eco friendly live aboards, is there such a thing?

[highdesert]

We're all sort of floating along in the same boat, aren't we? Your point about the Indonesian fleet cannot be separated from "saving the planet". It's all part and parcel of the same whole. We all want our own little piece, and can always find a way to point fingers at someone else. I'm not excepting myself in this equation. My personal opinion is that a liveaboard, even, the gods forbid, a wooden one, has no more total impact, and quite possibly less, on resources and the environment, over the long term, than a land-based operation. IMHO, it's pointless to point (NPI) at liveaboards. Having said that, we could split hairs and say that gold-plate, five-star liveaboards may use more resources than a budget boat, but that's another discussion.

 

[mathauck0814]

Reading the various trip reports about wooden live aboards in Indonesia, I cannot keep myself from wondering: does nobody care about all these trees? Which of the operators of these boats invest in reforesting?

... troll ...

 

[Indah]

Highdesert if you talk about resources in general you might be completely right. But, as I said before, I am talking about the fast vanishing forests of Indonesia. A small eco , or big luxury, resort made from coconut wood or concrete and steel does not effect the primary forests at all. Wooden boat are made from the slow growing, high quality hard (iron) woods. And I mentioned compensating by reforesting to minimize the damage if there is no alternative than limited use of wood. Still, I am not talking about saving the planet but about saving the forest of Indonesia. You can compare it with asking attention for the sharks but not asking people not to eat fish in general anymore.

 

[Uli Kunkel]

I dont necessarily think that caring about the natural resources of a particular country is "trolling" and it raises a good point. Old growth forests take a LONG time to grow. I imagine it would be something like dredging the Great Barrier reef. We all know that coral grows again, so why bother protesting when it's renewable, right?

I would like to know though- just where the wood for these ships comes from?

 

[Wookie]

Clearcutting is dumb in anyone's forest management plan, unfortunately, it's the most efficient way to log a forest. Too bad it only benefits the logger and not the ecosystem as a whole. Kudos for your resorts protection of the forest as well as building using renewable materials.

I see a couple of problems with your argument. You seem to think it's OK to build liveaboards out of alternative materials to the ones found in your backyard. If Indonesia had large bauxite deposits, you'd probably not like the resultant environmental destruction. Likewise if you had easily extractable iron ore deposits. You would be begging for a renewable resource like trees. Additionally, the liveaboard argument and health of the reefis tough. I know it wasn't your argument, but it's still a tough one to overcome. We liveaboards travel many hundreds of miles in search of the best diving, because we can't compete with day boats any other way. Day boats and lodges are faster, more comfortable, have more amenities, and are often easier to dive from. We make up the difference by diving a more varied route so the reefs we dive aren't nearly as diver interacted as the reefs near a dive lodge. Yes, coral and reefs heal. Why put them in that position where they have to?

I think that thinking globally and acting locally is a great idea. You have acted to protect 300 hectares of old growth forest. Probably for other reasons, but the end result is the same. Kudos. Now it's time to create a biosphere reserve or even lobby to change the laws regarding logging in your area. It's a long, thankless process, but at least you'll feel better.....

 

[Indah]

Wooki, I completely agree with you. I was pointing out a local, Indonesian problem. With proper management and clean local government wood could be an excellent alternative to steel and aluminium.

 

[mathauck0814]

So let me get this straight - the OP runs a business that s/he believes to be eco friendly and starts by lambasting all other operators for not being eco friendly - and somehow this isn't a troll?

 

[scottydawg]

Wasn't Arenui built with reclaimed wood?

 

[MA]

Wasn't Arenui built with reclaimed wood?

Apparently it is. And the putiraja was previously a cargo ship that has being converted for liveaboard purposes.

I would've thought the building of liveaboards is not the biggest threat to the indonesian forests.

 

[Indah]

When I wrote: "A small eco, or big luxury, resort made from coconut wood or concrete and steel does not effect the primary forests at all". I was surely not lambasting all other operators for not being eco friendly. It will be very hard to find any resort that used more than 1000 (thousand) cubic metres of hard wood. The normal amount for a vessel. Indeed I should have narrowed my question to wooden live a boards, built for that purpose in Indonesia. I am happy to read about the boat made of reclaimed wood. Wonder how they did it? I would be even more happy to read that owners of live a boards compensated by planting trees or other ways of preservation. Probably there are, who did this. If I would like to make a trip on a live a board I definitely would choose the ones that care. The last 20 years so much forest in Indonesia has gone that every single tree is important. By the way, nobody said that posts about shark fining are trolls.