Save Ayamaru Lakes

WHO WE ARE?

The Save Ayamaru Lakes  community was first initiated and founded in 2013 in Manado, North Sulawesi (Indonesia).

Our community was formed with the spirit and purpose of building collective efforts in the Maybrat indigenous community to save the Ayamaru lake ecosystem and the conservation of Rainbow Fish   

We are a local community organization in which all members of the Save Ayamaru Lakes community are indigenous youth from the Maybrat Tribe. Most of the management of our organization came from 2 villages in West Papua Province :
Aves village (152 inhabitants)
Framu villages (567 inhabitants)

Our work focuses on our communities who directly benefit from the activities we are doing. Most of the Maybrat indigenous people in Framu and Aves villages are farmers, fishermen, village officials and daily jobs for government projects. If you want to know more about the Maybrat indigenous people in Frama and Aves villages, you can contact us and we will send you details!  ✉️

The natural and cultural assets of the Ayamaru & the Maibrat tribe are:
- Forests
- Lakes
- Rainbow fish
- Gardens
- Houses
- Cenderawasih Bay
- Eastern fabrics

We need your help, to raise money to educate our community and protect our assets before it's too late.



WHAT'S THE PROBLEM WE WANT TO SOLVE ?
 
The Ayamary lakes are about 216km or 4 - 5 hours' drive from Sorong City, West Papua.

This lake is located in a stretch of karst (limestone or limestone) known as the Ayamaru plateau at an altitude of 280–385 meters above sea level (masl). With a lake area of ​​980 hectares and a maximum depth of 6 meters. The stretch of water during the rainy season turns into shallow small pools during the dry season. The expanse of land that is formed in some of its water areas is covered with semi-aquatic flora. This condition is similar to floodplain lakes in Kalimantan, which experience water level fluctuations in line with the influencing river flow patterns.


Ayamaru lake (Tiwit Ayamaru)

Proper conservation and management of Lake Ayamaru must be carried out ! 

The endemic fish of Danau Ayamaru are threatened with extinction due to various activities carried out in and around Lake Ayamaru. Massive development, open road access, clearing of forests and land for development needs in Kampung and Maybrat Regency, shifting cultivation activities in the community, and the continued elevation of the Ayamaru Lake as a natural destination location in Papua's Bird's Head are accumulative threats to its ecosystem. .

Privatization of water for the benefit of individuals by constructing pipelines and tubs for toilets directly at the spring around the lake, which is the habitat for Rainbow fish and serves as a source of water for the lake. This also reduces the periodic discharge of lake water given the physical nature of the Ayamaru lake which is very dependent on contributing water supplies other than rainfall.

The issue of understanding at the community level about lakes and their ecosystems is an important asset belonging to adat and the region has not been strongly recognized. The Ayamaru Lakes community once wrote an article about a forgotten treasure to explain how the lake ecosystem and ornamental fish in the lake are not seen as important in the community.

Currently there is no effort in the community to build or cultivate ornamental fish endemic to Danau Ayamaru as a commodity of high quality. In fact, since the 1980s when the demand for Rainbow fish has increased in the market, there has been massive fishing in the wild and has brought economic benefits to local communities.

The tourism potential in the Framu river / lake has developed and is viral on social media, but the understanding of tourism and what kind of tourism model is not clear in the community. There is no concept of tourism development to protect the Ayamaru Lake ecosystem. People only see this as conventional tourism. Currently there are public facilities that have been built by the government but there is no organized management mechanism. There are quite a lot of local visitors, so far there has been no specific data on the number of visitors and the number of admissions in the community but based on social media posts we can see a major increase.

The nomadic agricultural pattern affects the ecological vulnerability around the fund - besides that, planning for production and business sustainability is not yet a part of community livelihood planning. The existing planning in the indigenous community is planning for garden management for household subsistence needs. When the Framu Lake tourism object becomes an emerging destination, the community is not ready with the planning and agenda on how to provide amenities, especially healthy food for tourists.

