Full transcription of our conversation with Delphine Robbe of Gili Eco Trust.
Find the summary, our favourite quotes and all links mentioned in this episodes in our show notes here.
Regina Larko 0:03
For the most part, the sea is out of sight and out of mind. It is telling that there is only a single fleeting reference to the ocean in the Paris Agreement on climate change. In this episode, our guest host Aishah Fauzi, based in Bali, sits down with Delphine Robbe from the Gili Eco Trust to bring Sustainable Development Goal 14 – Life below water – in focus.
I am Regina Larko, founder of #impact – A podcast about stuff that matters. And I’m really excited for you because in a moment you get to listen to an eye-opening conversation. Just a word of warning, you will never look at the oceans the same way again, but in a good way. You will get equipped with knowledge how to make your own impact too. If you find inspiration here at our channel, please support our work by joining #impact Club, a nurturing community for changemakers just like you. Find more information at www.hashtagimpact.com/club.
Aishah Fauzi 1:25
A big hello to everybody joining us today as the #impact Podcast listeners. I am Aishah Fauzi, your guest host for #impact Podcast coming to you from Bali for Season 5 and focusing on the UN Sustainable Development Goals or as we like to call them the SDGs.
So here, we have a really exciting episode today, and it’s with Delphine Robbe, the Coordinator and Project Manager for Gili Eco Trust. Some of you might be asking – what is Gili Eco Trust? It’s an NGO on the Indonesian islands of Gili, which are just north of Lombok. Now, this is a rather personal story for me because my husband and I spent Christmas 2020 just recently in the Gili Islands, and as you can imagine, it was an idyllic Island holiday. We did lots of snorkeling and diving, my husband actually qualified as a scuba diver with his PADI Open Water, and we managed to see, I want to say, about 20 big leatherback turtles – Dephine, you can probably correct me later in terms of which turtles we saw.
Delphine Robbe 2:36
Yes.
Aishah Fauzi 2:36
But they’re as big as, imagine, coffee tables in your house. Right? So this is super, super exciting that we get to talk to Delphine, somebody who’s been in the Gilis for a while and is doing great, great work there.
So, as you listen to the podcast today, I want you to imagine that you are looking out over a crystal clear turquoise ocean with the views of the neighboring islands as if you could walk there – although you actually can’t, you have to take a fast boat.
So, Delphine – Hi and welcome! How are you?
Delphine Robbe 3:09
I’m good, thanks. Hi Aishah.
Aishah Fauzi 3:11
Great. So, it’s so lovely to have you here today. Before we start…
Delphine Robbe 3:16
Thank you.
Aishah Fauzi 3:16
How are the Gili Islands today?
Delphine Robbe 3:19
Today we are very, very, very quiet.
Aishah Fauzi 3:23
Sunny?
Delphine Robbe 3:25
Yes, very sunny. Blue sky, blue water, big tides because of the full moon recently. Clear water, the surfers are happy. Yeah, it’s hot, but we’ve got the ocean.
Aishah Fauzi 3:39
You’re so lucky to live on the Gilis. So, I think everyone probably is also thinking the same thing. We’d like to know a little bit more about you and how, how you came to live on the Gili Islands and how you got involved with the Gili Eco Trust. So, could you tell us a little bit more about that?
Delphine Robbe 3:57
Sure. I arrived on the Gilis in 2004 after traveling around the world for about almost two years, and after, I didn’t want to go home and try to find a job. Home is France, so I was looking for something else to do and someone I met during my travels said ‘oh, you should go to the Gilis because you love the horses and you love scuba diving and it will be the perfect place for you, no motorbike, no cars, everything with bicycle and horses, and beautiful diving’. So I said, okay, let’s go there to do divemaster and diving instructor course, which I did within the first few months I arrived here with Big Bubble Dive. And after that, I started to teach diving, which is nice.
But as a biology engineer, I was like, I need to do something else, I need to do something else, and so, with my friends we, we decided to give back a part of our salary to the oceans and in particular to the coral reefs. And we looked into what we could do and we found the biorock technology that was used in Pemutaran, North West Bali. So I went there to meet the scientists Tom Goreau and Wolf Hilbertz, and I learned about the technology and then I came back to the island to set up the first reef and, and with Tom. And then that’s how I joined the Gili Eco Trust, because the Gili Eco Trust was already existing on the island doing protection of the ocean, but it’s not that not much was done, but not much was really seen.
