from left to right (Mrs.Budi, Physics Student, Physics Student, Me, Physics Student, Mr. Budi, Rindra, Cakra, Ryannika, Ida, Amir)
Today is a big day. Why? Because today we meet Mr. Budi. He is the owner of Pondok Wisata Sadranan, a tourism provider in Sadranan beach, Gunungkidul. It’s established about half years ago, a very young age like a baby :D. Anw, what kind of tourism they offer? Snorkeling!
In our previous post several months ago i wrote about protected back reef, here it is! Actually, it’s quite surprising we can find a quite huge area with coral reef colony in Gunung Kidul Area since strong wave exposure is dominant characteristics of this area due to oceanic swell. However, that protected back reef provides protection for coral colony in this beach.
In this meeting we try to initiate a marine edutourism and a marine education program. This idea arises from previous discussion with Mr. Budi that he need a help to give the name of coral and fish species to make a teaching module for visitor and student in primary school. “There are a lot of very young age pupils in the school that still don’t know that coral is a living things, not just a stone. I want to make them more interested with marine life” he said.
As we know that in the past five years, the coastal ecosystem of Gunung Kidul, has seen a massive increase in tourism activities and stimulated the local economy. However, greater influx of visitors forcing redevelopment of public facilities, which unless planned carefully, has the capacity to cause significant harm to the environment. Its impact on marine resources, must be considered, as these resources are what attract tourists and provide the source of local people’s livelihood. Hence, as an academician, we have a responsibility to educate people and find a win-win solution! Wish us luck 🙂
