The Komodo National Park in Indonesia  – home of the famous Komodo dragon -  also has one of the world’s most well-preserved coral reefs. However, it is being destroyed by illegal fishing. That’s just one of the environmental challenges facing the people and guardians of the island Flores.  Described as a precious jewel in the Indonesian archipelago, Flores has a rich cultural history, breath-taking natural wonders and innumerable options for adventure tourism.  For the first time ever, a conference is being held to focus on the urgent need to protect Flores and develop a sustainable development plan. Eco Flores Network Congress on 26 to 29 September 2012 on Labuan Bajo. Read More

SASA says:

Ken Hickson met and talked with Nina van Toulon, Founder of the Eco Flores Foundation, who is a champion for the protection of this unique collection of islands. SASA and ABC Carbon Express undertook to raise awareness and seek support for the Foundation’s efforts through this Congress in September as well as on-going efforts to protect and enhance the natural environment.

Eco Flores Foundation is already getting support from the New Zealand Government Aid Programme and WWF Indonesia. There is further commercial support coming from businesses, including Unilever, KLM and The Green Asia Group.  But more is required to help the Foundation  focus attention and funds on the environmental and sustainability, as well as support for the Congress, to enable more people to attend.

Here’s more about Eco Flores Foundation, the upcoming Congress and the attractions of island Flores:

Welcome to Eco Flores Foundation, a network organization that seeks to coordinate sustainability efforts on the island of Flores, Nusa Tenggara Timur, Indonesia.

The Komodo National Park in Indonesia  – home of the famous Komodo dragon -  is also the location of one of the world’s most well-preserved coral reefs. However, it is being destroyed by illegal fishing. Just one of the environmental challenges facing the people and guardians of the island Flores.  Described as a precious jewel in the Indonesian archipelago, Flores has a rich cultural history, breath-taking natural wonders and is blessed with exquisite and innumerable options for adventure tourism.

For the first time ever a conference is being held to focus on the urgent need to protect Flores and develop a sustainable plan. Eco Flores Network Congress on 26 to 29 September 2012 on Labuan Bajo.

On this website you will find information about the initiatives in various fields of sustainability of governmental, non-governmental and private enterprises. We promote networking and sharing of expertise for the long-term sustainability of Flores.

A precious jewel in the Indonesian archipelago, the island Flores has a rich cultural history, breathtaking natural wonders and is blessed with exquisite and innumerable options for adventure tourism.

Part of the eastern islands, Nusa Tenggara Timur, Flores is a beautiful, mountainous island stretching 360 km from east to west. It is part of a volcanic belt that stretches from Sumatra through Java and Bali to the Banda sea.

The first contact for the Florenese with the outside world was recorded in the 12th century by Chinese sandal wood traders. In the 16th century Portuguese traders and missionaries named the place ‘the cape of flowers’ for its exquisite underwater world of coral fish and other marine life.

Crystal clear waters, white and pink sandy beaches, jungle and mountains combined with a colorful parallel underwater world makes this a truly remarkable place.

Eco Flores Network Congress 26 to 29 September 2012 Labuan Bajo

Congress Objectives:

To share knowledge and experience in support of the sustainable development of Flores. This covers the health of the local environment, the well-being of its population and their interrelation.

This congress should lead to:

- Defining sustainability issues on Flores at present and in the foreseeable future

- Identifying which expertise is present on Flores and whether such expertise can be used in other locations on Flores

- Which expertise is needed from outside if not present on Flores.

- Future role of the Eco Flores network.

The Eco Flores Network was founded in 2011. The organization operates under the premise that sustainability is inherently holistic. It also believes that large-scale social change comes from cross-sector coordination, rather than from the intervention of individual organizations.

Nina van Toulon, the founder of Eco Flores, brings together international teams of community advocates, professionals, business owners, scholars, conservation practitioners, artists, and educators.

Eco Flores began by connecting a few community projects in Labuan Bajo, whose population has rapidly increased in recent years. People have moved to the newly arising tourist hub with hopes of benefiting from the growing opportunities. The rapid development has led to concerns about waste management, health care, and education, to name a few.

Labuan Bajo is an example of how tourism must be cultivated so as to benefit all aspects of society. Eco Flores was thus founded with two goals: first, to deal with the immediate environmental issues that have emerged out of modern development; second, to promote a green-based movement on ecotourism, which becomes the backbone of the island’s economy. The goals shall underlie the extent to which sustainability will be achieved on Flores in the future.