The Gili Eco Trust was set up in 2001 to support SATGAS youth association that were, like young, young people from the island local communities who were defending their waters and their coral reefs from dynamite fishing, which was still happening quite a lot at that time and cyanide fishing. So the Gili Eco Trust was set up by the dive shops to ask a donation from each diver to support SATGAS efforts. So once I joined, we did the Biorock Reef Restoration, we did an agreement, a contract with the fishermen from the Gilis, and then we started working with the government in setting up the zones, the zoning of the marine protected area called Gili Matra, which is Gili Air, Gili Meno and Gili Trawangan.
Aishah Fauzi 6:47
Right.
Delphine Robbe 6:48
So that’s how I joined.
Aishah Fauzi 6:49
Yeah, that’s fascinating. And it seems like it was, it was, more of a progression, almost as if the cause and islands found you as much as you found them. So, but before we go any further, I just want to go back to what you’d said there about the dynamite and the cyanide fishing, because I think this is something that people don’t realize is happening, right? And if we’re talking about conservation, and we’re talking about, you know, what is actually happening in the oceans and why the situation is pretty dire, we need to understand how that came about, especially from such negative, negative practices like this. So could you just explain a little bit about cyanide and dynamite fishing and the impact that that has had on the Gili Islands?
Delphine Robbe 7:37
Sure. So, cyanide and and dynamite fishing, I call destructive fishing methods because they’re destroying the whole habitat. So with dynamite fishing, a fisherman will make a homemade bomb and then drop it in the water and it will explode as soon as it touches the seabed, so destroying the whole coral reef, and all the fish will just float up from the bomb. And so the fisherman’s got like very easy fishing by just collecting the fish he wants from the surface. But the problem is because he destroyed the, the habitat, the next day, he can’t come back on the same place to fish again because everything is gone. So it just, dynamite fishing leaves like a crater on the seabed, and then just piles of rubble.
And then, cyanide fishing is used to fish aquarium fish. And then, usually people with a compressor or scuba diving or just with the hosepipe from the compressor are going down and they spray cyanide which is a poison onto the anemone, when after Finding Nemo film.
Aishah Fauzi 9:03
Ahh, that’s Nemo’s home isn’t it? The sea anemone.
Delphine Robbe 9:06
Yeah and then, and then, and then but also like the little fish we call Damsel, Dascyllus, Butterflyfish, all the very colorful fish that live on the reefs that people like to have, in a, in a tank at home, so those fish just get sprayed by the cyanide, so they’re sleepy. So instead of hiding deep in the coral, and it’s not possible for the fishermen to keep, to catch them alive, they just become sleepy, so floating up again, so it’s easy to catch them, put them in a plastic bag and then, and then trade them. But the thing is because it’s a poison, the fish is, is, is stressed and is dying. So it usually take, takes about two or three weeks for the fish to die, but that gives enough time for the traders to export the fish to Singapore, Hong Kong, Europe, America, wherever that is, and enough time for any client to buy the fish.
And then, it’s actually the client who feels guilty thinking that his water tank does not, doesn’t have the water quality, or not enough salt, or whatever and then, and then keeps on going to the same shop to buy more fish when actually it’s the way the fish was fished that’s the issue.
Not only the cyanide kills the fish after a while, it kills instantly the coral. So, you can see the places where people have been using cyanide fishing, because the coral instead of being super colorful, and with, like blue, pink, green, many colors, everything is just black, and then it gets covers of algae. And then, because it gets covered in algae, and the coral has been poisoned as well, it can’t even be the substrate for baby corals to grow on.
Aishah Fauzi 11:02
Yeah, essentially, there’s a certain irony here isn’t there because we’re talking about fishermen, people from coastal communities whose livelihoods depend on the ocean, depend on the coral reefs, for food to sell and to eat, but also for meeting the demand that wider society has. We see fish in aquariums, we see fish at the Duty Free for instance, right? In different cosmetics aquarium displays, and we think – oh, that’s so lovely – but actually it all comes at a cost.
And that is the topic that we’re discussing today in terms of how a healthy ocean sustains better communities. And it’s a bit of a tipping point here that we are now seeing quite a number of documentaries and publications. So, just two that probably most people have seen or heard of would be Chasing Coral and the other documentary is a recent one, Seaspiracy. Both of these are on Netflix, if you haven’t watched them, I really recommend that you do. But we’re starting to see that what everyone thought was always going to be there, right, the ocean is now at a tipping point. And we may actually lose the battle.
So, in terms of what you’ve been seeing, Delphine, and in terms of Gili Eco Trust’s work to date, what are some of the biggest changes that you’ve seen since you arrived in the Gilis in 2004 to where we are today?
