bird traders continue to be the greatest threat to endangered birds.
Through the application of community-based protection of birds, the 3 islands of Nusa Penida (Penida, Lembongan and Ceningan) have become part of the Wildlife Land Trust programme operated by the Humane Society International. Every village on Penida displays signs on the roadside that express their adoption and adherence to this programme.
The project has already saved the critically endangered Bali Starling, Bali’s emblem bird, from extinction in the wild. We are continuing to release more Bali Starlings, Java Sparrows, Lesser Sulphur Crested Cockatoos, and Mitchell’s Lorikeets, and we are working with certain villages located close to the beach to extend the community-based protection to sea turtles.
In return for island-wide community-based protection of wildlife, FNPF runs projects that benefit the local communities and the habitat.
- Sponsoring children from poor families to attend school and university. In 2010 / 11 we sponsored 44 school children and 1 university student.
- Promoting and assisting the island’s traditional weaving. We take groups of tourists to the villages where they can see and purchase hand made ikat made with natural dyes. And our nursery grows and provides free saplings for the villages to grow trees to produce the rare natural dyes.
- Free English language classes, a small community library, and twice weekly traditional dance classes, all held at the FNPF Centre on Nusa Penida.
- Free distribution of our Indonesian-language conservation reference book (written and published by FNPF)
- An annual conservation competition in which all 11 junior highschools compete.
- Pilot projects with farmers that demonstrate alternative and financially rewarding sustainable farming methods.
- Growing in and free distribution from our nursery of at least 30,000 tree saplings per year for villagers to plant on private land and build future incomes from agro-forestry.
- Planting thousands of saplings each year on severely degraded government reforestation land. Our post-planting maintenance model achieves +70% survival rate.
