Drew Harvell is associate director for environment at the
Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future at Cornell University.
She is studying the health of coral reefs and marine ecosystems
in Indonesia, and is helping to plan a new project, Capturing
Coral Reef Ecosystem Services, financed by the Global
Environmental Fund/World Bank group. Monday, Jan. 21 After a day
of diving, when we witnessed both the enormous diversity of the
reefs of Biak and the harm done by humans, we finished off the
day with a state dinner at the mansion of Yusuf Maryen, the
mayor, or Bupati, of this region of Papua. The Bupati served us
papeda, a most unusual regional soup that comes in two parts.
Part 1 is a gray sago, made from the sap of palm trees, and
extremely slippery stuff. The sago, which the Bupati said had
healthful qualities, is spooned into Part 2, which is a
yellowish fish soup. For most of us, this dish was a novel
experience for the first few bites. Prof. Peter Mumby (the
president of the Australian Coral Reef Society a