Delphine Robbe 12:26
The changes are quite positive, because we’ve been really active on, on the coral reefs, but the, like restoring and protecting and educating and placing mooring buoys. And as I said before, the fishermen agreements, so most of the coral reefs around are getting better.
But then, because globally, the planet is not getting better sometimes we get hit with mass coral bleaching some really high temperature, and that kills all our efforts and then we can’t do anything. Because the temperature is high, because, because the earth is warming and it’s changing the climate, the usual El Nino warm current instead of coming when it’s the dry season and the air is cooler, is actually coming during the rainy season when the air is really hot as well, so nothing gets balanced.
It’s when your grandparents will say, like – oh, there is no more seasons. Yeah because, because of global warming, we are changing the climate and, and the ocean is actually creating the climate, but it’s also impacted so much by the warming of the earth. And that, that’s really hard to observe and, and to watch when you’ve been planting all those baby corals and they’ve been growing and reproducing and, and all those fish are living in it and then, and then you get a huge, huge mass coral bleaching like in 2016 that was really bad one with like temperature up to 34 degrees in the sea, and you just can’t do anything.
Aishah Fauzi 14:11
So the fish, the turtles are all in distress?
Delphine Robbe 14:14
Yeah, they’re all going. And we don’t know where they’re going, they’re just going away. In terms of the local communities, they don’t really understand what’s happening but, but they, they’re also living the consequences because they, they need, they need the reef to sustain their family. They need the reef to have, to have tourism and income as well. But then in one year, like this, it just happened where we’re losing a lot of the coral reef and so everything that we tried to set up in a sustainable way just get destroyed because of a global issue.
Aishah Fauzi 14:55
Hmmm right, and so just let’s, let’s, let’s talk about the coral reefs for a second because you mentioned that you learnt the technology in, was it, West Bali when you first arrived in the Gilis. And then you started partnering with the Gili Eco Trust to actually implement that in the Gilis. So, could you just talk us through what the biorock technology is and how that actually helps the corals?
Delphine Robbe 15:18
Sure. So the biotechnology is, is a reef restoration technology that we use to recreate the reef biome. So we use electricity, which is weird like – using electricity under water – but we’re actually doing an electrolysis, so we’re doing using a very low voltage, so between two different metals. So, one metal is called the anode and we use titanium, and the other metal, metal we use is steel so normal steel rebar that you will use to build a house or road or things like this. And we make a shape, so we build our reef with the steel.
So we’ve made many turtles, we’ve made some dolphins, we’ve made some just normal tunnels and domes and things like this. And then, you’re going to place that that steel structure after being welded into the water next to the anode, and both anode and cathode are connected to a cable. So then, you get two cables coming out of the sea, all the way to the shoreline, all the way to the beach, where you can have a power supply which is a usual battery charger that you’ll use for your car or anything you need a battery, and that will deliver direct current. So, we use alternative current for our houses, but this is a power supply that change the alternative current into direct current, so the electricity is going to go through the cable all the way to the, to the biorock. So it goes, the positive goes all the way to the anode, and that’s where the reaction start and the electrolytic reaction goes through the seawater. And the rest of the result of the electrolytic reaction is that the steel structure is never going to rust, but it’s actually going to grow calcium carbonate or limestone, okay, so it’s the best substrate for the corals because it’s also the composition of the coral exoskeleton.
The polyps, which is the animal living – the polyp is the coral animal – is producing usually the calcium carbonate. It’s so, with the electro, electrolysis reaction we’re speeding up the normal reaction of coral growth. So, the corals attached on the biorock and up to 10 meters away from the biorock are beneficiating from that electrolysis, and basically they can relax and be happy, rather than spending a lot of energy growing. And so, when you go and see the corals on the biorock, they’re just all happy with their tentacles out and lots of fish around. And then, with different studies and research that we’ve done, we’ve also found out that the corals on the biorock are more resistant to stresses.
During 2016, when we add the mass coral bleaching – so high temperature – basically, what’s happening is the polyp is going to expel its symbiotic algae. The symbiotic algae living within the coral tissue is usually doing photosynthesis producing oxygen for us, but also giving all the nutrients to the coral to feed and so, to grow. And it gives the coral its colour, so that, when it’s high temperature it’s not the polyp that is actually hurt but it’s the symbiotic algae that is called zooxanthellae that cannot carry on normal photosynthesis because of the high temperature. And so, the coral is like – oh, I don’t like what you’re feeding me with – so it expel the symbiotic algae and then loses its color. So, it’s called bleaching.
