Previously a wild bird poacher, Nengah Sudipa is now enjoying what seems to be the unlikeliest chance of repentance as a birdwatcher at the Bali Starling bird sanctuary on his home island, Nusa Penida, just off the southeast of Bali.
Eleven years ago, Nengah was a nine-year-old boy with a skillful flair for trapping birds in the wilds of Nusa Penida with only one intention: sell them for extra cash.
Nengah said, though, this was now a thing of the past for him; he’s no longer interested in making money from wild birds. Since being recruited by the Friends of the National Parks Foundation (FNPF) that initiated the Bali Starling bird sanctuary, Nengah’s tasks include feeding the quarantined birds, monitoring the birds in the wild and taking visitors and newly arrived volunteers on guided tours.
“I would have been rich by now from selling wild Bali Starlings. I can easily catch them if I want to, because I know where they nest. But I just don’t want to anymore,” said Nengah, citing around 15 different spots throughout the island where the birds breed. It is estimated a pair of mature Bali Starlings costs up to Rp 50 million (US$5,450), while the chicks cost Rp 10 million each.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and natural resources declared the Bali Starling an endangered species in 1966. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species placed the Bali Starling on its critical list in 1978. As early as the 1980s, the government and bird protection organizations worldwide saw the urgency for immediate action to prevent the bird going into extinction. Captive breeding programs were successfully run in Bali, yet, the birds released into the wild were quickly poached and their population continued to plummet. In 2005, FNPF founder, veterinary I Gede Nyoman Bayu Wirayudha, estimated there were fewer than 10 birds left in the wild at the Bali National Park, the bird’s native home.
After thorough studies on the environmental situation between the West Bali National Park and Nusa Penida, as many as 70 first-generation Bali Starlings were released throughout Nusa Penida from 2007. The latest FNPF data shows that there are currently more than 100 starlings living in the wild, some of which have even flown across to the neighboring Nusa Lembongan island.
The Manager of the FNPF base camp in Ped village on Nusa Penida, Si Nyoman Sukarta, acknowledged the challenges faced during the early establishment period on the island.
“At first, it wasn’t easy to introduce the concept of conservation to the Nusa Penida villagers, who had never even heard of the term.” Sukarta recalled the first two years of the program was spent approaching the 40 villages to gain agreement on the creation of an awig-awig (traditional law) to prohibit the capturing of wild birds. The awig-awig stipulates that anyone capturing wild birds on Nusa Penida would have to pay a penalty worth the market price of the birds and release the captured birds into the wild again. They would also be obliged to make a public apology.
“We assured the villagers that the presence of the Bali Starling would eventually grow tourism on the island and thus generate more income for them,” said Sukarta. He stated that in recent years, the island has indeed started welcoming more local and foreign visitors, while some of the villagers have also discovered new sources of income, such as tour-guiding. The six people employed at the FNPF center are also local villagers.
FNPF also embraces the community through various programs, including providing scholarships for students from each of the villages, building water catchments, land reforestation, distribution of free saplings to village communities and promoting the island’s traditional cepuk cloth weaving. In addition, financial rewards worth Rp 1 million are also disbursed to every village that continues to support the conservation project.
“I love this island and I truly believe in this project. It would be very hard if we only supported the wildlife, without involving the community. Protection comes first and foremost from the locals,” said the sanctuary’s self-proclaimed “permanent volunteer” and a retired special-education expert, Mike Appleton, 60, who has called Nusa Penida home for the past year, unwilling to return to his native United Kingdom.
By Agnes Winarti
Published in Bali Daily/The Jakarta Post, Friday, May 04 2012
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