CHAIRMAN`S REPORT FOREST PROTECTION AND RAPID

May 2016, Newsletter No.23
In this newsletter:
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
Welcome all to the latest Ecolodges Indonesia Newsletter – our 23rd edition.
In the last month the company held its ninth Annual General Meeting in Bali at
Udayana Kingfisher Lodge. It was pleasing to see a number of shareholders
attend and take an interest in the future direction of the company. Discussions
at the AGM centred on the strategic plan for the company and an
independent audit to ensure that recent restructuring and governance
changes are well founded.
During the AGM it was a pleasure to celebrate the 20th anniversary of
Udayana Lodge and share this special occasion with our loyal staff and
invited guests including representatives from Cricket Indonesia, Cricket
Tasmania and Udayana University as well as our many friends.
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Chairman’s report.
Forest protection and rapid
response fire unit fund.
Twenty year anniversary
celebration for the Udayana
Kingfisher Eco lodge.
Featured employee.
West Papua tour - Birds of
Paradise, festival of birds and
butterflies, forests and
wonderful coral reefs.
Annual general meeting April
15 – 17 2016.
Lodge butterfly profiles, lodge
eco standards, and butterfly
tours.
Ecosafari on Facebook
This Newsletter will feature a follow-up article on the devastating fires in
Contactsany
Tanjung Putting National Park last year and the response by Ecolodges Indonesiato combat
future threat. I would like to again thank all those who donated to this worthy cause which enabled
such a rapid and profound response. Be assured that further updates shall be provided both on our
Facebook page and in future Newsletters.
Also in this Newsletter is an article on an extremely exciting new tour to West Papua. Ecolodges
Indonesia in partnership with local operators, Magnificus Expeditions will feature tours to this
wonderful province of Indonesia. Together with my wife Meryl, and ELI shareholder Richard Noske, I
was fortunate to visit this beautiful part of the world and believe me it is an experience not to be
missed. Stay tuned or visit Ecosafari’s Facebook page for further information on West Papua tours.
Enjoy the Newsletter and thank you for your support.
Alan Wilson
FOREST PROTECTION AND RAPID RESPONSE FIRE UNIT FUND.
This is a follow-up report from our last Newsletter and outlines our efforts to develop a sustainable fire
response plan after the devastating fires in Tanjung Puting National Park during September –
November, 2015. It is of specific interest to all those who generously donated to Ecolodges
Indonesia's REPLANTING TANJUNG PUTING CAMPAIGN, initiated by Marie Gale (Board member
of Ecolodges Indonesia - ELI). The special company sub-committee of Meryl Wilson (Founder
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Member, ELI) Marie Gale (Board member, ELI) and Gede Ori (Board member, ELI and Director
Ecosafari Indonesia), and all those associated with Tanjung Puting National Park, would like to say:
“Thank you for your generosity, it is greatly appreciated.”
We believe this campaign will be a long term commitment and we will need support over a number of
years to further develop local capacity to fight the very dangerous effects of forest fires.
After discussions with the National Park authorities, Friends of the National Park (under Dr.Bayu and
Pak Basuki), the Orang-Utan Foundation International and several other volunteer organisations, it
was clear that replanting alone was not enough. The young trees as well as the forest must be
protected from future fires. A broader vision is now the FOREST PROTECTION AND RAPID
RESPONSE FIRE UNIT FUND.
Marie Gale, at her own expense, travelled to Tanjung Puting,
Kalimantan, on 13-14 April. She saw the burned areas and the tears
in Pak Basuki’s eyes as he spoke of nine years planting 89,000
young trees, gone in a few hours in the fires. She also saw the new
nursery where Friends of the National Park staff were making poly
bags, filling them and planting seed collected from the forest. Pak
Smoke at Rimba during the fires closing the lodge
Basuki has been able to take on one new staff member for a year
through a donation from a German journalist who covered the fires. This will enable the construction
of two new nurseries, to provide 150,000 seedlings ready to plant by November 2016, costing
Rp50,000,000 (around US$4,000- $5000). The latter funds will be covered by your donations - what
an achievement.!
Building a Fire Fighting team
Steve Noakes (ELI Board member) also went to Tanjung Puting at the same time, at his own
expense, to meet the three men chosen to go to Australia to study techniques for rural fire fighting. He
also inspected the burned areas, saw the make-shift plastic tarpaulin water tanks and the few items of
fire-fighting equipment. Some items of uniforms and boots have already been sent, given by
Beechmont Rural Fire Brigade near Lamington National Park and the Northern New South Wales
National Parks and Wildlife Service Fire-fighting Unit, through Marie Gale.