So, the whole time the coral is bleached and becomes totally white, the coral is still alive, but it’s starving and it’s not growing. So, if the temperature – the high temperature – lasts for a very long time, let’s say two three months or more, then the coral is going to die of starvation and stress and so gets covered with algaes. But if, or the temperature comes back to normal which happens sometime with like, short bleaching event, then the coral can catch a symbiotic algae again that does the photosynthesis, and then starts feeding again the coral. So, on the biorock, all the corals bleach, but they never die. We’ve got 100% survival.
Aishah Fauzi 20:13
And so I think as you said earlier, right? It’s about developing resilience for the corals. Because I think in the way nature works as well, life averages out, right? There are extreme events on both sides, like, you know, you might get a cold weather snap, you might get a heat wave. But ultimately, if you develop the resilience of that ecosystem, that is the benefit for that marine environment were a little bit of a change doesn’t really affect the overall health and survival of the coral environment. Is that right?
Delphine Robbe 20:44
Yeah it gives, it gives hope for the future. But it doesn’t mean we, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t stop preventing global warming and, and things like this. It’s just that the nature needs us now, because we’ve been destroying it for so much that we need that kind of technology, or we need to put our hands on, on the reefs, our hands to collect the plastic on the beach or in the sea, just trying to help everyday, you know, do a little thing every day have a net positive impact on your environment.
Regina Larko 21:22
Coming up, you will learn about ecotourism, which standards and principles need to be put in place for it to be truly impactful, and what role the Sustainable Development Goals play in this conversation. But first, let me share about our favorite podcasts when it comes to SDG 14 – Life below water.
We love the podcasts – Water Women, Sustainable Asia, and Shark Brain. We love them for their insights, for their amazing storytelling and interviews. Another podcast we binge listen to all the time is Global GoalsCast by Edie Lush, and Claudia Romo Edelman. We are teaming up for a live Clubhouse broadcast with Global GoalsCast on June 17th, 2021. You’ll find the links to all the podcasts we just mentioned in the show notes of this episode. If you are listening on a player, an app, you will find the link in the episode description, or, simply head over to www.hashtagimpact.com/listen where you’ll find all of our episodes. Now, back to the conversation.
Aishah Fauzi 22:40
There’s more coverage nowadays of, you know, the events that you speak of and even about the ocean in general. So, for the listeners that might need something visual to, to imagine what Delphine’s been explaining about the coral restoration and the coral ecosystem health, Chasing Coral – the documentary on Netflix – actually gives a really good visual illustration of how quick some of these events can actually happen.
And even though there are these positive measures that Delphine is talking about and, and Delphine, you’ll agree with this, this is somehow only a band-aid, right? Because you can’t fix every coral reef because the issue is there are so many reefs that are broken or that are needing the, the urgent attention from everyone. And so it’s everyone’s responsibility I suppose, to learn, to gain more information and to become aware of the issues.
So – ecotourism, Delphine. That’s what I want to come to.
Delphine Robbe 23:35
Ecoourism? Yeah.
Aishah Fauzi 23:36
How do you actually define ecotourism? Because that seems to be the trend nowadays, everyone talks about – oh look, we are an eco-company, we do ecotourism. But what does it really mean? And from your perspective, how does that impact you and what you’ve been doing?
Delphine Robbe 23:50
I think ecotourism, at the moment it’s, it’s a trendy thing for hotels and resorts. They do follow some guidelines, but I don’t think there is enough control. And then, many people will just nominate themselves as being ecotouristic with only a few efforts, and they’re not really doing great. I think you need to have your own, have your own standards, have your own principle, and then go into that business or resorts and make sure they follow those principles.
Aishah Fauzi 24:31
I think it’s unregulated, right? Pretty much?
Delphine Robbe 24:34
Yeah it’s, it’s unregulated. I think, when a few years ago, we applied for a grant through booking.com that was called, Booking Care and, Booking Cares and we, we were trying to set up like the Green Gili Award so, so we could actually judge our output – 1 green star, 2 green stars, 3 green stars – to all the resorts, hotels, homestays, villas on the island, according to what they do for the environment and, and many big NGOs, foundations, lobbying company, even politicians are just paying, paying people, paying for project that rarely happen, rarely happens on the field, because they just want to buy their good consciousness, but that’s not what helps in ecotourism.
It is really the action by every individual and really following some principles and guidelines, like waste separation, cleaning up the beach every day, and not having any, you know, buying only vegetables, fruits, or any cleaning products, soap, shampoo, things like this that come in recyclable packaging, you know? So, everything can be reused, recycled, rather than bringing everything with silver lining packaging, or things that you can’t do anything with. Or, having reusable bag, having a water gallon in every room and, and so, people can refill their bottle. Lots of simple things like this and, and even if the customers are not aware, well that’s changed for them to become aware that they can do the same back home.