The integration of the protection of the Ayamaru Lake ecosystem, agriculture for community food security, the protection of cultural customs and the development of Lake Framu tourism as a source of community economic income is not yet clear. There is no Lembang / Framu Lake tourism management group and no planning.

There are not many human resources involved in business. Even though the potential of youth with higher education is quite a lot. The value orientation and the perception that civil servants and politics are the only potential sources of income appear to be the main walls blocking the desire to see other job opportunities. The implication is that all business sectors in Sorong, even the majority, are still dominated by outsiders. This fact is certainly an irony to the problem because the natural potential in Maybrat is quite abundant. Framu and Aves villages which are the focus of this project, for example, have high-value ornamental fish whose demand is quite high in the market, but no ornamental fish cultivation and business efforts in Maybrat have been built. Likewise with tourism, youth have not seen tourism with all the business opportunities in it as an important potential that must be worked on.

If it is allowed to continue, the community will continue to experience an economic downturn, especially they cannot become economic actors independently because they cannot produce goods or services in accordance with economic law.

The high dependence on the government as the main source of income is not seen as a regulator or facilitator so this will continue to burden the government in implementing its programs and policies

Indigenous peoples will be marginalized when there is a shift in the value of their natural surroundings that reflect their culture and collective memory continuously from generation to generation.

The sustainability of natural ecosystems that are vulnerable to damage cannot be prevented because there is no awareness that is built comprehensively between nature conservation and business as a unit

The declaration of West Papua province as a conservation province will not be successfully applied equally to the community because there has not been synergy in education and awareness of the importance of nature conservation as the only legacy for posterity.


WHAT WE HAVE ACCOMPLISHED SO FAR

Since 2013 we have :
✅compiled a list of studies related to Rainbow fish
✅built several scientific discussions related to the importance of rainbow fish conservation
✅conducted an expedition on the status of Rainbow fish in Ayamaru Lake ✅carried out campaigns to raise awareness about the ecological importance of Lake Ayamaru 
✅ been involved with TRANS 7 (one of Indonesia's National TVs) as a guide and direct contributor in making the Si Bolang Trans 7 program in 2016 with the topic of guard natural lake Ayamaru for 3 episodes
✅ influenced the Maybrat youth movement to be involved in activities to save the lake and its potential
✅ been invited as participants in the Papua III Film Festival in Sorong 2019
✅ carried out the Aquatic Expedition in Ayamaru, which was with the Ornamental Fish Expert from Germany; Heiko Behler is one of the important advances that resulted in a study of the status of rainbow fish in the lakes of Ayamaru and Uter and the threat of its extinction.
✅ Some of our expeditions and work have been published in several international magazines such as Amazonas Magazine.



You can also have a look on our Facebook page to see our latest updates : https://id-id.facebook.com/SaveAyamaruLakes/

Because of several obstacles that are mainly political and financial, we were not able to achieve some of our goals. That's why WE NEED YOU !

OUR PROJECT

Compiling a design and management plan for the eco-tourism of Lake Framu that integrates the protection of the Ayamaru Lake ecosystem, agriculture for community food security and the promotion of the Meibrat ethnic culture.

Build a Meibrat Indigenous Youth Community business unit that manages the tourism potential of Lake Framu and the endemic ornamental fish business of Framu Lake.

An integrated eco-tourism management plan with agriculture for food security, conservation of Danau Ayamaru and promotion of the culture of the Meibrat tribe

Established A traditional youth-owned business entity was formed with a business plan for managing tourism and ornamental fish endemic to Ayamaru Lake, which is available for promotion and business development.


COST



During the last 2 years we independently managed funding for an average of 700 dollars a year. This funding comes from several Fund raising efforts that we have in the City of Manado and in Sorong, individual donations of community members, and donations from sympathizers of the Save Ayamaru Lakes community from Europe affiliated with the IRG / International Regenbogenfiche Geschalft organization (international rainbowfish association).

Now we would like to raise awareness and help from the international community.