Volunteers Helped develop Web Applications for Sea Conservation in Indonesia

The SEA People is a not-for-profit community organization based in France that is dedicated to environmental education and the protection and conservation of coral reefs. Their fieldwork occurs in the archipelago of Raja-Ampat, Indonesia, through the local arm of their foundation, Yayasan Orang Laut Papua.

Raja Ampat is known for the richness and diversity of the species that it shelters and for the pristine state of the marine ecosystem; with over 75% of hard coral species, and 1600+ species of reef fish, the region is currently recognised as the most marine bio-diverse location on earth.

The SEA People Requested volunteers for two projects. The first involved assistance in designing and implementing mobile data applications and backend data structures for monitoring marine conditions in the Raja Ampat’s Marine Protected Areas (MPA), which cover 2 million hectares of remote archipelago. Two volunteers, Elvia Willyono, from Singapore, and Jose Francisco Sánchez Díaz, from Spain, were chosen to help the SEA People with their mission. After initial volunteer selection, volunteers Rahmandika Tri Putra from Indonesia and Tobin McGilligan from the United States were selected to provide additional support.

Field implementation faced a number of challenges due to the global pandemic. Fortunately, the SEA People maintain strong connections with local stakeholders and the Raja Ampat community, and that relationship has enabled the project to continue moving forward. With the support of Elvia and Jose, The SEA People staff developed a range of custom data collection and monitoring tools for marine conservation designed to accomplish these objectives:

• Improve the efficiency of ranger patrol activities and facilitate the real time reporting of marine park violations.
• Monitor megafauna species population dynamics, tourism intensity, and human induced degradation
• Provide the ability to easily access, analyze and share the critical information needed to support MPA Management.
• These activities are enabled with the use of the custom SeaTracker Application and metrics developed by The Sea People

The Sea People continue their mission to support Science, Education, and Awareness of marine conservation in Indonesia and the world.  They have recently been featured in a documentary in French titled 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐆𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐑𝐚𝐣𝐚 𝐀𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐭.

Project completed