Mars Coral Reef
Restoration

Wakatobi Dive Resort has earned a reputation as one of the world’s most proactive eco-tourism resorts, with its established Wakatobi Collaborative Reef Conservation Program now being one of the world’s largest privately-funded marine protected areas. Since its implementation in 1997, the program has expanded to include all 17 local communities around the resort, and the sanctuary now encompasses over 20km of some of the finest reefs of the world.

By training members of their team in 2022 in Reef Star fabrication and installation, the Wakatobi Dive Resort team were able to deploy its first Reef Stars to enhance their restoration efforts on the Wakatobi House Reef. In total, 150 MARRS Reef Stars have been installed on the House Reef, outplanting over 2,200 coral fragments from a variety of species.

In 2024, Wakatobi Dive Resort has expanded its long-standing commitment to coral reef protection and restoration with a new Reef Health Assessment program and the addition of an in-house marine biologist Julia Mellers.

The Reef Health Assessment program utilizes a customized set of modern imaging and data analysis techniques that provide a comprehensive indication of the state of a reef ecosystem and Julia, and the team have also begun taking eDNA samples of the reef to expand their knowledge on the organisms that inhabit their waters. 

Wakatobi's commitments to environmental protection and cleanup go far beyond the resort boundaries. The resort sponsors weekly village cleanups that involve up to 100 local people and works closely with the communities and governments on the issues of waste management.