Aishah Fauzi 26:30
Right. I think, you know, one, one word that just really jumps out to me is impact, right? Because it’s all about impact. Everyone wants to be involved.
Delphine Robbe 26:39
Yes.
Aishah Fauzi 26:39
Everyone is drawn to the concept of ecotourism, because of the supposed impact that it is perceived to have on the communities that are involved in serving the tourists and welcoming them onto their island and also for the governments, right? So you think – okay, it’s impactful – people are drawn to that. But what needs to happen, as you correctly say, Delphine, there needs to be certain guidelines in place.
And so one, one thing that I’m hearing a lot about, and I briefly mentioned this, in our introduction, is the SDGs, the Sustainable Development Goals. Now there’s one specifically for the ocean, which is SDG No. 14 – Life under water.
Delphine Robbe 27:22
Yeah.
Aishah Fauzi 27:22
Are you seeing the SDGs as creating awareness and, and how has that actually, or has it actually, had much of an impact on the Gili Eco Trust and the work that’s been done, and even behaviors around that with people who come to the island?
Delphine Robbe 27:39
Well the, the, as you said, the impact is the most important, but everyone needs to be aware that it’s, they can do something to change their impact, rather than hoping that someone else will do it for them or that money will buy it away, and then the SDG No. 14 – Life under water, because of COVID at the moment, we are only two working at the Gili Eco Trust, we usually have like 10 volunteers or interns helping us but now it’s only me and my colleague. So we’re changing, we’ve changed completely our way of working. We’re maintaining reefs as much as we can but we’re spending a lot of time in front of our computers, applying for grants, applying for awards, writing concept notes and writing proposal using those SDGs to help us gain some funding.
And the most important that, is raising awareness, education, and that happens when you’re actually showing to people what you’re doing. You know and, and it’s like, so because we’ve started so many projects for so many years, we’ve got all the content for awards, but now we’ve got to find a way of making those those words into a strong impact so we can get the fundings, and can get, can get the grants so we can carry on those projects. And with the sustainable, Sustainable Development Goals you, you find a lot of literature and things like this that you can learn. We join many webinars as well. So our network is growing, and hopefully we will get, we will get some funding so we can fix all the issues that also happened during COVID. One of the nice quotes I like is ‘the greatest threat, threat to our ocean is the assumption that someone else will save it’.
Aishah Fauzi 29:49
That is such an impactful quote. The, the one that I am then reminded of is it, it seems to be a meme that everyone’s probably seen on social media – ‘Oh don’t worry, it’s only one plastic straw’ said 8 billion people. Right?
Delphine Robbe 30:05
Yeah, exactly.
Aishah Fauzi 30:05
So that’s the flip side. Again, I was doing some research for this episode today. One of the articles I read on The Economist online magazine was that ‘for the most part, the sea is out of sight and out of mind, it is telling that there is only a single fleeting reference to the ocean in the Paris agreement on climate change’. And so I think there’s a certain ocean blindness, even for local communities, and I know Delphine and I spoke about this, a couple of conversations ago, where even the local communities who live on Gili Island, if they don’t swim, if they don’t fish, they don’t actually know what’s going on with the reefs, right? So there’s a certain…
Delphine Robbe 30:31
Yeah.
Aishah Fauzi 30:47
Lack of awareness that, hopefully now, with the great work that you and your other colleague are doing during COVID time, because you’re not out in the ocean – teaching people or diving and teaching diving – you know, hopefully, this is shedding more light and giving you a new platform from which you can spread the word.
Delphine Robbe 31:09
Yeah, exactly. It’s just different, trying to have a different impact on people, and using different medias. We always used social media, but with COVID, everyone had to stay home, and everyone had to connect with other places, you know through, through other networks so it’s, it’s a, it’s a bit hard and depressing and frustrating sometimes. But on the other hand, we’re just trying to do our best to carry on, not having to go home, you know?
Aishah Fauzi 31:39
Right. If you’re being optimistic, and with the work that you’re doing during COVID, as you say, writing proposals, you know, seeking grants and funding and trying to get the word out there in terms of what Gili Eco Trust does, if you were being extremely optimistic, what do you expect to see let’s say, in the next 12 to 18 months, for Gili EcoTrust? What, what would be the ideal outcome of the work that you’re currently doing?
