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What is Gili Eco Trust?

Gili Eco Trust is an NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation) that was created in 2010 with a mission to protect the coral reefs around the Gili Islands in Indonesia from destructive fishing practices. It is based in Gili Trawangan and is also known as Yayasan Ekosistem Gili Indah. Here are links to their Website and Facebook Page. There used to be a lot of cyanide and dynamite fishing which is both destructive for the corals and the coral reef ecosystem.  After a terrible El Niño event in 1997-1998, an agreement was soon established between the fisherman to end the destructive fishing practices.

The mission of the NGO is to create a sustainable island as well as “to promote ecotourism and provide a healthy environment for working animals. To restore our coral reefs and to replenish our natural fish populations. To ensure that all waste created on Gili T is reduced to minimum levels and managed and separated properly for recycling projects where materials can be transported off the island.”

In addition, they have several goals:

  • Restore and protect the coral reefs around the Gili islands by building more Biorock structures*, installing moorings to prevent further anchor damage and provide education and marine workshops.
  • Prevent and manage waste and rubbish on Gili Trawangan by recycling and educating both locals and tourists.
  • Clean up Gili Trawangan by organizing weekly beach clean-ups and island clean-up days.
  • Reducing the amount of plastic on the island by motivating businesses to provide water refill stations and get locals and tourists to stop buying bottled water, and encouraging the ban of plastic bags.
  • A structure that creates artificial coral reefs through building a steel frame and putting a low voltage of direct current through in the ocean, that slowly grows into a coral reef.

 

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Family Festival

On the 14th of March, UWCSEA East campus hosted the annual Family Festival. Gili Eco Trust participated in the event by selling merchandise and helping out the zero waste stall by washing dirty dishes and leasing out plates, bowls and cutlery. This was aimed to reduce waste at the event.

This was one of our best years at the event as we were able to sell a lot of our merchandise. However, it is still important to constantly strive for improvement which will be presented in the following SWOT Analysis.

1) Strengths
-The addition of primary school students and teachers to our stall helped to appeal and sell to a younger audience
-The organised nature of our stall in terms of student allocation
-General products sold: Including low performers such as the Glitter and T-Shirts
-Active advertising: High School students successfully managed to actively attract parents

2) Weaknesses
-Organisation of the various clothing that we sold during the event: The boxes they were in were not organised making it more difficult to find the correct sizes

Opportunities
-Selling the glitter: Due to more appropriate pricing
-We managed to get rid of our excess stock of reusable bags

Threats
-The reliance on a single finance person: Iman was there for the whole time and managed the stall
-Next time brief everyone on money collection

Below is our SWOT analysis for the zero waste stall

1) Strengths
-We managed to reduce the waste at the family festival by not using non-reusable tableware.
-Able to lease out plates effectively and efficiently
-A constant flow of leasing and washing.

2) Weaknesses
-There was limited organisation before the event as the timings and roles were decided too late
-The roles and responsibilities were not kept at times.

Opportunities
-Connect our environmental sustainability with zero waste and our aims of our GC

Threats
-We did not have enough change to give back to the customers as many used 50 dollar notes to pay for the leasing.

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Contact Us

Iman – Chair: mohd66080@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

Oscar- Vice-Chair: landg76129@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

Arjun – Vice chair: bharg10421@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

Arnav – Finance: agarw76727@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

Ran – Media: mccle51104@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

Ashima – Communications: nivsa101000@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

 

 

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Swimdonesia Reflection

In October we had an event called Swimdoneisa together with Surf Aid and Jakarta Street Kids to raise money for our respective Global Concerns. During Swimdonesia Gili Eco Trust was responsible for the managing of the obstacle course named “The Destroyer”, and selling our merchandise and products throughout the event by the pool.
Overall, the event was a success, barring a few minor issues. The pool obstacle was a massive success and was managed really well by us despite the huge amounts of people in line to go on this obstacle. It was a lot better than last year when almost no one came and all the activities that we had did not work during the event. It was better this time as we learned from our mistakes and took steps to improve. We planned a lot further in advance and so we were completely ready when the event came. We tried to get as many people to the event from our school event through the use of posters, to presentations and E-briefs. Thus, this event was much more heard of in the community this time than last time. In addition, we had this pool obstacle from Dover which we did not have last time. This was probably the main focus of the event, which made it very popular.  
However, there were a few issues such as the location of our stall as it was placed behind the rest of the stalls and was hardly visible to the general public, an effect of this problem was that not as many people came to buy our merchandise from our stall.
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About Us Video

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About our Global Concern

About Us:

As an organisation, Gili Eco Trust’s projects encompass a wide variety of conservation efforts, ranging from our highly successful “Biorock” program, which provides long-term, sustainable structures to support coral growth in the reefs surrounding Gili. By running an electrical current through the steel structure (which acts as an exoskeleton for coral), the growth of coral life is stimulated, thus fighting the damage which has been wrought upon the coral surrounding Gili in recent years.

We are also involved in various campaigns, both on and off-campus, to raise awareness on the many environmental issues that threaten the rich marine biodiversity around Gili. Our goals tie closely with the 14th Sustainable Development Goals established by UN; Life Under Water and our responsibility to protect it.

Our major events are Family Festival (a big bazaar each year in March at UWCSEA with carnival-themed activities, stalls and food) and Swimdonesia (a joint event with two other GCs to raise money through water activities, food, stalls and a Swim for Life event where swimmers swim a determined amount of length raising money through sponsors).

Our video on our GC

Quick infographic on our aims and goals of our GC