Earth care and repair in Indonesia, Eco Regions meets Steempower!

Hello Steem Community!
My name is Reville Saw and I’m looking forward to publishing on this unique platform, and just as much to read and watch all your great work
I live in Lombok, Indonesia (the island next east of Bali) and its a unique Province of Indonesia. Sometimes i almost get used to being here, but then it hits me just how far off from normal for most people it is, and that makes me happy because i do enjoy the wilder edge of living.

I’m involved with some large scale sustainable ecotourism, environmental repair and community development projects. I am a Director in Eco Solutions Lombok which is part of the Eco Regions group based in Singapore, and I’m the go-to guy when we have to figure out how to take a wrecked piece of land into something of inherent value.

Eco Regions Website

At Eco Regions Indonesia we are developing two sites, one in Lombok at Tanjung ringgit and the other on a cluster of eight Islands off the northwest coast of Sumbawa (the next island east of Lombok).

A Map showing our two Ecoregions, Tanjung Ringgit and the Eight Islands

I'm kept busy running projects and activities to implement things like reforestation, enhancing our neighbouring farmer’s livelihoods though growing higher value tree crops, and engaging with the planning and construction teams for keeping it Green.

(This is my daughter and I :) )

My Vision is to see these Ecoregions not only repaired from their damaged state within their boundaries but also to create a model for change in other areas. A Model that will be appealing because the end result is tangibly more valuable, by all measures, than it previously was.
I don’t see it as enough to settle for conservation of what remains of the wild beauty and prosperity of this planet, we have to get involved at every level in which our behaviours impact our surroundings, and think “Resource creation” through earth repair. When so much of the World’s natural wealth has been degraded or destroyed, I choose to make it my vocation to fix what has been broken, and by using appropriate methods this is a great driver of value creation.
If forests have been destroyed we can help them regenerate, if the habitat is lost we can study what remains and recreate new niches. If the world around us is being reduced in complexity and beauty, we seek out the cause and we find the methods to turn around that decline into regrowth. The living world seeks growth and increasing complexity, so we need to understand it and change our behaviors and values to fall in line with that natural order.
I wager this is the winning growth model for the next century, that elusive union of Green and Growth, but it is not one of exploiting precious remaining resources or extracting from habitats, but in restoration of what is damaged and in creation of new living wealth. The job of resource creation earth systems repair can sustain livelihoods for centuries, and the rarer the beautiful places become, the more the demand there is to create them

“There is one, and only one solution, and we have almost no time to try it. We must turn all our resources to repairing the natural world, and train all our young people to help. They want to; we need to give them this last chance to create forests, soils, clean waters, clean energies, secure communities, stable regions, and to know how to do it from hands-on experience..” Bill Mollison, Founder of Permaculture

A little about my homes:
I have several homes. I’m a bit of an Analog Nomad. Among my homes I count my Bamboo grove and Food forest in Australia, My cozy rental apartment in West Lombok near my main office, my Traditional Sumbawan wooden beach house in West Sumbawa, and I count Sekaroh Forest in Tanjung ringgit

As I shift between locations depending on the order of the day, in addition to my formal work, I maintain many ongoing practical projects of which I’ll share on Steemit. These include Agroforestry gardens, Seed saving and plant collecting, Home scale Aquaponics systems, Beachside and Forest Permaculture, and interesting innovations in alternative technologies.
I do pride myself on keeping ahead with what’s going on in the field, and also I like to go back deep and find those treasures that have been overlooked
I think amongst Permaculture students there’s a good knowledge of what a banana circle is, or a papaya circle. But have you seen Coconut circles? Figs circles or Yoni Ovals? Perhaps or probably not. Coconut circles were proposed back in Bill Mollisons’ Permaculture: a designers’ manual. But I think that’s where they stayed. In my 22 years working with Permaculture I have never come across any working example of it, and I wondered why. So we made one. Actually we made 8. Plus, a fig circle.

There’s still work to do and I’ll keep you updated on all the background, how-to and what happened next
In Sekaroh forest we are trying other things too. I’m sure you know Mangos love a monsoonal tropical climate, but how about Grapes? Pomegranates? Mulberry? Well I can show you the answer.
I have also long wondered why other techniques published decades ago just aren’t in common use. Vetiver contour strips, Alley cropping, Ferro cement. We are doing it all and you’ll be able to see the results.

For the most part ill focus on my two pet project areas, a desolate coastal plain in Sumbawa and severely degraded slashed and burned dry forest area. Both receive virtually no rain for more than 5 months of the year and are quite challenging. I like hard places for pet projects, I learn most that way.

Some of what ill write about will be small and urban, like my apartment, its not all about huge properties and big open spaces! For example i tinker with some different ways of doing Aquaponics in my courtyard area, using whats locally available from any hardware and pet store, and i know quite a bit about growing mushrooms as well.

I’ll also cover select field work I do, as its rather interesting, as well as my own special brand of ethnobotanical travelling and well, anything else that I think you probably haven’t seen and aren't likely to see elsewhere.

Thank you and see you soon!