Delphine Robbe 32:03
So, we we have a few projects and my wish is we can get at least two different grants and fundings to help us. The first one is for the waste management and recycling and upcycling project that we’re doing is an eco-ranger team, so it’s enough money to have eco-rangers working with the waste collecter to teach door-to-door on a daily basis, how to separate your waste, to try to reduce the amount of residual waste ending up on the dump, or landfill, that we have in the middle of Gili Trawangan and, and that’s like, a two-year project.
We hope to change the community mindset and to make them feel responsible of the waste culture – of their own waste – through, yeah, two years of eco-rangers working with the waste collector. Basically, the waste collector goes somewhere, it’s not separated, at least organic and non-organic, then the collector doesn’t take the rubbish and calls the eco-ranger to come and teach a business, local household, villa, whoever is there, how to separate their waste properly.
Aishah Fauzi 33:20
Right, right.
Delphine Robbe 33:21
So yeah, it’s service for the best of the island for the environment. And hopefully we can develop a Trash App then, then people could use when they’re shopping to find out what packaging could be recycled or compostable rather than the bad one that will end up on the dump, so to carry on, to the carry on the education also when they’re shopping, so people really understand where the waste come from actually. It’s from the consumption.
And then, the second big one where it’s for the reefs, it’s for the oceans, and so it’s using the biorock technology but not with the main grid electricity. We have a few of our biorockeries on solar panel but the solar panels are on a barge next to the biorock reefs, so exposed to storm, waves, other boats or people stealing them. We had many, many problems like this during COVID because people don’t have income from tourism. So, they take our cables, they take our solar panels, they take our barge. Anyway so the, it’s working with a UK company with, with whom we’ve just made a partnership last year, they’re called DynoRotor and it’s basically producing electricity from a, a slow movement marine current. So the turbine could be placed just next to the biorock or actually welded on the biorock to avoid it disappear and, and they will spin with the current whichever direction and give the electricity straight away to the reef.
That way you could like, create huge biorock reefs and huge, let’s say – raising awareness coral garden – because we’ve got an artist who wants to work with us as well making a big selfie statue but all around, it would be like reef powered with the biorock to restore a huge area of the North Gili Trawangan. So, the DynoRotor crew is building us a specific turbine, and they’re hoping to come in September to set it up. But all the team coming, the actual turbine and then all the installation here and – we need fundings for it to happen. And also, as I said, we had a lot of things disappearing during COVID, because people are just desperate and then breaking into houses, but they’re also breaking into our reef to take our cables. Public streets here have been, also, no cables anymore, because people can sell the copper. And so we need big, big donations there to be able to fix all our reefs.
Aishah Fauzi 36:11
And restore some of what’s been lost?
Delphine Robbe 36:13
Yeah right, like, put back the power because mostly before any expected high temperature, mass bleaching event, and before tourism resumes, so everything is ready and people will be happy to see our reef thriving and working rather than being off. Because there is no tourists and no anchoring, actually the reefs have actually been better, but it’s just a bit worrying for us that our, most of our biorocks are off because the cables have been stolen. And that, that’s worrying in case of a, another mass bleaching event. I don’t want to lose all my babies, you know?
Aishah Fauzi 36:59
I can definitely tell you that watching Finding Nemo is not going to be the same for me anymore. There’s so much there that you, you’re telling us and it’s so fascinating, right? It’s so interesting and what humans know, what we know of the ocean so far is probably a drop of everything that there is and hopefully we’re not too late to conserve, restore and rehabilitate so that we preserve that for our own livelihoods and, and well being but also, for future generations.
Delphine Robbe 37:32
Yeah, there’s many, many documentaries that we can watch as you mentioned, Chasing Coral. To change habits when we’re traveling like sun cream and things like this. Seaspiracy is a big slap for many people. For me when I watched it, it was like – yeah, I know everything already – and that’s why I’m trying to teach and educate people, and and I don’t eat fish, I don’t eat seafood. But there’s one similar that is called Cowspiracy. And if you watch both of them, then you change your diet straight away because you want to make an impact on the planet and you don’t want to contribute to global warming.
Then, there is one that was filmed a lot in Indonesia, it’s called Racing Extinction and a lot in Hong Kong and Singapore and, and it explained all the issues with the species disappearing. And in particular, the ones in the ocean like the sharks because of shark finning, the manta rays because of the, again, Chinese people trading the manta ray gills for health purpose.
Aishah Fauzi 38:45
Yeah, medicinal purposes.
Delphine Robbe 38:47
Yeah, many species like this, like even a tiny bird in, in the US is just disappearing because of the air pollution. And it’s just like, we need to protect all those animals that are part of our ecosystem because we need them to survive. And, and the ocean, as you say, many people are just ignorant about the importance of the ocean. But one thing that everyone needs to remember is the ocean is producing up to 80% of the oxygen we breathe. So don’t stop planting trees, but protect the ocean – make it as a priority.
