Bitung is fortunate to encompass a variety of significant tourism destinations, including Lembeh Strait, which has an abundance of exotic marine life, as well as several attractive beaches. Bitung has long been interested in using these assets to develop its fledgling tourism industry. Unfortunately, the environment in and near the city has suffered from unregulated, harmful local industrial practices, commercial fishing activities, and port operations, which have had a significant negative impact on marine life and the coastal zone. Sangihe, a neighboring regency, faces similar issues.
The partners were looking for an equitable balance between their emerging tourism industry and the very real needs of their communities in terms of commercial activity, marine transportation and job creation through planned industrialization. As a port city that also faces these issues, Coos Bay could share its valuable experience with Bitung and Sangihe.
Bitung and Sangihe also realized the need to improve the English language skills of its citizens who would be servicing a future tourism industry and chose to accomplish this goal by focusing on improving the teaching methods of their current teachers.
Partnership Objectives and Activities
Environmental Protection. In an effort to improve the environment, Bitung has partnered with other organizations, including the Coastal Resources Management Program (CRMP), a USAID-funded project, with which it worked to develop a Marine Managed Area. The CityLinks Program supported the work undertaken by CRMP by providing assistance in those areas where CRMP did not have experience, particularly with the cities' role in integrated coastal management. Coos Bay invited the Coos Bay Port Authority, the University of Oregon's Institute of Marine Biology (OIMB) and South Slough Oregon National Estuarine Research Reserve to assist with the project. The Port Authority, OIMB and the Estuarine Reserve provided staff on a pro-bono basis on exchanges to Indonesia and hosted events at exchanges in the United States.
Education. The Southwestern Oregon Community College provided pro-bono resources to assist the cities in building an effective core of English language teachers in Bitung and Sangihe’s education system. The college provided training on new teaching methods and practices for the teachers, as well as providing supplemental English curriculum.