An eco-farm to help students from Klabat University - Desa Tumaluntung Village, North Minahason

One of Manengkel Solidaritas project is to help Desa Tumaluntung Village, an eco-farm runned by Mr. Winny Maramis, located next to Klabat University. The goal of this place is to help students who comes from low income families and who can’t afford the price of their studies. Winny offers them a place to sleep and eat, in exchange of their help with the farm. They learn how to become self-sufficient, to grow their own vegetables by doing sustainable farming, to build houses and to take care of the place.

After one hour drive from Manado, we arrived at the farm, and we were stunned to discover a little piece of paradise in North Sulawesi. Winny welcomed us with a big smile, happy that we will help his project to be known. The farm is really huge (13 hectares), and is composed of some ponds for fishing, some areas dedicated for plantations of vegetables, and a big house at the end of the domain were all the students live together. The place is surrounded by nature, birds, dogs, and is animated by the joy of the students who seems to really like our arrival.

Waste managment and Recycling project

Plastic waste is an emerging environmental issue because of the extensive use of plastic and how it persists in the environment. According to a 2010 global study, Indonesia is the second largest contributor to ocean plastic pollution. Today, only 60% of Indonesian waste is collected by municipal waste management systems, the rest is burned or dumped into the environment, often directly into waterways.

The country consumes more than 6 million tons of plastic annually. As a result, nearly 1 million tons of Indonesian plastics end up in the oceans every year. The existence of these debris is a new threat that has a terrible impact on the marine ecosystem and the socio-economic sustainability of the community. Solid waste can be found in every area of the coasts of North Sulawesi, it destroys the marine system and kills a lot of animals living in the ocean.

In Manado City, Sindulang Beach is the location with the highest solid waste density of 8.28 items/m2 (during flood tide) and 15.31 items/m2 (during ebb tide). As there is no system to deal with the trash produced in daily life, therefore no one feels responsible for the trash. Many coastal communities are not aware of the long term effects of throwing solid waste in the ocean.

That is why Manengkel Solidaritas launched a program about waste management and recycling plastic waste in Manado area, to try to reduce the plastic pollution of the ocean, mangroves and forests which suffers a lot from this contamination. Manengkel Solidaritas is currently helping a recycling center in Kilolima which collects plastic from the city, sort it depending on the kind of plastic (water bottle, thick bottles, other plastic wastes), and then sell it to a recycle society in the island of Java.

This sorting center is able to produce 160 tons of plastic per year, which is recycled and doesn’t end up in the environment. They get to sell each ton of plastic for 2 million IDR, which is a great income for the 11 workers of this place. Manengkel Solidaritas has helped the sorting center by providing them security equipment (masks, gloves and security shoes). They also try to get this place known in Manado, so that big shops and restaurants can become aware of their plastic wastes and start to take responsibility for those. Those shops and restaurants can now decide to recycle their garbage, and through Manengkel Solidaritas, send them to this sorting center in order to get them recycled.

Manengkel Solidaritas has also launched a recycling program in Kelurahan Airmadidi Bawah based on the model of the sorting center, but on a small scale. They taught small villages the economic value of plastic wastes, and how to sort them and sell them. This allowed those villages to begin to collect their plastic waste in order to make an additional income for their family out of those plastic garbages.

Recycling plastic in Manado is very important, and people need to be aware of their impact on the environment, especially in this area where there is beautiful national parcs (Bunaken, Tangkoko …) which are really endangered by this kind of pollution.

Help the planet, be aware of your plastic waste, help recycle them !

Mangrove rehabilitation monitoring

Mangrove forests, formed by mangrove trees and shrubs, play a very important role for our environment, being one of the most biodiverse biomes in our planet. Mangroves trees are extremely resistant to tides, strong waves and weather changes as well as being able to adapt to different salinity levels (from brackish water, to pure seawater and even water concentrated by evaporation, which has up to a 9% salinity). However they are extremely susceptible to human activity and deforestation, which has recently raised concerns all over the world about the degradation in quality and quantity of mangrove forests.

This is why Manengkel Solidaritas has taken action, to try and prevent the destruction of Mangroves trees in the North Sulawesi Region. The Mangrove Reforestation Program takes place in a beautiful mangrove forest next to small shipping dock in Bahowo, Manado Utara. This harbor in Bahowo works as a local fisherman port and as a transport departure point to Bunaken National Park, meaning the mangrove forest has suffered the effects of human activity for decades.

Despite this fact the area offers a glimpse into the astounding biodiversity in North Sulawesi, where mangrove forests meet with glooming coral reefs in the water and with the dense jungle surrounding Klabat Volcano by land. Crystal blue water, crouded by many different fish species and and tropical jungle coexist thanks to the bond mangrove trees establishes between them.

Therefore, two months ago Manengkel Solidaritas took up the priceless task of reforesting this breathtaking biome. With the help of Mangrove Group Bahowo and Prelawan Konservasi Sulut they gathered around 1.000 volunteers that helped plant 5.000 mangrove shrubs. The operation was a huge succes since most of the trees have been able to adapt to the waterlogged muddy ground, thanks to volunteers hard work.

However, our work can not stop there, since it is crucial that we keep track of these shrub's evolution throught time. This is why today, on the 1st of December 2022, a smaller group of volunteers has returned for a second time to the reforested area to monitor the mangrove shrubs. Xaxa, Edwin, Gusti, Clem, Marine, Ainhoa and Armand have been able to monitor the incredible amount of 4616 mangrove trees throughout the day. The goal of this project was to take data that was able to provide information on the health and growth of these 2 month old mangroves. When they were first planted, they were just around 40cm in height and had grown between 0 and 2 small leaves (a good indicator of their health). After taking Samples and Data of over 200 mangroves we are extremely happy to announce that in just 60 days most of the shrubs easily surpass the 60 or 70cm in height and have grown 2 new leaves (3-4 in total), some of them even reaching more than 1meter in height with 6 leaves! At this rate in just 5 years this newly populated area will have become a fully selfsustained and operational mangrove forest, just like any other, and will play its crucial part in the conservation of marine and terrestrial biodiversity in North Sulawesi coast!

Obviously, this hard work would not have been possible without the help of the Manengkel Solidaritas team, and their donors : United Tractor Manado. Also, we send a huge thanks to all the team support we have recieved from Mangrove Groups Bahowo, Prelawan Konservasi Sulut and Dinas Kelautan dan Perikanan Daerah Sulawesi Utara.