Guillaume brival
Fundraising on behalf of The SEA People
Restore, Protect and Conserve Raja Ampat's Reefs.
I would like to introduce you to The SEA People (locally named Orang Laut Papua), a field based Foundation working in Raja Ampat, Indonesia, to contribute to the protection of one of the last locations on Earth where coral reef systems still thrive.
I am a member of The Sea People and support their work, and as through this, I would like to pay tribute to Mr Alessandro Felici, by helping to expand The SEA People’s reef restoration effort “Yaf Keru” (which means ‘coral garden’ in the local dialect) with a dedicated area of restoration titled ‘The Felici Garden’.
Alessandro Felici was a 24-year-old Italian living in Madagascar .
In Italian, Felici means Happy! And thanks to Alessandro’s humanism, his generosity and his unparalleled will to act, he lived up to his name, and made people happy! Alessandro’s dream was to create a village where each individual would have a place and a role to play. To realise this dream, in May this year I travelled to Raja Ampat, and together with The SEA People, the Felici Garden was established – restoring a biodiverse marine ecosystem in which thousands of species exist in harmony.
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So it is now in progress !
The site we choosed is in front of the Yenbekwan Village in Raja Ampat Papua which is one of the biggest village in the province!
A large area of degraded coral reef is currently threatening the health and stability of primary healthy coral reef nearby.
Since the last 5 months we ve already managed to :
- Stabilise 1466 m² of corals rubbles.
- Transplante 1225 coral fragments !
- Involve 28 people on the field !
And this is just the beggining ! Those numbers will increase !
The Sea People plan to restore 2 hectares in this same area during the next 2 years !
And that means The Yaf Keru : Felici Garden Yenbekwan will become one of the biggest coral restoration project in the World !
Since the implementation of The Yaf Keru project in 2016, an area of 8475m² has already been restored, with an area of 3,192 m² of stabilisation structures.
More than 17,600 corals have been transplanted, with a diversity of 70 species including 13 naturally recruited, with a growth rate of 1.5cm / month for some species.
Thanks to the analysis and monitoring of data collected on previous projects, we were able to see the validity of the method used for reef restoration: a survival rate of 84% after 30 months.
In the short term, the site Yaf Keru The Felici Garden Yenbekwan as well as the others sites of The Yaf Keru project will serve as databases and will allow the realization of a project on a larger scale.
In addition to its ecological impact, the Yaf keru project serves as a platform for both education, empowerment and livelihoods for local people, in an area where opportunities are scarce. Through Yaf Keru, The SEA People are able to employ local community members in positions that enhance the marine environment, as opposed to exploit it, whilst providing access to skills based training and capacity building.
The Yaf keru project also provides income to 7 local community members .
The total cost of initiating the Felici Garden Yenbekwan new site, amounted to 8000euros.
I am launching this crowdfunding campaign to allow those who wish to honor the memory of Alessandro Felici, by supporting the expansion of Yaf Keru – The Felici Garden, and build a ‘village’ in the form of a restored coral reef, where every individual has a place and play a role.
We, The Sea People, citizens of the Felici Village, have the honor to ask for your high benevolence, hereby, a participation of the amount of your choice, in order to be able to continue this project which is particularly close to our hearts.
For every €15 contributed, you will enable The SEA People to:
- restore 1sqm of degraded coral reef
- protect 1sqm of healthy coral reef
- support livelihoods for local community members
In memory of Alessandro and on behalf of The Sea People, Thank you very much for your support.
For any information on the implementation of the project, you can send your questions to The Felici Village on Facebook
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has".
– Margaret Mead.