Aishah Fauzi 39:26
And, and I suppose you could say that the corals are the ocean’s jungle, aren’t they?
Delphine Robbe 39:30
Yeah, they’re like – you walk – like they said that, what do they say? The highest biodiversity is, is in the rainforest. But for me, I walk an hour in the rainforest, I don’t know how many species I’m going to see – maybe 20 if I’m lucky? Or if I dig and look at all the insects, maybe 30? Right. But if I go for an hour’s snorkeling on the coral reef, I see hundreds of different species, not only corals, but fish and invertebrates, and all the other things that are part of the reef, like sponges.
Aishah Fauzi 40:08
And don’t forget the turtles, Delphine.
Delphine Robbe 40:11
Yeah, the turtles. We, the Gilis are the capital, the turtle capital. So, Aishah, it’s not the leatherback, but we’ve got, we’ve got green sea turtles here, the really big one. We’ve got the hawksbill turtle, and we have a few loggerhead turtles. And at the moment, it’s the nesting season. So we are protecting, tracking their nests every morning. So we’re walking around the island very early morning to try to, to look at their tracks and find out where they’ve put the nests. And many of those resorts claiming that they are for ecotourism are actually building seawalls, and that not only creates more beach erosion, but that stops the turtles from being able to go and nest. They can’t climb the wall.
Aishah Fauzi 41:09
Yeah. So you know, based on what you’ve said there, Delphine, a lot of it comes down to changing habits. But, also awareness, right? And I think people are interested in this, people are interested, they’re seeing, you know, what’s left, and what’s still there of the biodiversity. And they’re taking an interest, which is why I think it’s a good indication that we’re seeing more and more documentaries about these topics out there. So, if our listeners wanted to get involved personally, what are some of the ways that you’d suggest for them to do so?
Delphine Robbe 41:39
Well, they can follow us on Instagram and on Facebook. And…
Aishah Fauzi 41:45
And that’s just Gili Eco Trust?
Delphine Robbe 41:48
Yeah @giliecotrust and, and I’m also on LinkedIn, and the Gili Eco Trust, as well.
Aishah Fauzi 42:12
Perfect.
Delphine Robbe 41:54
They can donate if they can’t come here. But if they come, if they come to the Gilis, we’re doing 2-weeks coral conservation course, usually around 7 or 8 times a year, so it’s a 2-week intense training about reef check surveys. So learning how to monitor the reef, and learning about all the different indicators, so substrates and why, what is in the reef. And, and then, the second week is focused on the biorock and biorock maintenance. And sometimes, we even build a biorock and all of the other things so yeah, it’s a good brainwash into protecting the ocean.
And, and we also take take them for recycling tour that is available for everyone coming to the island. And that’s when we explain to the people the waste issues by taking them to the landfill, and then all our different solutions with the upcycling glass, glass upcycling workshop, a recycling center, waste bank where people can bring their recyclables.
We’ve got a biorock reef restoration snorkeling tour, which is available for anyone as well. You don’t need to be a scuba diver, we explain to you about the technology and then we take you to see the reef and we usually see at least two or three turtles. So it’s a good way to go to snorkeling as well and discover something and learn something about the ocean.
And then, we’ve got a paddle Safari, paddle board Safari, where you’re actually two on a paddle and one is collecting waste, and the other one is trying to direct you towards the waste. And we also usually see turtles coming to breathe, so if you have your mask and snorkel, you can see them. And it’s a good laugh because most of the time when you’re leaning to the side to grab the rubbish you’re actually falling in. And as the water is always 28 degrees here, it’s it’s no big deal.
Aishah Fauzi 44:00
It’s not such a bad thing, right? That’s fantastic.
Delphine Robbe 44:04
Yeah. And then we’ve got other methods of coral reef restoration called the Ocean Quest Coral Propagation Course, which is 3-days. And you don’t have to be a diver either. So you can do that with us. And, and then I also teach reef gardening, which is basically gardening the reef on every dive, that’s what we learn during the 2-week coral conservation course. But we can also do just a few dives to learn about coral gardening. So yeah, like and we usually receive lots of school groups coming to the island. So if you’re a teacher, or school director, and you want to get your kids to learn from us, then, we’re ready.
Aishah Fauzi 44:51
Fantastic. And I think the exciting thing is people are starting to talk about borders reopening. People are getting vaccinated. So hopefully, all the listeners who are listening today are now googling the Gili Islands. They’re getting excited, they’re buying their flippers and their snorkles.