In a little over a year, Eco Flores has evolved into an ever-growing network linking sustainability efforts across all of Flores island. The network has already found and connected hundreds of individuals, communities, projects, organizations, businesses, and government offices working towards sustainability on Flores.

In order to catalyze the connections and work of Eco Flores officially, the first-ever Eco Flores Congress will be held from September 26-29 in Labuan Bajo. Over 200 participants from Flores and around the world will convene working groups to draft action plans in their particular fields of sustainability. The congress hopes to mobilize green efforts on Flores by facilitating sharing of information, cooperation, and transparency about sustainability efforts.

For more information about the Eco Flores Network and the organization please visit www.ecoflores.org.

The Regional Tourism Development project (WISATA) – 2009-2013, covers Flores, an island in the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT). The project aims at building up an effective tourism destination management to strengthen the competitiveness of Flores as Tourism Destination, ensuring a sustainable flow of tourists and creating economic benefits for the local communities. With 5000 people working in the tourism businesses as the direct beneficiaries, WISATA works closely together with the local private sectors, communities and the 8 local district governments.

As part of the project outcomes, two new pocket sized-travel guides titled Flores: A Glimpse of the People & Culture and Flores: Diving around Komodo are released today. Especially geared to holiday planner or anyone interested in Flores, the books explore the island’s amazing natural wonders, culture and its indigenous people, mainland adventures and diving.

Flores: A Glimpse of the People & Culture takes readers to virtually experience the authentic Flores’ off beaten paths. Instead of presenting a comprehensive illustration on Flores multi spectrum attractiveness, the book as put by the writer is meant as an inspiration encouraging readers to unveil Flores hidden treasures. The book accentuates Flores shared features introducing the ethnicity, belief system, ritual and ceremonial life, past and present history. The second highlights the peculiar cultural features and places of Manggarai, Ngada and Nagekeo, Ende, Sikka, and Flores Timur, while the final chapters provide useful maps, travel and accommodation information.

Flores: Diving around Komodo serves as a reference to enjoy the most from the underwater beauty around Komodo National Park. Professional photographers contribute courtesy pictures portraying the radiant colors of the weird and wonderful sea creatures. The book elaborates in detail the profound know how and essential advice from the experienced local dive operators who have shared first hand information no one will supply such as carefully selected diving site maps including their attractive features; tidal currents and challenges unique to the area. Flores: Diving around Komodo centralizes on the importance of conservation and diving safety and security measures. In this way, readers will not only discover the rich diversity of Komodo National Park but also help protecting the wonderful nature.

The project WISATA – Regional Tourism Development on Flores Island is a bilateral cooperation between the Indonesian Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCTI) and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). Swisscontact is a Swiss foundation assigned to implement the project through technical cooperation in skill training and workforce development combined with support for targeted enterprises and value-added environmental initiatives.

Through Flores: A Glimpse of the People & Culture and Flores: Diving around Komodo, visitors are invited to explore the extraordinary.

Did you know that Flores is located in the world’s most diverse marine environment? The Coral Triangle is a six million square-kilometre ocean expanse that spans across six countries in Asia and the Pacific including Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Solomon Islands and Timor Leste. It contains 75% of all coral species known to man, which are home to thousands of species including whales, dolphins, rays, sharks, and six of the world’s seven marine turtle species.

This incredible ecosystem directly sustains the area’s human population of more than 120 million people with food. Through fisheries and tourism it accounts for an estimated total annual revenue of more than five billion US$! However, coastal development, overfishing, unsustainable tourism, illegal trade of endangered species and climate change, among others, are taking a heavy toll.

To raise awareness, and to empower individuals to take action towards the protection of this ecosystem, the first Coral Triangle Day was held on June 9 this year. An interpretation of World Oceans Day in this part of the world, the Coral Triangle Day brought together individuals, organisations and establishments in the region to promote the importance of oceans through activities such as beach clean-ups, sustainable seafood dinners, educational exhibitions, marine-themed bazaars, beach parties, and many more.

Individuals were encouraged to do something special to raise awareness and to contribute to the movement of conserving the ‘Amazon of the oceans’. They shared their videos and photos of these actions on the Coral Triangle online platform. Flores also joined in on this celebration; specific events were hosted in Labuan Bajo to show the world what they did for the oceans on this day, helping to create a regional community of Coral Triangle supporters.

Source: www.ecoflores.org and www.wwf.or.id