The three men to be trained are: Pak Suday, TP National Park; Pak Adut, Friends of the National
Park; and Ucok Hakim, Ecolodges Indonesia's chief guide at Rimba Orang-utan Ecolodge. All these
men spent many days and nights out in the forest fighting the fires. Steve showed them photos of
where they will be going, near Binna Burra
National Park in SE Queensland, hosted by
Steve and Suzanne Noakes. Suzanne is the
active Secretary of the Beechmont Rural Fire
Brigade, a volunteer Rural Fire & Rescue
Service. They will also go to Marie Gale’s
home near Byron Bay to meet the head of
the Northern New South Wales National
Park and Wildlife Service, to thank them for
their donation of uniforms.
Three passports, three visas and three tickets on Jetstar from Denpasar to Brisbane have been paid
for from Ecolodges Indonesia's CONSERVATION FUND. This is a fund from a voluntary contribution
of US$10 on each booking made through Eco Safari Indonesia (ELI’s Tours & Travel section). Funds
for food and expenses will also be covered.
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Once again we thank you for the donations which will allow the replanting and the protection of those
plantings to occur. We hope that the three Indonesians will benefit personally as well as
professionally, and that the Australians who meet them will form a warm support group, as we hope
this will be an ongoing program.
With appreciation, Meryl Wilson, Marie Gale and Gede Ori.
TWENTY YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION FOR THE UDAYANA
KINGFISHER ECO LODGE
A special cake and dinner were central to the celebration of the 20th
anniversary of Udayana Kingfisher Ecolodge on 16th April 2016.
Twenty-two specially invited guests enjoyed the evening together. The
achievements of our mother lodge were summarised beautifully in
speeches by Marie Gale (the Secretary of the Board), Gede Ori (the
chairman of Udayana Cricket Club), and Brent Palfreyman (Cricket
Adviser from Cricket Tasmania). Built in 1995 and opened in 1996, this
lodge, designed and built (with the help of 150 workers) by Meryl
Wilson, has become the mother lodge of the companies constituting
ECOLODGES INDONESIA. Over the years, all the main developments
have been planned from this lodge and we thank our partner Udayana
University for all their support.
Core management presenting the Cake
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING April 15 – 17, 2016
Ecolodges Indonesia held its 9th Annual General Meeting, preceded by a Board Meeting, from 15th –
17th April 2016.
The main topics discussed included:
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completion of the restructuring of the company with the appointment of an independent legal,
tax and financial auditor;
completion of the new Strategic Plan;
detailed discussion on our risk analysis matrix; and
the need for three new positions in the company to expand our marketing strategy, eco
standards development strategy and in Administration to
implement all our SOPs.
The photo shows a full Board. From right to left are Gede
Anjasmara (Direktur Utama and Chairman), Alan Wilson
(Kommisaris), John Diment (investor from Tasmania), Marie
Gale (Byron Bay our Secretary), Gede Ori (Direktur Utama
Ecosafari Indonesia), Steve Noakes (Director Pacificasia
Tourism) and Helen Scott Orr (Animal Health Consultant previously Chief Veterinary Officer for New South Wales).
The Board meeting under House 1
Employee of the month - IBU RITA, Kelimutu Crater
Lakes Ecolodge
Margaretha Yuyensia (known with affection as Rita) is the head of food and
beverage at the iconic Kelimutu Crater Lakes Ecolodge. Rita has played a leading
role in the development of the restaurant and the lodge into an internationally
acclaimed place to stay. Under her management, profitability in this area of the lodge
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has greatly increased. She has had some international experience in Malaysia but comes from the
village of Moni (only 1 kilometre away). Rita has used only staff, recruited in the village, with no initial
knowledge of handling international guests. Our company owes everything to the local people who we
employ and Rita is a great example.
Rita has just had her second child, a boy called Claudius (seen in the photo). We welcome him into
our ELI family.
West Papua Tour- Birds of Paradise, festival of birds and butterflies, forests and
wonderful coral reefs.
Ecolodges Indonesia (ELI) now has a local partner in West Papua - Magnificus
Expeditions (ME), (formerly Papua Bird Club (http://papuabirdclub.com) - and is set
to offer tours through Ecosafari Indonesia to this wonderful and exotic part of
Indonesia. Meryl and Alan Wilson
together with Richard Noske (a new
shareholder of ELI) recently visited this
beautiful part of the world. The Chairman
of ME is Valentina Shita Prativi (known
as Shita) and runs an internationally
Shita and Benny of
Magnificus Expeditions"
renowned community-oriented bird
and tour organisation with her
husband, Jordan Mencher. The
company only uses local people and
accommodation in homestays or
hotels, also run by locals. Their
"Richard Noske (centre with Shita and Jordan (on his left)
and Meryl and Alan (on his right) at Papuarts, Raja Ampat" philosophy is similar to ELIs, namely
using sustainable jobs and enterprises dependent on the environment as a
conservation measure.