Delphine Robbe 45:08
Yeah, I hope so.
Aishah Fauzi 45:08
Exactly and, and definitely like I’ve, I’ve been and I would in a heartbeat go again. It’s such a beautiful place. There’s so much to do. You’ve got three islands to explore.
Delphine Robbe 45:11
Yeah.
Aishah Fauzi 45:11
And you know, it’s just that once-in-a-lifetime experience, so if you’re interested, then you definitely want to check out www.giliecotrust.com, which is the website and as Delphine mentioned, there’s also donations that you can give. Now, the site is Give Asia, so you can either go to Give Asia’s website itself or you can just type in http://giliecotrust.give.asia and that also gets you there. Now Delphine, I also saw that you’d done quite an interesting TEDx Ubud talk, and I would highly recommend that everyone also watches that. Now its, it’s been fantastic chatting.
Delphine Robbe 45:11
Thank you.
Aishah Fauzi 45:20
And, and so now we come to the end of our interview, and it’s literally three short questions, and they should be quickfire answers, right? So just give people something quick and actionable. And that means that the listeners who’ve been impacted and who’ve resonated with today’s talk can go away and, and you know start, start thinking about things more and doing something. So, the first question for you, Delphine – making an impact means?
Delphine Robbe 46:27
Taking actions.
Aishah Fauzi 46:29
Okay, great. Now, second question – who inspires you in terms of how they tackle the SDGs?
Delphine Robbe 46:37
Sylvia Earle.
Aishah Fauzi 46:39
And for the listeners’ reference, who is she?
Delphine Robbe 46:42
She’s an ocean-passionate scientist, and she’s been diving all her life and, yeah.
Aishah Fauzi 46:50
I think she she, she’s featured in Mission Blue, right? Another documentary on Netflix.
Delphine Robbe 46:55
Yeah. She does.
Aishah Fauzi 46:56
Right. Right.
Delphine Robbe 46:57
She does speak in many places. She’s done a really nice TED talk as well.
Aishah Fauzi 47:02
Right. And so, the final question – what could everybody, all our listeners, do right now to make the world a better place?
Delphine Robbe 47:12
Learn how to grow your blue heart.
Aishah Fauzi 47:16
Ah, beautiful. That’s so amazing. And to be honest, actually, that was the biggest takeaway I took from your TEDx Ubud.
Delphine Robbe 47:25
Thank you.
Aishah Fauzi 47:26
Have a green heart and have a blue heart. Well, that’s definitely impacted me, Delphine. So, look, it’s been a complete pleasure.
Delphine Robbe 47:34
Thank you very much.
Aishah Fauzi 47:35
I really want to personally one day maybe meeting you in the Gili Islands and maybe even diving together.
Delphine Robbe 47:40
Yeah, next time. Don’t just, not just your husband diving. Come and dive me.
Aishah Fauzi 47:46
No, no, I already had my PADI. So my husband had to catch up to me.
Delphine Robbe 47:50
Oh, okay. Perfect.
Aishah Fauzi 47:51
Yeah. Yeah, definitely, we’ll definitely be there one day.
Delphine Robbe 47:58
Next time we can put our hands in coral and plant some.
Aishah Fauzi 48:02
And hopefully some of the listeners might come too, right?
Delphine Robbe 48:05
Yeah, hopefully.
Aishah Fauzi 48:05
So, if any of the listeners end up in Gili do make yourself known to Delphine – she needs all the pairs of hands she can get. It’s been a pleasure.
Delphine Robbe 48:13
Thank you.
Aishah Fauzi 48:13
A complete pleasure.
Regina Larko 48:15
Yeah, I have to agree with Aishah here. I will never look at the movie, Nemo – definitely a favorite in our house here as well – the same way again. But what’s more, I am really intrigued to learn even more. There were so many great resources that Aishah and Delphine shared in this episode. I’m sure you are now all fired up to make your own impact too.
A big thanks to today’s guest, Delphine Robbe for all the insights. And a very special thanks has to go, of course, to our brilliant Guest Host, Aishah Fauzi for bringing us this conversation all the way from Indonesia. Aishah, this goes to you – I can’t wait to hear more of these conversations on our channel – thank you so much.
Last, but not least, the biggest thanks – it goes to you, our amazing listener. Your support and comments, it, it is what keeps us going. If you enjoyed this episode, please tell others about it. We would love to see you at our next virtual Community Coffee Break over at #impact Club, head over to www.hashtagimpact.com/club and you will find all the details there. Talk to you soon. Bye.
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