Crew Blog | Kaiwi Hāmākua-Mākuʻe: Serangan Island

Written by Kaiwi Hāmākua-Mākuʻe.

Today our crew visited the Serengan Island community to learn about their efforts to create a sustainable community. Otherwise known as “Turtle Island”, Serangan Island is home to a traditional fishing village, a turtle conservation program, and community gardens.  In recent years, community members have made a concerted effort to create an eco-conscious tourist and education destination.  

We visited their community gardens, where they have transformed the landscape from a field littered with trash to an active vibrant garden to educate and sustain the community. These community gardens are innovative and have used plastic bottles, coconuts, and bamboo to create low cost garden structures, which represent a way for any and everyone to grow food from home.  They have also created a sustainable way of planting, making planting pots from compost and dirt they make on-site, molded into a pot that can be directly placed into the ground.

We also visited a turtle hatchery center where we got to see endangered turtles raised from birth to adulthood. The turtles will be nurtured until they are ready to be released into the ocean.

The site also has a spectacular bamboo structure, which houses the Creative Campus eco-education center for the community.  Following our visit to the Green School, we can see how bamboo is really an amazing resource for buildings here in Indonesia.

We want to mahalo the Serengan community for inviting us to experience this island and sharing how you mālama honua.

Please help keep us sailing for future generations. All contributions make a difference for our voyage. Mahalo nui loa!