Richard Noske has known Shita for many years and this has cemented a
relationship between our company, ME and West Papua.
Headman and Guide, Zeth Wonggor
& Meryl by A.Wilson
Over seven days, we visited Syoubri village in the Arfak mountains, two hours from Manokwori (the
provincial capital), and Waigeo island in Raja Ampat National Park. Syoubri is the home of the Hatam
tribe of which there are four branches speaking different languages (there are over 500 languages in
Papua). The village is deep in the forest and we stayed in the Sifo Guest House run by the family of
Zeth Wonggar, a respected member in the community and an elder in the church. Shita has been
working with the village for more than 11 years.
The WOW factor are the Birds of Paradise (BOPs) of which there are seven species that can
be sighted here - Superb BOP, Black Sicklebill, Arfak Astrapia,
Buff-tailed Sicklebill, Long-tailed
Paradigalla, Western Parotia and
the Magnificent BOP. It was the
worst time of the year to visit (in
the rains), nevertheless we saw
two species and heard three.
Sightings of the BOP can be
guaranteed. The location also had
a plethora of other birds, possibly
the best was the Vogelkop Bower
bird, and magnificent butterflies.
The Vogelkops Bower Bird nest: Alan Wilson
Red Birds of Paradise: Alan Wilson
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Waigeo is the most important of the four main islands of Raja Ampat, and is where the
regency main town Waisai is located. The other three islands are
Misool, Sarawati and Batanta. We stayed at a local homestay run
by the local village. Raja Ampat is known as one of the last
paradises on earth and it lived up to this description- the most biodiverse reefs in the world with wonderful snorkeling and diving and
many forested islands full of birds including the Wilson’s BOP
(David Attenborough’s favourite bird) and the Red Bird of
Paradise. We saw both with the rare sighting of the Red BOPs
mating after the male gave us a fabulous dance.
Alan Wilson
The WOW factors are again the BOPs and reefs.
Raja ampat view: A.Wilson
Ecolodges Indonesia through Ecosafari Indonesia, will shortly begin tours to this great part of
Indonesia in association with Magnificus Expeditions ME – not to be missed.
LODGE BUTTERFLY PROFILES, LODGE ECO STANDARDS, and BUTTERFLY TOURS
Ecolodges Indonesia has now developed Butterfly Profiles for all our lodges and will soon be offering
butterfly tours at each lodge.
We have just commenced a Butterfly Profile for every location that wishes to participate in our
ECOLODGES INDONESIA ECO STANDARDS SYSTEM. All the butterflies are taken from “101
Butterflies of Lowland Indonesia” by Meryl Wilson.
Below is the first profile which is the gardens of the Bukit Asri Lodge in East Bali. The profile shows
the butterflies seen and identified by Meryl Wilson over a 24 hour period on a certain date - in this
case 7 April 2016. The owner when asked about butterflies stated "….there a very few in the garden",
but the profile shows what a gem he is missing. We hope the Bukit Asri Lodge will be the third hotel or
home stay to participate in this system, which is currently applied to all ELI-managed lodges.
2 Profiles of the butterflies of Bukit Asri lodge, East Bali.
For those interested in the presentations delivered at Binna Burra Mountain Lodge on
29th April, about the Kalimantan forest fires, click on the following links provided by
Steve Noakes:
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Ecotourism playing its part in Borneo forest fire management. Steve Noakes
https://issuu.com/www.pacificasiatourism.org/docs/forest_fires_kalimantan
Tanjung Puting National Park presentation (Pak Suday)
https://issuu.com/www.pacificasiatourism.org/docs/tanjung_puting_n_p_
Friends of the National Park - Tanjung Putting National Park. (Pak Adut)
https://issuu.com/www.pacificasiatourism.org/docs/fnpf_untuk_adut_in_australia
Regards, Steve
Instagram Account
We recently started an Instagram account,
@ecolodgesindonesia. On this account we
will be posting photos and information about
the lodges, and our guests will have the
opportunity to have their photos featured on
the page – simply tag your photos with the
hashtag #ecolodgesindonesia
Please Check
Ecosafari
& Ecolodgesindonesia on Facebook
.
We hope that you have enjoyed reading Ecolodges Indonesia's latest newsletter, and would like to
thank you again for your generous contributions. We trust that you appreciate and support Ecolodges
Indonesia’s continued commitment to wildlife conservation and our support for the local communities.
From the newsletter team:
Jocelyne Pegoretti, Karen Hagley, Richard Hagley and Ross Krippner.
Byron Bay, Australia.
Contact details:
Head office: Phone – Int:62(0)361 747 4204
Indonesia:0361 747 4204
[email protected]
www.ecolodgesindonesia.com
www.ecosafariindonesia.com
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