Gadis Sri Haryani always starts her presentation with a display of photographs. When she met with Tempo English two weeks ago, she came with images of Lake Tolire in Ternate, North Maluku regency. Her photos showed a crystal clear body of water at the foot of Mount Gamalama, surrounded by green trees.

Few lakes in Indonesia, however, still look like this, she said.

"Generally the big lakes are suffering from degradation. A few, like Tolire, are in b