Local programme manager James leading the way with coral reef education

Meet James, 24 years old, from the village of Mapadegat in the Mentawai Islands and one of our team managers. He’s leading our mission to save coral reef surf breaks in Indonesia by collecting photographic data of them through a benthic transect sampling protocol and uploading the data. We then make this publicly available and are hoping to share it with the United Nation’s Decade For Oceans’ Programmes to assist in saving our oceans.

James is educating local youth with the process too, spreading skills and vital knowledge. For the younger participants he follows Coral Watch’s colour coding for identifying corals; older participants are learning how to conduct the process with James so they are able to carry it out independently.

James fell in love with the underwater world as a teenager. He was one of our first students at our centre in Mapadegat in 2015. He has set up his own coral gardening initiative with a group of ten friends to take action against the degradation of the reefs surrounding his village and below the waves he loves to surf. He’s very concerned and saddened at the alarming changes he’s seen in less than decade.

Reefs are a vital marine ecosystem absorbing carbon much as trees do on land, and Indonesia is home to 16% of the world’s coral reefs, second only to Australia. With 70% of its population due to be of working age by 2030 this decade will see rapid development and therefore impact on the largest archipelagic country in the world.

Supporting passionate youthful, local ambassadors such as James is one of the quickest and most effective means to engaging whole communities.

Want to support James on his mission? Make a donation here, https://aliquidfuture.org/donate.